New Clause 1
Special Educational Needs (Information) Bill
11:00 am
Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North, Labour)
I applaud the hon. Lady for raising the issue, whether or not the new clause is accepted. It goes right to the heart of the problem of special needs: the interface between the parents of a child with difficulties and the local authority. The more that can be done to help at that level, the better we will be able to deal with these problems in future. Most of us have had serious difficulties with local authorities when they think that they know best and they do not. In the end, with my support, parents have won special provision for their children against the wishes of the local authority.
A local authority may not be that keen on presenting information on what is available because more parents will come forward saying that their child has problems and wanting them to be dealt with in a particular way. The issue will go on and we will debate it further. I want the Government to make recommendations to local authorities on special needs provision in their areas and not allow local authorities to backslide, either for financial reasons or, often, for ideological reasons, because they do not believe that special needs provision is appropriate and are perhaps blanket inclusion ideologues. I have come across such examples, too.
I support the hon. Lady in raising the issue. It may not get into the Bill, but we should discuss it for the future.