Special Educational Needs (Hansard, 5 December 1989)

§ Mr. Steinberg
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) at what stage pupils with special educational needs will be tested;
(2) whether special educational needs will be tested at seven, 11 and 16 years regardless of the level or attainment target they are working on at the time.

§ Mr. Alan Howarth
The national curriculum and its assessment arrangements will apply equally to all but the very small minority of pupils in respect of whom a statement provides otherwise or a statutory exception has been made.
The attainment targets, programmes of study and assessment arrangements are being designed to bring out positive achievement at all levels.

§ Mr. Steinberg
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if(a) special schools will be 132W expected to publish results and (b) schools will be expected to publish results of pupils with special educational needs.

§ Mr. Alan Howarth
Regulations under section 22 of the Education Reform Act concerning the publication of information about aggregate pupils' achievements under the national curriculum will be made in due course. My right hon. Friend will consider nearer the time whether special provision is appropriate for pupils with special educational needs.

§ Mr. Steinberg
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) if he will allow more time to be given for preparation of individual programmes for pupils with special educational needs within the national curriculum framework;
(2) if he will consider giving extra time for the disapplication procedures for special educational needs children;
(3) what consideration he has given to the problems of those SEN pupils who require developmental curriculums as opposed to academic ones.

§ Mr. Alan Howarth
The national curriculum requirements will not apply to pupils with statements of special educational needs until August 1990, one year later than for other pupils. This will allow time for statements to modify or disapply national curriculum requirements and for individual programmes to be prepared. We have no plans to extend the year's delay beyond August 1990.
Under section 18 of the Education Reform Act, a statement may modify or disapply any or all of the requirements of the national curriculum. My right hon. Friend expects statements containing modifications or disapplications to set out the alternative provision to be made. However, where exceptions have been made, maintained schools are still under a duty to ensure that the curricula they offer pupils are balanced and broadly based, in accordance with the requirements of section 1 of the ERA.

§ Mr. Steinberg
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will consider a dispensation from the national curriculum for special educational needs children with severe learning difficulties and speech problems from taking a foreign language.

§ Mr. Alan Howarth
Section 18 of the Education Reform Act already makes provision for the national curriculum requirements to be lifted or modified for pupils with statements of special educational needs. This could include exemption from the modern foreign language requirements; but my right hon. Friend expects the benefits of learning a modern foreign language to be made available to as many children as possible.
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§ Mr. Steinberg
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) what extra resources he is prepared to give to schools to help in teaching the national curriculum to pupils with special educational needs;
(2) what plans he has to allocate extra resources to mainstream schools to enable special needs children to have maximum access to the national curriculum;
(3) what plans he has to allocate extra resources to special schools in order to equip them to offer a broad, balanced curriculum to all children.

§ Mr. Alan Howarth
The cost of implementing the national curriculum will be met largely from the redirection of existing resources. However, we are giving local education authorities specific grant support for the introduction of the national curriculum. This financial year there will be support for over £100 million expenditure. It is for authorities to decide how much to spend to enable pupils with special educational needs, whether in mainstream or special schools, to have maximum access to the national curriculum and a broad, balanced curriculum.

§ Mr. Steinberg
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he intends to take to ensure that when local education authority centrally retained funds are reduced from 10 to 7 per cent. the services provided by the local education authority to special needs children will not be adversely affected.

§ Mr. Alan Howarth
Under LMS, LEAs will retain the statutory duty to ensure that the requirements of statements of special educational need are fulfilled for those children who have such statements. A number of LEAs believe that the needs of statemented pupils can best be met by delegating resources to schools and have made appropriate proposals in their submitted LMS schemes. Others have indicated that they wish to retain central control of such resources. As LEAs move towards the target of reducing the proportion of funds retained centrally, it will remain for individual LEAs to judge whether the needs of pupils can best be met by delegating or retaining central control over resources and services for those with special needs.