Jim Dickson

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk Coastal (Jenny Riddell-Carpenter) for securing this important debate and for her excellent speech. As colleagues from all parties have said, the system for young people with special educational needs in England is not working for schools, for councils and, most importantly, for the young people who so desperately need support. This is yet another area where, as the commentator Sam Freedman who worked at the Department of Education put it, the previous Government “chose to go slow in coming up with solutions so as to avoid difficult or expensive decisions before the election.” It has been left to the new Labour Government to fix it. I welcome the steps taken so far, with £1 billion infused into the SEND budget in October and £740 million announced to create thousands of specialist places, including in mainstream schools. In my Dartford constituency, Kent county council has been unable to respond properly to the families seeking the help that their children need. I hear regularly of EHCP annual reviews taking many times longer than the 12 weeks they should take, including one case in which an annual review is yet to be processed over a year after it took place. I hear of caseworkers leaving the service and families not being told, leaving parents asking for assistance but not being heard. I hear complaints about EHCP decisions going months without an answer. There are frustrating waits to correct errors and multi-year waits for other forms of assessment. Too many vulnerable young people are missing crucial years of education when they are needed most. There are no quick fixes, but the Government have an opportunity, as we all do, to bring forward much-needed reforms that will improve outcomes over time. So many families are depending on it. Let us work with the Government to ensure it happens.