Local MP Speaks Up on Special Education Matters

6.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 24th Jun 2005

Speaking in the House of Commons

Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Dorset, Annette Brooke, a member of the Lib Dem Education team, spoke up on challenges facing both the Further Education sector and Special Educational Needs (SEN) in Parliament this week.

With strong links to Bournemouth and Poole College, in Poole, Annette Brooke MP spoke for the Liberal Democrats in a debate on the Future of Adult Education, initiated by her colleague Dr. Vincent Cable MP for Twickenham.

Due to lack of funding, tens of thousands of adult education courses across the country face the axe as FE colleges and education budgets are directed at the 16-18 age group and for courses in 'basic skills'. Many non-accredited or academic classes aimed at adult learning may be cut, have their fees increased by 50-100% and important concessions for the elderly and disabled may be lost.

While targeting 'basic skills' is, of course, important to help train young people in skills they need for the job market, many older people place a very high value on their opportunity to pursue 'life-long learning' in their community. For many, such courses benefit their long term well-being and health prospects, disabled people particularly are supported by such courses.

Annette Brooke MP said: "The government's own White Paper states: 'Investment in personal and community learning secures health and citizenship benefits for individuals and communities'. We should not lose sight of the fact that learning is valuable in its own right and is not simply a way of meeting targets.

"Many colleges are in turmoil and adults, potential disadvantaged and disabled learners risk losing valuable courses because of this flawed funding mechanism. It is time for the government to act."

Annette Brooke MP also contributed to a debate on Special Schools and Special Educational Needs (SEN), noting that: "the survey by Her Majesty's inspectorate mentioned in the annual Ofsted report that in some cases of inclusion a significant number of children with special educational needs were not achieving all that they could."

MPs debated the closure of special schools and the teaching of SEN in mainstream and special schools. MPs are contacted regularly by parents of children with special needs who find it difficult, if not impossible, to get the local education authority to provide a 'statement' of their special needs.

The government is pursuing a policy of 'inclusion' of SEN in mainstream schools, and for some children with certain disabilities, this is an appropriate course of action. However, for many children, a place in a mainstream school can simply exacerbate their problems or impede their development and learning. In addition, many teachers are simply not adequately trained to teach a class of mainstream students and SEN at the same time.

Some parents find it frustrating that their requests for a place at a special school, which they feel would be a better learning environment for their child, are not met due to a shortage of places in such schools, indeed, due to the closure of such schools in certain instances.

Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson said: "The debate concerning special schools versus inclusion is something of a false debate. We need both. We need to explore the different forms of inclusion and of special schools. We need a continuum of provision involving co-location and special units for example."

Problems with the current system available to parents need to be addressed - the bureaucracy, the adversarial system and the lack of trust between parents and the LEA, as well as better workings between education, social services and health teams in local authorities, need to be massively improved.