Georgia Gould MP: speeches

Speeches

• 30 Jun 2026 · Draft Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 (Establishment of Schools) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2026 · Hansard source

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  I thank Members for the range of important questions, although I think they are broader than the individual draft regulations we are discussing today. I will start with the question about special places in specialist schools and how we can ensure that there is consistency. As part of the Government’s reforms to SEND—special educational needs and disabilities—we are proposing the introduction of new specialist provision packages. Those will be developed by a national independent panel and will set out the broad range of provision we expect to be available in every community. Local authorities will have a duty to provide specialist provision packages—that is, the type of special provision that, as the hon. Member for Guildford has set out, is missing from too many communities. To fund that measure, we are investing £3.7 billion into creating new specialist places. That money is going into the system now, and we are setting very strong expectations on local authorities to deliver new specialist provision both within mainstream schools on an inclusion basis and, where necessary, in new special schools. The policy that forms part of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act makes it easier for local authorities to set up new maintained schools. On the specific question about pupil referral units and their role in the system, we will be very clear in the specialist provision packages about the kind of support we expect for children with internalising and externalising social and emotional needs. As we have set out in the SEND reform consultation, we want the role of alternative provision to be focused on really reintegrating children back into school. The Experts at Hand model we have developed is about using some of the best practice from really high-quality alternative provision to support mainstream schools. The SEND reforms are subject to consultation, but I hope that gives a wider reassurance. The hon. Member for South Devon asked why we have created these new powers. As she correctly said, we have set out a steer to the system to say that we expect schools to move towards being part of collaborative trusts. The current system means that there are real geographical discrepancies, and sometimes there is not a trust available to set something up quickly, so we want local authorities to have the flexibility to respond quickly to demands and to offer that provision where it is needed. The hon. Member for Bridgwater raised the wider, more general debate about academisation. I am glad to hear his support for academisation; as he knows, it was something that a Labour Government first introduced. We support that system because we see so many benefits for schools, including collaboration and resilience, from being part of multi-academy trusts. We are setting out a direction to say that is the way in which we expect the school system to move, and we want those freedoms to be available to all schools. We want to have really strong standards and consistency in critically important areas. We know some of the real challenges that young people face in misinformation and the need for digital literacy in a changing world. Our new national curriculum, on which we have consulted widely with schools, multi-academy trusts and local authority schools, will set the standard we want for all children, and we think it is really important that all schools teach that. It is critical that children have access to a qualified teacher, so we are setting very clear standards through the schools White Paper on not only issues such as inclusion but offering the benefits that come from being part of a multi-academy trust, which is a really sensible approach to developing the new system. The draft regulations are really about implementing policy that has already been debated and discussed. Question put.

• 22 Jun 2026 · SEND: Improvement · Hansard source

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  Children with special educational needs and disabilities have been let down for too long. We are determined to transform their experiences and outcomes. We are working with young people, parents and professionals to create a system where needs are identified and met early and schools have the training, resources and physical environments to be inclusive for all children. We will end the postcode lottery for children with complex needs, with stronger national standards for specialist provision and a new role for the best specialist schools as centres for excellence.

• 22 Jun 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We are working with experts nationally to develop new national inclusion standards and specialist provision packages and to set out how we want to see children supported in mainstream schools and specialist schools. I would be happy to discuss that further with the hon. Member.

• 22 Jun 2026 · Children of Military Families: Educational Support · Hansard source

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  As I have set out, it is far too hard to move SEND provision from place to place in the country at the moment. The changes that we are making—introducing national inclusion standards, national specialist provision packages and digital individual support plans and EHCPs—will make a massive difference in making it far easier to move provision. We are absolutely consulting on this; I continue to talk to military families and welcome their engagement on this important issue.

• 22 Jun 2026 · SEND Improvement Plans: Multi-academy Trusts · Hansard source

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  The Government will be setting national standards for all schools, including multi-academy trusts. National inclusion standards will be developed by an independent expert panel and all schools will need to ensure they are delivered. We are also introducing new inspections for multi-academy trusts that will focus on a range of levers, including the importance of inclusion in education. Through our focus on area partnerships, we are really clear that every player, whether schools, health services or local authorities, needs to work together to deliver for children.

• 22 Jun 2026 · SEND Improvement Plans: Multi-academy Trusts · Hansard source

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  Through the national consultation and local special educational needs and disabilities reform plans, we are ensuring that multi-academy trusts play a key role in SEND reforms. New national inclusion standards will create shared expectations for all schools around inclusive education, and the SEND reforms make clear our expectations that all multi-academy trusts and schools work in partnership with local authorities to ensure the needs of every child in an area are met.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Children: Development of Essential Skills · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for raising that issue. We have developed guidance for parents to support them with screen time in early years. As a parent of a two-and-a-half-year-old, I know how confusing it can be. It is not something that I was spoken to about when I had my son. It is important we have guidance that is not judgmental but gives parents the best advice. We have put that out now. A lot of expertise has gone into developing it and I have had really positive feedback. Certainly, I have found it very helpful personally in shaping those important decisions. It is also important that through our Best Start hubs we are able to have that conversation and support for children, not just about not being on screens, but about what engagement looks like: what are the activities, how does one encourage a child to speak, and as they get older what are the enrichment activities that they can engage in after the school day? The hon. Member for Yeovil is always a passionate advocate of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities, and I welcome him mentioning that as part of these wider issues. On the questions on identifying needs, he will know that we are developing national inclusion standards which include research into identification around the needs we have set out in our SEND consultation document. That work is ongoing and it will form part of national inclusion standards. We are working on appointing the panel of independent experts at the moment. It is critical that we get that right, and have that early identification of needs, whether on speech and language or others. The hon. Gentleman also mentioned the importance of support for young people who are constantly having to re-sit English and maths. He will know we have been consulting on a new level 1 English and maths qualification, which is precisely designed to support children and young people to consolidate their knowledge and be a gateway qualification to deal with exactly that problem, which is one I have heard time and time again.

• 20 Apr 2026 · Supported Internships · Hansard source

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  I am incredibly grateful for the work of my hon. Friend in championing children with special educational needs and disabilities, both before and during her time as a Member of Parliament, and thank her for bringing her expertise to this discussion. I would be delighted to visit and see some of the work of supported internships in practice. As I have set out, we have invested £9 million and are continuing to work with colleges to support inclusion, as well as support into employment.

• 20 Apr 2026 · Supported Internships · Hansard source

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  I welcome the hon. Lady’s question. We want to make it much easier for children with special educational needs and disabilities to find support and access opportunities, and are working closely with colleges to do that. As part of our reforms, we will be delivering new national inclusion standards that set out our expectations, and as I have said, we are investing in broadening supported internships.

• 20 Apr 2026 · Multi-academy Trusts · Hansard source

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  This Government believe that a collaborative school system is the best way to drive high and rising standards, so that every child can achieve and thrive. In our schools White Paper, we have set out how we plan to support further collaboration while improving accountability to deliver the education our children deserve.

• 13 Apr 2026 · SEND Provision and Reform · Hansard source

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  I do not have much time, so I am not going to take interventions. I want to be able to answer the points that have been put to me. Too many children have been left without provision, and parents try to explain to their children why they are not at school alongside their friends. Too many parents are having to battle—we have heard the word “fight” time and time again in this conversation. I say to the hon. Member for Meriden and Solihull East (Saqib Bhatti) and to everyone else in the Chamber that I am committed to working constructively and on a cross-party basis on this issue. It is too important to not take all views into account and work together, so I really welcome opportunities to talk to individuals about the issues that have been raised in the debate. However, I will not apologise for taking longer to develop these reforms, because that time has been spent talking to thousands of parents, young people and teachers around the country to make sure their voices were embedded in what we put out for consultation. I also make no apology for taking time to transition into these reforms. As we have heard from so many Members across the Chamber, trust is low, and it is really important that we build the new system with children and families. That does not mean, though, that we are not acting now. The investment we have been talking about is going into our communities straightaway, whether that is the £3.7 billion that we are already starting to invest in specialist places around the country or the £4 billion that we are investing in the services we have talked about today: Experts at Hand, the educational psychologists and speech and language therapists who will now be available to local schools; and the inclusive mainstream fund, which will be going directly into schools. Those are huge investments that this Government are making. The OBR made its projections before it had seen our reform plans and the huge investments we are making, including new investment going in during 2028-29, which I know the hon. Member for Meriden and Solihull East will have seen. I agree wholeheartedly with everyone who has raised the importance of early intervention and of putting in as much support as possible as quickly as possible. So many families have told me that if support had been available much quicker, their needs would not have escalated—they would not be out of education and would not have needed to leave their local schools. We have also heard about the importance of inclusion. My hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) spoke powerfully about why it is so critical that children with special educational needs and disabilities are at the heart of the education system. They have so much to offer, and every school should be an inclusive school, but that does not mean that we do not also need special schools, and the £3.7 billion of investment I have talked about will create new specialist places. Let me turn to the points made by the hon. Member for Farnham and Bordon. First and most importantly, our intention in these reforms is to improve outcomes for children. That is our guiding principle—our No. 1 outcome. The hon. Member mentioned the long waiting lists to which so many families are exposed. Addressing those waits is the point of the reforms. We are putting in place educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, and so many others, so that schools can draw on them and children can access that support without a lengthy wait or a battle for an EHCP and a diagnosis. Under our reform plans, that provision will be available as part of the mainstream system. Critically, education, health and care plans will remain, and they will be available for children who need them. We know that too many children are forced to apply to get an EHCP because their needs are not being met in mainstream schools. The majority of children with special educational needs and disabilities in our school system do not have an EHCP, but are on the SEND register. They are the children who are often being badly let down. Our reforms will extend rights for those children, including new statutory duties on schools to develop inclusion plans and individual support plans. There will be new layers of support with targeted and targeted plus, new national standards, and new duties on teacher training. My hon. Friend the Member for Broxtowe (Juliet Campbell) spoke powerfully about the importance of teacher training, with every single teacher trained to support children with special educational needs and disabilities, so that every class is accessible. As ever, my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) talked expertly about the issue. We are grateful for the work of her Committee and the huge amount of time it put in to its report. I will address her points about transition and accountability within the transition. There are safeguards that I think will reassure parents: every child who is in a special school will remain in a special school, we will build the new system before anyone transitions into that new system, and somebody with an existing EHCP will move on to either an EHCP or an individual support plan, and that will be backed by the tribunal. There were lots of questions about individual support plans and accountability. Ofsted will be looking at individual support plans and developing a new complaints process with an independent role. Importantly, if a family does not feel that their needs are being met by the mainstream system, they will still be able to request a needs assessment and that will be backed by the tribunal. There will still be access to the tribunal, and the tribunal will remain an important part of the system. We do not want families to have to go to a tribunal, though. We want to deliver a system that works, where families’ voices are put at the heart of decision making and where accountability sits not on the shoulders of families, but that it is for us—the Department for Education, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Government—to hold local authorities to account. I was asked why we are we going ahead with local SEND reform plans and asking councils to develop them. We are clear that councils need to deliver today for children with special educational needs and disabilities; as we have heard in the debate, there is too much failure and we are determined to hold councils to account. We are committed to a full consultation. We welcome comments on every aspect of these proposals, and I ask everyone in this Chamber to make sure that you are holding events, talking to your constituents and pointing them towards the consultation, because this is a generational opportunity to change the system. Families have been failed for too long, and it is only by listening to them that we will get this right.

• 13 Apr 2026 · SEND Provision and Reform · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for the huge interest across the Chamber in this critically important issue. Tonight, we heard from so many different Members of Parliament the voices of children and families; I thank MPs for the efforts they have made to listen to those children and families, and to bring their voices to me personally and into the Chamber. I appreciate the hon. Member for Farnham and Bordon (Gregory Stafford) for bringing this important debate to the House and for his long-standing support for children with special educational needs and disabilities. I think we have all heard the depth and strength of concern, and the agreement that at the moment, the system is broken and not working for so many families.

• 3 Mar 2026 · SEND Provision: Local Authorities · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for sharing that tragic story. Of course I would be willing to meet him to discuss it further. These are stories of failure, and we need to do better for these families and change things. We need a system in which every school is set up to support children with special educational needs and disabilities. We are making it mandatory for every teacher to be trained to support children with special educational needs and disabilities, investing directly in schools to provide that support and setting out new national standards and new accountability for schools. The hon. Member for Dorking and Horley made a really important point about families still being able to apply for specialist support. Any individual who feels that their child is not getting the support they need through the targeted or targeted-plus offer will be able to have a needs assessment. If they are unhappy with the needs assessment, they will be able to go to the tribunal to challenge that decision, so there will be individual redress in the system. But it cannot just be for individual families to hold the system to account, because that is the system we have at the moment, with families having to take on legal battles, and for those who do not have the resource, it is not possible to do that. We in the Department for Education and Ofsted have to hold institutions to account. We are really clear that we will provide more support for councils—we are supporting them with 90% of their deficits—but with that support comes much stronger accountability.

• 2 Mar 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We are committed to investing in schools. Our plans include an extra £1.6 billion going directly into schools and £1.8 billion going into the wider “experts at hand” service, on top of increasing funding to the schools core budget. In this Parliament, we will continue to grow our investment in both SEND and schools to ensure that every child gets the best start in life.

• 10 Feb 2026 · Young Children’s Screen Time · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Mr Charters) for his really powerful and heartfelt speech. So much of what my hon. Friend set out today really resonated with me as the mum of a two-year-old. It can be a struggle to stay off the phone, and I would not really like to consider my own screen time, so it was brave of him to do so. He also spoke about the need to be present, the importance of messy outdoor play and the need for children to have protected childhoods, as well as how difficult it is to navigate this whole new world and, as a parent, to find the best advice and the right thing to do for our children. That is why debates such as this are so important, and why his leadership as a parent in this place is so critical. As he said, we want to harness the benefits of technology for education, but we want to protect children from harm. Before I go into questions on screen time, I want to reflect on what my hon. Friend and the hon. Member for Yeovil (Adam Dance) said about opportunities in childhood—the need to have good youth services and opportunities for children to play, to be in sports activities and to perform. That is why, as the Minister for School Standards, I am focused on the enrichment opportunities around school, such as outdoor learning, music performance, the opportunity to be in a sports team—those are the things that give joy to the school experience and to young people’s childhoods.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Village Schools · Hansard source

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  As the hon. Member will be aware, local authorities have a responsibility to ensure that all children have a sufficient place. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is progressing through the House of Lords, has some changes around admissions that we think will ensure that children get a place at a school that meets their needs. The Department for Education recognises the importance of supporting rural schools and the educational offer in Warwickshire. We have worked in partnership with Warwickshire local authorities since Ofsted published an inspection report of “inadequate” in January 2023. Local authorities hold the statutory place-planning function, ensuring that there are sufficient schools to meet pupil needs. This includes collaborating with academy trusts and partners to balance supply and demand in line with changing demographics.

• 1 Dec 2025 · Attainment in Schools · Hansard source

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  Colleges can continue to fund the international baccalaureate. We are focused on raising standards for all students, and we are already seeing the difference that that is making in increased attendance and increased investment in the school system.

• 1 Dec 2025 · Attainment in Schools · Hansard source

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  The Government’s mission is to open up opportunity for every child and we are working with schools across the country to strengthen attainment. That includes regional improvement for excellence and standards teams, recruiting 6,500 teachers, a refreshed high-quality curriculum and tackling barriers to attainment, including child poverty.

• 1 Dec 2025 · National Curriculum Reform · Hansard source

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  I am surprised that the Conservatives are continuing to attack this curriculum review when it has been broadly welcomed by businesses, by schools and by education leaders. Our response has also been broadly welcomed. The review strengthens standards, forms a new statutory year 8 reading test and improves access to triple science. It will engage young people who have fallen out of education. It includes a strong focus on standards and a focus on breadth—we want our young people to have both. The previous Government did not invest in the arts, and we are continuing to invest and rebuild in the arts in our curriculum.

• 1 Dec 2025 · National Curriculum Reform · Hansard source

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  With huge thanks to the work of Professor Becky Francis and the wider team, we are reforming the national curriculum to ensure that it sets up young people for success in a changing world. We are raising standards in oracy, reading, writing and maths, equipping every young person with the knowledge, skills and breadth of education they need to succeed. We will also deliver a digital national curriculum to ensure that teachers can teach a broad and rich curriculum, linking subjects and knowledge.

• 1 Dec 2025 · Evacuation Chairs: Schools and Colleges · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. I am really pleased to have the opportunity to discuss fire safety and the provision of evacuation chairs in our schools and colleges. I thank the Petitions Committee for granting time for this important debate, and I join everyone across this House in congratulating Lucas on his campaign and his leadership. It is because of that leadership, and the national attention he has brought to this issue, that we are having this debate. No one listening to the poem that Lucas wrote can fail to be moved by his words. The fact that we are here discussing it shows the difference that Lucas is already making, and has made, in his own school. I listened with interest to my hon. Friend the Member for Burton and Uttoxeter (Jacob Collier), who spoke really powerfully on Lucas’s behalf. I would be happy to meet him, Lucas and Lucas’s mum to talk through this in more detail, and about some of the ideas we have discussed today. The safety of all pupils, students and staff at schools and colleges is paramount. Educational premises are workplaces and public buildings, and they are therefore already subject to national health and safety legislation, fire safety legislation and other statutory duties around their use, access and safety. Under current fire safety legislation, those who have responsibility for the building must ensure that everyone in the building can leave safely in the event of a fire. Schools and colleges need to have an up-to-date fire-risk assessment, appropriate fire alarms and regular fire drills to ensure they are as safe as possible and well prepared in the event of a fire. A school’s fire safety risk assessment should include an emergency evacuation plan for all people likely to be in the premises, as part of its fire safety strategy. Risk assessments include disabled people or anyone needing particular consideration or help during an evacuation, for example because of temporary injuries or pregnancy. Schools and colleges have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments where necessary for anyone who has a disability or needs special consideration because of pregnancy or age. All students or staff who need one should have a personal emergency evacuation plan. As we have heard, a PEEP is a tailored plan to ensure someone who may need assistance in a building evacuation can safely reach a place of safety. It is designed for individuals with disabilities and other permanent or temporary conditions that might make it difficult for them to evacuate on their own. Ideally, a PEEP should be developed as part of a school enrolment or staff induction process for students or staff with disabilities or otherwise requiring assistance in an emergence evacuation situation. If students have an education, health and care plan or an individual healthcare plan, their PEEP should capture any requirements. PEEPs are developed collaboratively between the individual and relevant staff, such as managers, fire safety officers or disability advisers, to ensure the plan is effective and meets their needs. A well-prepared PEEP ensures that everyone understands their role, making the evacuation process efficient and effective. It is important to stress that a PEEP is a personal document relating to a specific individual. The requirements and preferences of individuals may vary even when their disability is similar. While some people with mobility impairments will require the use of an evacuation chair, others would not welcome using one to escape and may prefer other options to be available. An evacuation chair looks like a deck chair with skis and wheels underneath. When placed at the top of the stairway, it slides down the stairs. Although there are wheels on the back that facilitate movement on flat surfaces, they are not suitable for long distances. An evacuation chair is operated by one or two people and it requires training and regular practice to use one safely, as we have heard from hon. Members. In most instances, training need not include the person with the PEEP, although some may wish to practice being moved in the evacuation chair. It may be appropriate for the group of people trained to operate the evacuation chair to take it in turns during the practices, so that they are ready for an incident. That will increase their confidence in using the equipment and reduce their risk of injury to others. As hon. Members may imagine, not all people with mobility impairments feel comfortable using evacuation chairs, and it is not always possible for wheelchair users to transfer into an evacuation chair or to maintain a seated position once seated in one. Almost half of schools in England are single-storey buildings, with no stairways on which to operate an evacuation chair. That is why it is important the provision and use of an evacuation chair should be determined on a case-by-case basis at a local level based on the specific needs and preferences of the individual concerned. Government guidance is clear that in any school or college where a personal emergency evacuation plan of a student or member of staff requires an evacuation chair, it must be provided. Fire marshals or nominated evacuation staff and the person needing the chair must be trained in its use. Under school premises regulations, each school’s responsible body must ensure that schools are maintained so that pupils’ health, safety and welfare is ensured. The responsible body is usually an academy trust or a local authority. Schools and responsible bodies have duties as employers under health and safety legislation. The Department’s health and safety guidance sets out clearly what schools must do, and the Health and Safety Executive provides additional guidance on managing health and safety in schools. Additionally, as we have heard, all schools must comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which requires schools to have an up-to-date fire risk assessment, appropriate fire alarms and regular fire drills to ensure that they are as safe as possible and well prepared in the event of a fire. The Department provides comprehensive supporting guidance to schools in the “Good estate management for schools” guide, which covers all aspects of estate management, including fire safety. It is the responsibility of those who run our schools, such as academy trusts and local authorities, to ensure that they can be safely operated and to carry out necessary maintenance, including ensuring that a fire risk assessment is undertaken and kept up to date. Since 2010, the Department’s standards require staircases to be wide enough to allow for carry-down evacuation where necessary, and from November 2021, the Department has required that all new schools with more than one storey must have an evacuation lift as standard, providing means of escape from the building for disabled people in the unlikely event of a fire. The Government have published guidance on fire safety risk assessments for organisations responsible for providing means of escape for disabled people. There is school-specific guidance that includes considerations for mobility-impaired people, and it makes it clear that effective management arrangements must be put in place for those needing help to escape. A well-prepared PEEP ensures that everyone understands their role, making the evacuation process efficient and effective. A number of other ideas and issues have been raised today, which I will look into further, and I am also happy to take meetings to discuss them. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is rewriting its guidance to ensure that we continue to do all we can to protect children and young people in the event of fires.

• 12 Nov 2025 · SEND Provision: Kent · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir John. I congratulate my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) on securing this important debate and bringing the voices of young people, parents and teachers in Kent into Parliament so powerfully. I am grateful to all the Kent MPs who have engaged so widely with their constituents. I have received many letters and reports from those here and others who could not attend today, setting out some of the concerns we have heard. Some key themes, which I have heard time and again, include parents feeling that they have to battle through the system in order to get support; the lack of early intervention and help; and concerns about communication and parents not being listened to. I was pleased to see Members from further afield—from Wokingham and even Northern Ireland—join the debate. It is telling that we saw more representation here today from Northern Ireland than we did from Reform, which is running Kent county council. I share some of the concerns that I think Members collectively have raised about the language being used by national Reform politicians—language about the system being “hijacked” and attacking parents and sometimes children. It is very difficult for families to have confidence when their legitimate fight for support for their children is being attacked. I am deeply committed to working alongside families. I assure the hon. Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) that I wholeheartedly understand the urgency and the need for reform. As I have said before, I ran a council and I saw every day the huge pressures in the system. I have talked to parents, young people and teachers across the country and heard some of the same stories and concerns. We need to change things, but, as the hon. Member said, we need to work with them, because we saw what happened when the system did not really think about the consequences of decisions. The last Government left office talking about a “lose, lose, lose” system, but we want a system that allows young people to thrive, gives parents confidence in their children’s support and allows teachers and other professionals to give young people the support they need. We are working intensively with parents, teachers and other parts of the system to get this right. We will bring forward our wider reforms as quickly as we can, but we are not waiting for those reforms in order to act. We have already begun making changes, including creating new places in special schools through a £740 million capital investment for 2025-26, of which £24 million has been allocated to Kent county council. We have heard about the need to have resource bases in communities so children do not have to travel for support, so that investment is incredibly important. I will write to the hon. Member for Meriden and Solihull East (Saqib Bhatti) about the free schools that he mentioned, and I am sure that he will follow up if that is not speedy enough. We are investing in multimillion-pound programmes such as the partnerships for inclusion of neurodiversity in schools and early language support for every child—new partnerships at a local level that bring together support—and reinvesting in early intervention, because we know how important early years support is for young people’s long-term outcomes. We are making sure, as we roll out the Best Start hubs, that there is specialist SEND support in them to intervene and support families as early as possible. We have worked with Ofsted to create changes in accountability and we are firmly focused on inclusion within the school system. It should not be possible for people to get a good mark from Ofsted if they are not delivering on inclusion. As I have said, we are taking forward further work around co-creation, working with families and experts around the country, to make sure that we are getting reform right. However, we have already set out some clear principles: supporting early intervention and help; moving to greater inclusion so that more children can be educated locally, close to their families; ensuring fairness, because I have heard from many about a postcode lottery and different support in different parts of the country; and ensuring that the support that is in place is well evidenced and consistent. This is a shared endeavour that includes health, local government, schools and communities. We all need to work together to support young people to thrive. We heard in some contributions about interventions that have already happened within Kent. Kent’s SEND services were inspected by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in January 2019. That inspection identified nine significant areas of weakness requiring the local area to produce a written statement of action. A visit in 2022 judged that the area had not made sufficient progress in addressing any of its weaknesses. The council was issued with an improvement notice in March 2023. The progress was closely monitored and in August 2024, following a robust review, the Department lifted the improvement notice on the basis that Kent county council had met the conditions set out within it. I assure the Members who raised concerns about the improvement notice being lifted that it does not mean that scrutiny has been lifted. We are working very closely to maintain that oversight of services and drive further improvement to make sure that every young person with special educational needs has access to high-quality services. That includes regular review meetings, attendance at Kent’s SEND partnership boards, close working with NHS England and the continued support of a DFE-commissioned SEND adviser. We take seriously all the points that have been made today.

• 20 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We are determined to have high standards for children in every part of the country. I am very happy to talk to the hon. Member about his specific concerns for that community.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Educational Assessment System Reform · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean) for securing this debate. I know how much work he has done on supporting youth mental health, along with YoungMinds and its wider campaigns. I thank him for his championing of young people. I also thank everyone who took the time to write to the Government’s curriculum and assessment review. I was pleased to hear so many hon. Members talking about conversations they have been having with young people, especially families with children with special educational needs, and bringing their voices to the Chamber—particularly the moving story of Taylor and their experiences. I am glad to hear that they are now thriving. So many of the contributions have focused on how our education system is not working for some young people. It is true that, on average, we have moved up the league tables, but we have also seen a growing gap for so many young people. It is a disgrace that only a quarter of disadvantaged young people get a grade 5 in their GCSEs. There are too many of those young people who do not get to access all the opportunities that come with it. We have heard time and again, in an absolutely packed Chamber here, how young people with special educational needs are being left behind. As a Government, we want high standards for every student, and no child to be left behind. We want that to be part of our education system.

• 4 Sept 2025 · Privilege · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Member for North Dorset (Simon Hoare) for bringing forward this matter, as well as for speaking so powerfully and so concisely on the issue, and to Mr Speaker for granting a debate on this important principle. The Government recognise and value the critical role that Parliament plays in scrutinising our work. Should the House agree to the motion, the Government will await the work of the Committee of Privileges with interest. Question put and agreed to. House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill: Programme (No. 2) Motion made, and Question put forthwith (Standing Order No. 83A(7)), That the following provisions shall apply to the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill for the purpose of supplementing the Order of 15 October 2024 (House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill: Programme): Consideration of Lords Amendments (1) Proceedings on consideration of Lords Amendments shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion three hours after their commencement. (2) The Lords Amendments shall be considered in the following order: 1, 2, 3, 8, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9. Subsequent stages (3) Any further Message from the Lords may be considered forthwith without any Question being put. (4) Proceedings on any further Message from the Lords shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion one hour after their commencement. —(Anna McMorrin.) Question agreed to.