HC Deb 29 March 1994 vol 240 cc781-2
4. Mrs. Dunwoody

To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will hold urgent discussions with the voluntary organisations representing the mentally handicapped about the local government reorganisation and local education authorities.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Mr. Eric Forth)

Voluntary organisations, like other bodies interested in these matters, will wish to ensure that their views are made known to the Local Government Commission. The commission is required, among other things, to undertake consultations with local interests.

Mrs. Dunwoody

Does the Minister accept that the Government have a special responsibility? It is they who are recommending reorganisation, and they should protect special schools and meet the needs of the mentally handicapped. What are they doing about that?

Mr. Forth

The Government have recently done a tremendous amount generally for special needs and for the mentally handicapped: there are new responsibilities for the schools themselves; the opportunity for special schools to consider grant-maintained status, which will give them a new independence from local education authorities; a special needs code of practice; and a new tribunal. All these will ensure that special educational needs will have a place in our education system that would have been unknown a few months ago. They were thoroughly embedded in the Education Act 1993. We can look forward with great confidence to special educational needs making a huge step forward and occupying a special place in education.

Mrs. Browning

Is my hon. Friend aware that county councils' reluctance to place children with both learning difficulties and physical disabilities in schools run by charities in the voluntary sector is threatening the viability of those schools, and means that such children are now faced with more generic provision, rather than receiving the excellent specialist provision that charities provide?

Mr. Forth

If my hon. Friend is right—I hope that she will give me some evidence that I can examine—I can reassure her that the provisions of the Education Act 1993, together with the code of practice for special educational needs, give parents new rights of choice, which I am sure they will exercise frequently in favour of the very schools that she mentions. There is a permanent place in our education system for all special schools—those currently run by local authorities which may become grant maintained in the near future and particularly non-maintained special schools.

Mr. Win Griffiths

May I emphasise the Opposition's welcome for the potential in the code of practice for helping to deal with the problems of children with special educational needs, and for the wide range of consultation papers that the Department for Education has issued on all the related problems? However, I remind the Minister that—as his boss will know very well—the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and that the practicality in local authorities and schools is that, despite the Government's good intentions, their policies are seriously failing children. Will the hon. Gentleman follow the good samaritan's example and provide proper funding for those in need?

Mr. Forth

I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's kind remarks. I wonder whether his last sentence represents a new spending commitment on behalf of his party. If so, I wonder whether he has checked it out with the shadow Chancellor; he may want to take it up with his hon. Friend. The hon. Gentleman is rushing to judgment prematurely. We are at the earliest stages of the new regime for special educational needs. The opportunity of grant-maintained status for special schools only starts next month and the code of practice and the tribunal come into effect in September. We must all give schools and local education authorities the opportunity to demonstrate how they can use what will be made available to them to provide for special needs, before rushing to judgment as the hon. Gentleman has done today.