Special Educational Needs (Hansard, 28 March 1995)

§ Mrs. Dunwoody
To ask the Secretary of State for Education if she will ring fence finance for special needs pupils. [16593]

§ Mr. Forth
No. Detailed spending decisions are for individual schools and local authorities to make in the light of their own particular circumstances and from within the resources available to them.

§ Mrs. Dunwoody
To ask the Secretary of State for Education if she will implement the new code to protect special needs pupils. [16595]

§ Mr. Forth
The code of practice on the identification and assessment of special educational needs came into effect on 1 September 1994.

§ Mrs. Dunwoody
To ask the Secretary of State for Education if she will incorporate special training for teachers in recognition of special needs pupils suffering from dyslexia. [16590]

§ Mr. Forth
It is a requirement that initial teacher training courses should equip teachers with the skills to identify special educational needs.
The Government make money available to local education authorities to contribute, under the grant for education support and training—GEST—programme, towards the cost of in-service training for teachers of children with special educational needs. This enables local education authorities to bid for funds to provide for particular disability areas, such as dyslexia, as appropriate to local needs.

§ Mrs. Dunwoody
To ask the Secretary of State for Education if she will institute screening for pre-school children to establish the need for special care. [16596]

§ Mr. Forth
Care facilities for the under fives are a matter for local social services departments, central responsibility for which rests with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health. There are already a variety of routes by which special educational needs can be recognised, including the family doctor, the child health services and playgroup or nursery provision.