Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (Hansard, 25 July 2000)

§ Jacqui Smith

My Department does not collect statistics identifying children with special educational needs by specific categories. The total special needs population was shown as 1,700,000 on the last full return in 1999—just over 20 per cent. of the total school population.

This Government have demonstrated their commitment to improving education for all children with special needs. Schools are educating children with a wide range of needs, and so need a range of programmes and advice. We are supporting schools with a broad package of measures, including the SEN Programme of Action, the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies and our Excellence in Cities programme.

563W

To improve the education for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties in particular, this year we have: provided £140 million through the Social Inclusion Pupil Support programme—guidance to support this programme, on pupil attendance, behaviour, exclusion and re-integration, was issued in July 1999; developed On-Site Learning Support Units. We will increase the number of these units to over 1,000 in mainstream schools in England within two years. To help meet this target we announced earlier this year that £28 million is being provided to create a further 360 units in secondary schools and £8 million to pilot 60 units in primary schools. These units are school-based centres for pupils at risk of exclusion owing to behavioural problems; they provide tailored teaching and support programmes. produced a revised SEN Code of Practice and guidance on thresholds to simplify, and to support better, teachers' assessment of a child's needs and their planning of appropriate strategies to address these. Both documents are currently out for consultation; issued to all schools the Index for Inclusion produced by the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education. This practical, self review tool will help all schools develop their policies for addressing barriers to participation pupils face, including those with emotional and behavioural difficulties; consulted on additional guidance on promoting positive handling strategies for pupils with severe behavioural difficulties. This guidance will be issued in the autumn, to supplement existing guidance on Section 550A of the Education Act 1996.

In addition, we are planning further practical guidance on best practice in the education of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties, and on effective teaching for children with mental health problems.

We have also provided guidance on the wider issue of dealing with violent or very disruptive pupils. We do not expect teachers to keep troublemakers in the classroom at any cost, and have written to all headteachers so that they know they have our full support if they have to exclude such pupils permanently. The Secretary of State also announced at the National Association of Headteachers' conference on 1 June that he would be changing the guidance to exclusion appeal panels to indicate that where there has been violence or severe threat of violence it is inappropriate for a permanently excluded child to be re-instated to the same school.