§ 5. Dr. Liam FoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Education what effect grant-maintained status has had on the provision of special needs education spending.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Mr. Eric Forth)With grant-maintained status, schools have greater flexibility to provide for all pupils, including those with special educational needs, having regard " as all schools must " to the new special educational needs code of practice.
§ Dr. FoxWill my hon. Friend perhaps take time to point that out to the Luddite and pernicious National Union of Teachers which is trying to spread fear among parents of special needs children? Will my hon. Friend point that out because the parents of those children have been frightened by the propaganda put out by the NUT to try to persuade them to vote against opting out?
§ Mr. ForthMy hon. Friend makes an important point. The sad truth is that the NUT is hopelessly out of step with virtually everyone these days, not least the other teaching unions. The task before us of trying to persuade the NUT and its membership of the value of what we are doing, not least in respect of special educational needs, is monumental but we shall not shrink from it. I am confident that grant-maintained schools are in a very strong position to join other schools in making increasingly good provision for special educational needs based on our widely welcomed code of practice. I have great confidence that that will be the case from this September forward.
§ Mr. Win GriffithsThe Minister completely failed to answer his hon. Friend's question. Will he admit that there have been cases, such as that of Highams Park school in Waltham Forest which, on becoming grant maintained a few years ago, refused to carry on educating children who were blind or partially sighted? Another local authority school took over that responsibility without demanding extra funding. Is it not true that, time and again, there are cases of exclusions from GM schools of children with learning difficulties and behavioural problems which then have to be handled by maintained schools? The Government have said many fine things in the code of practice, but they are failing to provide the money to do the job properly.
§ Mr. ForthI regret that the hon. Gentleman has, in asking that question, departed from his usual very high standards of integrity. The fact is that none of what the hon. Gentleman says has any relationship to the truth. If he has allegations of the kind that he has made in a general sense today—not least the specific one, which is wrong—I want to hear about them. I am convinced that grant-maintained schools maintain the highest standards of provision for all their pupils, including those with special educational needs. If there are any cases of exclusion from any school on the basis of special educational needs, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will let me have them as we shall want to look into them and take whatever action my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State can take.