PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
SEND: Cross-Government Work - 14 September 2026 (Commons/Commons Chamber)
Debate Detail
Contributions from Lucy Powell, are highlighted with a yellow border.
Jen Craft
Thurrock
Lucy Powell
The Secretary of State for Education
It is me again, Mr Speaker. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] As a former Leader of the House, I feel under pressure to know exactly where I am on the Order Paper.
I thank my hon. Friend for all her work on special educational needs and disabilities. I listened closely to her speeches in the recent Health Bill debate. I assure her that these reforms are essential and that no one Department can do them alone. That is why we are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care.
I thank my hon. Friend for all her work on special educational needs and disabilities. I listened closely to her speeches in the recent Health Bill debate. I assure her that these reforms are essential and that no one Department can do them alone. That is why we are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care.
Jen Craft
I welcome the Secretary of State’s kind words. Let me also associate myself with her remarks, and with yours, Mr Speaker, about the Prime Minister’s very sad loss.
The Secretary of State mentioned last week’s health debate, when I received a commitment to much greater accountability, via the education Bill, for the health sector in delivering the health element of the SEND system. What work has been done with her colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care in that regard?
The Secretary of State mentioned last week’s health debate, when I received a commitment to much greater accountability, via the education Bill, for the health sector in delivering the health element of the SEND system. What work has been done with her colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care in that regard?
14:49:59
Lucy Powell
I thank my hon. Friend for her doughty campaigning on these issues. She is right: as part of the SEND reforms, we must ensure that there is accountability throughout the system, in health as much as in education and other sectors. I assure my hon. Friend that we are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care. I have spoken to the new Health Secretary about this issue a number of times, and I look forward to shaping the reforms with her in the coming weeks.
Mark Pritchard
The Wrekin
I congratulate the right hon. Lady on her return to the Cabinet. The two main points that parents of children with SEND in my constituency would make to her in her new role concern the time that it takes for the education, health and care plans to be decided, and the number of specialist school places that are available both in Shropshire and in Telford and Wrekin. What plans has she to improve the position, and to intervene when local authorities are not performing?
14:49:59
Lucy Powell
I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising these issues so frequently. He is right: the current system is not working for parents, and it is not working for children. It is far too adversarial, there are too many delays, and parents often find that they cannot obtain the support that they want at the end of it. It is important to ensure that we have enough places, and we have already provided an extra £3.7 billion to support those extra places, but we also need to ensure that there are strong levers of accountability with local authorities and others. The hon. Gentleman can rest assured that we are looking at all those issues right now.
14:49:59
Samantha Niblett
South Derbyshire
Schools in my constituency, including Fairmeadows Foundation primary school, applied to Reform-led Derbyshire county council for capital funding for SEND provision within their mainstream settings. They were told that their application was successful in July 2025, and again in September that year. Funding was to come from a pot believed to be about £7 million, with an extra £500,000 mentioned on 10 September this year, but so far no funding has been released. I personally raised this matter with the council leader, Alan Graves, in June. When we chased the money again last week, we were told that the service-level agreements were still being worked on. Will the Minster please join me in calling on Derbyshire county council to get on with releasing these moneys?
14:49:59
Lucy Powell
I am very sorry to hear that the Reform-led council in Derbyshire is not following through quickly enough on its commitment to SEND families in the council area. We will, of course, pick that up. We are working closely with all local authorities on their SEND reform plans, and ensuring that they put them into action quickly.
14:49:59
Danny Kruger
East Wiltshire
Research from the Department for Education confirms that children who move schools frequently often suffer poor outcomes, particularly children with special educational needs. That is why a number of armed forces families—people on average incomes—choose independent education to minimise the disruption that results from their postings. May I ask the Secretary of State, with her new Education team, whether she will publish—perhaps jointly with the Ministry of Defence—research showing whether the introduction of VAT on school fees has led to an increase in the number of in-year moves, especially among service families?
Lucy Powell
The hon. Gentleman has rightly identified an issue. We are introducing new individual support plans, which will be national and digital so that they can move around with children. We obviously want to minimise the number of occasions on which students move to new schools and, in some instances, have their support reassessed when they get there. I do not believe that there has been a particular issue for children in armed forces families in relation to the VAT on private schools, but I am happy to look into that for the hon. Gentleman.
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