§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Leeds, West on 23 October,Official Report, column 158, if he will list the ways in which the local management of schools offers local education authorities the flexibility to take account of the resources needed in schools to support all pupils with special education needs.
§ Mr. FallonUnder local management of schools, LEAs have freedom to decide the following. The numbers in parenthesis refer to paragraphs in LMS circular 7/88.
- whether to delegate provision for pupils with statements or to manage it centrally; (75)
- how large specialist central support teams should be, and what range of specialisms they should cover; (81)
- what variations to recognise between schools in the incidence of pupils with special needs but without statements; (115; and S33(3)(b) of the Act)
- by what means additional resources are to be allocated to take account of these variations; (115)
- how much to allocate to individual schools and in total; (115)
- what additional provision to make from contingency funds in-year where there are large unforeseen changes in pupil numbers or characteristics (such as special needs); (87(a) (i))
- by what means school's success in identifying and providing for their pupils will be monitored. (151–154)