PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Education - 29 February 2024 (Commons/Written Corrections)

Every child with special educational needs or disabilities should receive the high-quality support they deserve, but schools and councils do not have the necessary resources to meet increasing demand and rising costs. What discussions is the Secretary of State having with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the funding and powers available to councils to improve SEND provision?

That is one reason the high-needs budget is up by over 60% in the past four years, and will reach £10.5 billion in 2024-25. We are also supporting local authorities with financial deficits through the safety valve and delivering better value programmes. In most constituencies, including in the hon. Lady’s area, the funding has gone up by 25% to 35%.

[Official Report, 29 January 2024, Vol. 744, c. 588.]

Letter of correction from the Secretary of State for Education, the right hon. Member for Chichester (Gillian Keegan):

Errors have been identified in my response to the hon. Member for Luton South (Rachel Hopkins). The correct response should have been:

That is one reason the high-needs budget is up by over 60% in five years, and will reach £10.5 billion in 2024-25. We are also supporting local authorities with financial deficits through the safety valve and delivering better value programmes. In most constituencies, including in the hon. Lady’s area, the funding has gone up by 25% to 35% since 2021-22.

Will my right hon. Friend update the House on the provision of training in SEND during initial teacher training to ensure that more teachers are aware of the support that children might need, and on the recruitment of specialists, such as educational psychologists and speech and language therapists?

We are implementing a gold thread of high-quality teacher training reforms to ensure that teachers have the skills they need. The Department has been exploring opportunities to build expertise, through a review of the initial teacher training core content framework and the early career framework, to identify how we can equip new teachers to be more confident in meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND. There will be more investment in educational psychologists, of which there will be another 400, and more investment in early years SENCOs, of which there will be another 7,000.

[Official Report, 29 January 2024, Vol. 744, c. 590.]

Letter of correction from the Secretary of State for Education:

An error has been identified in my response to my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Hampshire (Mr Jayawardena). The correct response should have been:

… There will be more investment in educational psychologists, of which there will be another 400, and more investment in early years SENCOs, of which there will be up to another 7,000.

Similarly to my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Hampshire (Mr Jayawardena), I welcome the introduction of a new SENCO national professional qualification—I declare an interest, as my wife is a SENCO—but to create a truly inclusive school environment, all teachers need the knowledge, skills and practical training to support children with special educational needs and disabilities. What steps is my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State taking to ensure that initial teacher training gives them that support and training?

… As I said in answer to the earlier question, there is a golden thread of high-quality teacher training reforms. We will be looking at a revised framework and working with providers so that they can ensure that the contracts deliver the very best support for teachers. What will be vital, and something that Members will feel, is the additional 7,000 SENCOs that will be trained in the coming years.

[Official Report, 29 January 2024, Vol. 744, c. 590.]

Letter of correction from the Secretary of State for Education:

An error has been identified in my response to my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Will Quince). The correct response should have been:

… As I said in answer to the earlier question, there is a golden thread of high-quality teacher training reforms. We will be looking at a revised framework and working with providers so that they can ensure that the contracts deliver the very best support for teachers. What will be vital, and something that Members will feel, is the addition of up to 7,000 early years SENCOs that will be trained in the coming years.

Degree-level Apprenticeships

Next week is National Apprenticeship Week, and I look forward to celebrating apprenticeships across the country. As the Secretary of State knows, small and medium-sized enterprises are crucial to delivering high-quality apprenticeships at every level throughout our economy, but the number of SME apprenticeships has plummeted by 49% since 2016, and research shows that the levy is failing to reverse the decline in employer training more widely. The Secretary of State pretends that everything is fine, but is not the real answer to back our businesses, giving them greater flexibility to enable them to deliver the training that we need to get our economy growing again?

Absolutely. Obviously, one reason for the reduction in some of the SME numbers is the fact that we made improvements to ensure that every single apprenticeship was of high quality. I want to make sure that all young people who embark on an apprenticeship, as I did, put their trust in the system and get what they deserve. We have removed the limit on caps on SMEs, and we are working on reducing the number of steps to make it easier for them to access the system. We are also looking at what more we can do: we are focusing on a number of ways in which to ensure that apprenticeships work well for SMEs, which account for 70% of employment.

[Official Report, 29 January 2024, Vol. 744, c. 602.]

Letter of correction from the Secretary of State for Education:

Errors have been identified in my response to the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra). The correct response should have been:

… We have removed the limit on caps on SMEs, and we have reduced the number of steps needed to register, making it easier for them to access the system. We are also looking at what more we can do: we are focusing on a number of ways in which to ensure that apprenticeships work well for SMEs, which account for 60% of employment.