Lord Storey (LD)

My Lords, I will speak briefly on these two amendments. I come from the Blair school of thought on this matter, in that if we make our state schools as good as they possibly can be, private schools will be considerably less and parents may choose, for all the reasons that have been given, to go to a state school—but the noble Lords, Lord Moynihan and Lord Lexden, both had wise words. I remind the noble Lord, Lord Lexden, that several years ago he asked me to visit a school in Shropshire. It was a very special school that helped, supported and taught children with severe dyslexic problems. Interestingly, it was so good that local authorities paid for children to go to that school. I think there were probably about 300 or 400 pupils there and a particular programme. I was absolutely amazed. I contrast that to what is happening currently with special educational needs. We have a crisis, as we know, in special educational needs. We have parents having to go to arbitration, where 98% of those parents win their case and are put on an education, health and care plan. We know that schools are not able to cope. We know that local authorities are not able to cope. Are we seriously suggesting that we aggravate that problem by ensuring that more and more children and young people from private schools go into that system? I think we have to get our system right first, before we burden the state system with even more children with special educational needs when we cannot cope. I was interested in the noble Lord’s comments about sport and swimming in school. He is absolutely right: it is shameful currently. We seem to be football obsessed, but we are not obsessed with other sports. In Liverpool, you can find plenty of football pitches, and we have a 50-metre swimming pool, but if you try to find netball courts, hockey fields, or a place to play lacrosse, for example, it just does not happen. We need to be able to cater for all children. I remind the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, that Katarina Johnson-Thompson won a gold medal in the youth Olympics as well as in the world championships, and she came from a state school.