Difficult Children (Hansard, 3 March 1995)

§ Mr. Jim Cunningham
To ask the Secretary of State for Education how long on average is taken to produce special educational assessments for children who are disruptive at school; and what plans she has to accelerate the process.

§ Mr. Forth
Since September 1994 local education authorities have been required to complete special educational assessments within 10 weeks of giving notice to a child's parents of their decision to carry out an assessment. The Government have no present plans to change this requirement.

§ Mr. Jim Cunningham
To ask the Secretary of State for Education if she will provide training and funds for schools to deal with children considered to be difficult; and what assessment she has made of the extent to which doing so would offset costs faced by other departments looking after these children.

§ Mr. Forth
Under the truancy and disaffected pupils programme of the grants for education support and training scheme, the Department is already making funds available both for the in-service training of teachers, and to establish and train LEA teams to support schools in their management of difficult and disruptive pupils. In 1994–95 the programme is supporting expenditure of £14 million on more than 80 locally devised projects in LEAs in England; in 1995–96 expenditure of £15.6 million on 90 projects will be supported.
The programme is being independently evaluated, and the lessons to be learnt will be made available to LEAs, schools and other interested parties.

§ Mr. Jim Cunningham
To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans she has to liaise with her ministerial and local authority colleagues, to ensure a tighter framework to help troubled children; and what plans she has to use this framework to support the families of these children.

§ Mr. Forth
Regular contact is maintained with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health.
Joint guidance by my Department and the Department of Health on the education of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties was issued in May last year as part of the "Pupils with Problems" pack.
The guidance highlighted the need for collaborative working between education, health and social services and the crucial need for establishing a partnership between parents and the schools.
A copy of the pack is in the Library.