SEND Provision: South-east England

Before Mike Martin moves the motion, I should say that 16 Members wish to speak, so I will probably have to impose a three-minute time limit after he has spoken. My aim is to try to get everybody in, so if we can cut down on interventions, that should give everybody a chance to speak.

I beg to move,

That this House has considered SEND provision in the South East.

It is an honour and pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. I will speak specifically about Kent and my Tunbridge Wells constituency; I am sure that right hon. and hon. Members will speak about examples in their constituencies. We are speaking about some of the most vulnerable people we represent and, as the Government are reviewing special educational needs and disabilities, it is important that the voices of children and families are heard, because they see the system from the inside and can see its shortcomings.

In Kent, more than 21,000 children have an education, health and care plan—that is 14% above the national average. As a result of rising demand and some mismanagement by the previous Conservative administration, there was a SEND overspend in a recent year of nearly £100 million, which is now being managed down by the Department for Education. At the same time, alongside all other local authorities, Kent has statutory duties to meet EHCP deadlines and provide provision. This creates a conflicting pressure. The story is the same for local authorities everywhere where there is rising demand and declining resources.

The balancing act required creates a false economy. When children do not get the support they need, they fail in their educational setting, but that means they are less likely to achieve in the world of work and are more likely to become a burden on the state in their later years. So getting this right now creates a long-term economic benefit for our society, and it is not just economically right: it is morally right that we do so to create life chances for the children under our care.

To go back to the situation in Kent, under the previous Conservative administration, only 13% of EHCPs were completed within the statutory 20-week deadline in the year to March 2024, and because of that Kent was put into special measures. I have called a number of times for that status to be continued because there was some improvement, in that the provision of EHCPs within the deadline went up to 65%. Kent was therefore taken out of special measures. But unfortunately, quantity does not equal quality. I do not have time to go into the litany of mistakes on some of the EHCPs, but they included incorrect names of schools, schools that do not exist, schools that are not approved, schools that do not have funding, incorrect needs and spelling mistakes—really basic errors.

Often, when families complain about the errors, they are told by Kent county council to go to a tribunal. This is deeply cynical. Kent county council has been using tribunals not as a last resort, but as a tactic to delay, to deter and to exhaust families. In other words, the council is using tribunals to try to get families to give up seeking appropriate support for their children. And it works. Tribunals are utterly gruelling. Families and children spend months preparing for them. The emotional toll is enormous throughout the time they are preparing, and it costs, as they have to get legal advice to go to a tribunal. All the while, they do not know whether, at the end of this year-long process, the child will get the special provision that their EHCP says they require.

I congratulate the hon. Member on securing this incredibly important debate; the number of people who wish to speak is a testament to that. As one Kent MP to another, I agree that the problems he is outlining—the inability to access the system because EHCPs and other assessments take so long, and the poor-quality provision when they have been completed—indicate a broken system in Kent. Does the hon. Member agree that we need to see EHCPs done properly, with a substantial increase in pace? We also need an increase in resources, so that the quality of provision following assessment is up to the standard that parents and pupils expect. Getting those two elements of the system right will go a long way towards fixing what is currently broken.

I thank my fellow Kent MP for his intervention; I will address many of those points as I make progress. He is right that there is a reason for the statutory deadline for EHCPs, and it would be nice if local authorities could meet it.

To return to tribunals, between 2021 and 2024 Kent council spent more than £2 million on SEND tribunals, of which 98% were successful for the parents. If parents have the money and the emotional bandwidth, and can go to tribunal and fight, they will be successful. But we do not know the percentage of parents who decide that they are not able to put themselves through that process. That is one of the legacies, I am afraid to say, of Conservative mismanagement in Kent.

Since Reform took over two months ago, it has gone from bad to worse. A cabinet member resigned within 45 days, which is a day longer than Liz Truss managed, so one assumes his lettuce is still going strong. Another councillor has been suspended and is under investigation by the police. The matter is now before the courts, so I cannot say much more about that, but Members can have a google. The June meeting on children, young people and education was postponed indefinitely. That meeting was relevant to this debate, but it is only one among a plethora of committee meetings, cabinet meetings and sub-committees that the Reform administration in Kent has cancelled because it is unable to deliver government. Reform cannot even organise its own house, let alone grapple with a crisis of this magnitude and scale.

I am glad the Government are reviewing the system, because it needs to be reformed, but real change must be driven by the principles that the Lib Dems have articulated time and again. We must listen to the voices of children and families. They do not have all the answers, but they do have insight into how the system works, and we would do well to listen to them. Where appropriate, specialist capacity must be provided for the minority of children who have EHCPs and need specialist support.

Does my hon. Friend agree that we do not fix a financial problem by giving away a right? For many parents and families battling the system, an EHCP is the only protection that a child gets to a right to education.

My grandmother said that the mark of a civilised society is how it treats its most vulnerable—she was wise. She was very active in politics, but for a different party. [Interruption.] She made a journey that many people have made in recent years. Unfortunately, she is dead now. She would be 110 now if she were alive.

To return to the theme, it is morally right that we get this right, because these children and families are the most vulnerable among our constituents. It is also economically right, because if the children have the right provision, the parents can continue to work. Without the right provision, one parent will probably not go to work, so that has an immediate economic detriment. Allowing a child to thrive, to be included and to work in society as they get older affects the medium and long-term economic health of our society and our country, so it is both morally right and economically sensible. On that point, I will conclude: every child has the right, irrespective of postcode, background or need, to thrive.

Order. There will be an immediate three-minute limit on speeches.

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward.

We are lucky in East Thanet to have several brilliant council-maintained SEND schools: Forelands Field, Laleham Gap, Stone Bay and St Anthony’s. They do brilliant and vital work, despite the incompetence of Kent county council. I know from my casework just how deep the crisis in special educational needs provision runs. In Kent it is particularly acute, because the previous Tory council administration let the crisis spiral out of control. I have constituents who are frustrated by delays to getting EHCPs, parents who are aggravated by poor communication from the council, and others saying they believe that Kent county council is making the appeals unnecessarily difficult.

Similarly, far too many tribunals in Kent involve parents appealing the inappropriate allocation of school places. Often, as a result, either the state-maintained schools end up oversubscribed and overcrowded, or the spiralling costs of private provision contribute to the dire financial state of Kent county council. The state-maintained schools are now being put through a wildly inappropriate redesignation of the education and support they will offer, putting suitable educational provision for some of our most vulnerable children even further at risk.

The previous Tory administration was forced to apologise after a damning Ofsted report found that the council had “not made sufficient progress” in tackling nine areas that were identified following an inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission. The report quoted one parent as saying:

“Communication is poor, co-production is non-existent…it feels as though my son’s needs are not being prioritised, and they don’t care. They are incompetent.”

I am afraid to say that I do not have any confidence that things will improve under the new Reform administration. In the few months that they have been in power, we have seen important meetings cancelled, cabinet members sacked, councillors suspended and chaos ensuing throughout the council—all while the new council leader went on holiday.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward. I congratulate the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mike Martin) on setting the scene so well. My contribution to this debate is to support him in his request to his education authority and to outline some of the concerns we have where we are, which are replicated by him and will be replicated by others.

The situation back home is no better. The Minister has no responsibility for it—I wish her well in her answers. In Northern Ireland, we have incredible problems with the transformation programme. The budget was cut by 50%—an example of the financial restraints that we are all under, which the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells and others referred to. There is a duty of care to children who, due to their educational needs, need that little extra support, and it comes down to money, as most things in the world do. The hon. Gentleman outlined a serious case in his constituency. I have spoken to some of the principals in my constituency of Strangford, who have stated that the current funding is not fit for purpose and that children will be the ones who suffer because of those cuts—a point made by other Members.

One teacher said that

“it is so difficult when you have a passion for supporting and wanting to do your best for SEN children, but it seems impossible to get the tools to do so. It feels like its always budget cuts and reduced staffing, there is never any good news where you feel inspired to do your best.”

That is every teacher who works in the SEND sector. They want to do their best for their children and make sure that the children will be inspired to do their best when they get the opportunity.

The other massive question, which was mentioned by the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells and will be mentioned by others, is about support for the provision of classroom assistants. One-to-one and small group support is crucial but again, unfortunately, the funding is simply not there to sustain their employment. SEND pupils back home already fall behind their peers in other parts of the UK, so we have a big problem, although the Minister’s response will relate to her responsibilities here.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward. In the 12 months since I was elected as the Member for Aylesbury and the villages, I have been struck again and again by the urgent need to reform our SEND system, given the sheer number of people who get in touch having been let down by different parts of the system, whether that is families, teachers, heads, councils or, of course, the young people at the heart of it.

In this speech, I will focus on what better SEND provision could look like and make three points. First, provision must be local and mainstream wherever possible. When I talk to parents, they tell me that they want their children to go to their local school and to be part of their community, but too often they are told that their children’s needs are too complex, or that the school just cannot offer the provision that they need. I was heartbroken to hear from a mother whose child was excluded from school, not because of a poor behaviour but just because their complex needs were misunderstood and not supported in the right way. I know it is very difficult for schools too, but we urgently need to support mainstream schools to deliver more inclusive provision. That means funding for adaptations, training and confidence building for teachers, and it probably means drawing on the expertise of specialist providers to help mainstream schools build their capacity and confidence.

Secondly, although we should aspire to local mainstream provision wherever possible, there will always be a need for specialist provision for children with the most complex needs. In Aylesbury, we are fortunate to have some really inspiring leaders who are helping to build that capacity. Jane Cole is working night and day to establish a Red Balloon centre for teenagers with special educational needs on Walton Terrace, which will open in September. It is a lovely setting, and a safe and nurturing space. The team at the Chiltern Way academy trust is working to launch a new SEND sixth form to help SEND children to get over the line and into work at the end of their education. It is crucial that we keep building on that.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. I congratulate the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mike Martin) on securing the debate. I rise today not just as a constituency MP, but as vice-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for special educational needs and disabilities and as someone alarmed by what I see every day: a system stretched to the point of failure, with vulnerable children paying the price.

In my first year as an MP I have taken up 98 SEND cases, but I accept that that is just the tip of the iceberg in my constituency. Those cases include a family whose son’s autism assessment is so delayed that he will finish school before he gets the help he needs. Another family is spending over £10,000 on tribunal proceedings. This is not a system; it is a fight, and families are losing. Across both Surrey and Hampshire, 3% of pupils in state-funded schools have an EHCP and a further 13% receive SEND support, but behind the numbers are children waiting years for basic support, parents forced into legal battles just to access what their children are entitled to and councils collapsing under the sheer volume of demand, without the necessary support that this requires from national Government.

The crisis is compounded by serious concerns about legality and quality. I have heard credible reports of educational psychologist assessments being drafted by trainees and rubber-stamped without proper oversight—a process designed to evade scrutiny, not deliver support. Meanwhile, the cost of failure is spiralling. In Surrey alone, more than £13 million a year is spent on taxis to bring more than 500 children to school. Nationally, the average cost of special school placements is now over £61,000 per child per year, and councils are staring down a projected £5 billion SEND deficit by 2026.

All of that is worsened by the Government’s ideological attack on independent schools. Schools like More House and Undershaw school offer bespoke, life-changing provision, often in partnership with local authorities, for children who cannot cope in mainstream education. However, tax changes and policy hostility are forcing closures, reducing places and driving up costs. The result is fewer options for children and more pressure on already overwhelmed state schools. I pay tribute to Councillor Jonathan Hulley, who has just taken over as the new cabinet member in Surrey and is trying his best to grapple with this problem.

I thank my fellow Surrey MP for his thoughts. Last year, nearly half of Surrey’s high needs block of £122 million was spent supporting SEND places at non-maintained independent schools. Placing those children in state-maintained school is often half the cost. Does the hon. Gentleman not agree that we need to put more money into state schools rather than independent schools, which are often run by private equity firms taking money out of local authorities and making profit on the backs of very vulnerable children?

I respect the hon. Lady deeply, but I must say that I entirely disagree. Pitting the state sector against the independent sector, and vice versa, is entirely the wrong way to go about it—it would damage education. I am very happy to take her around More House or Undershaw in my constituency to show her the amazing work that those two schools do; she may change her tune once she has seen that.

The key thing is this: will the Government step up and make the national changes and reforms to make this system fair, equitable and sustainable across the country? SEND families are asking not for special treatment but for lawful, timely and compassionate support. No child should feel hopeless in the very system meant to help them, and no family should be forced to break themselves to secure basic rights. Let us fix this, and mean what we say when we talk about inclusion.