Sarah Smith MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 25 Feb 2025 · SEND Education Support · Hansard source

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  On that point, I want to emphasise that the parents and carers who I speak to in Hyndburn and Haslingden are bruised and burnt out—my hon. Friend talked about the constant fight and the adversarial nature of the system. I also keep hearing concerns from the parents and teachers in the system about some fear around the reforms that are coming, because they feel that might happen without them. Would my hon. Friend agree that is really important that the Government work with parents, teachers and carers as they develop those reforms, and that there is a real two-way conversation as we bring forward what is needed?

• 4 Feb 2025 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source

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  Hyndburn is home to the incredible woman Lorraine Hargreaves. She established the charity Milly’s Smiles after her daughter Milly died of leukaemia, and each year she supports thousands of families whose children have cancer. Can the Minister reassure her that this plan will also improve outcomes for children? I know that Lorraine will welcome the announcement on the re-establishment of the taskforce, but would the Minister consider meeting her to discuss the lack of support and grief groups for families who go through the unimaginable tragedy of losing a child to cancer?

• 3 Feb 2025 · School Accountability and Intervention · Hansard source

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  I have worked closely with schools in some of the most disadvantaged parts of our country, and I have seen academy trust after academy trust fail to turn around schools in some of the most challenging circumstances, leaving behind some of our most disadvantaged learners. I welcome the Government’s commitment to support the turnaround with cash, with £100,000 being made available as compared with the £6,000 that was previously provided. Does that not show the difference in the importance placed by Labour on turning around failing schools compared with the Tories?

• 27 Jan 2025 · Speech and Language Therapy · Hansard source

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  It is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Lichfield (Dave Robertson) for opening the debate, and I pay tribute to Mikey. I have been privileged to work with young people for many years, putting them at the heart of leading change, and it is always brilliant to see that happening. I congratulate Mikey, and hope that he will start to see actual results. We have heard that he has been working on this for a long time, and is perhaps frustrated that he has not seen change happen more quickly. It is not an exaggeration to say that high-quality speech and language services can transform lives because supporting a person to communicate can open a whole new world of opportunity for them. As we have heard, communication is an essential aspect of life for all ages, including for adults who have experienced major setbacks due to medical events. However, I will focus my comments on the need for excellent speech and language provision for children and young people. A vital part of this Government’s mission is to break down barriers to opportunity for all children, and to help ensure that a record number of children start school ready to learn. A key component of our approach will be better identification of those children who may need additional support with their language and speech development. Speech and Language UK has found that 1.9 million children struggle with talking and understanding words, which demonstrates the scale and importance of this issue. I hope that the investments that this Government are making into increasing the availability and standard of pre-school childcare and into family hubs will lead to more opportunities to support young children with their early language development, at an earlier stage. However, many of those children will need access to high-quality speech and language therapy to help them progress, and their families need support to know how best to encourage and aid their child’s development. I recognise that, often, parents feel left out in the cold and unclear on how they can best support their children when they face challenges. That support will be crucial to ensuring that no child is left behind in their educational progression because we know that language skills are the foundation for literacy development and further learning. I was delighted to see at first hand, in schools that I have worked with, the impact of the decision already taken by the Secretary of State for Education to fund a further year of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme. I hope that the Education team will continue to support that as one means to tackle this bigger issue. I ask the Minister, how are the Government further working alongside education colleagues? We know that it is by working together that we can enable children who need formal speech and language therapy to access it without the horrifically long waiting times that they currently experience. There are specific challenges within the north-west, and it is no surprise that the majority of constituencies with a high level of signatories to the petition are in that region. In the north-west, in November, around 45% of children and young people who were waiting for speech and language therapy had been waiting for over 12 weeks, compared with 28% of those on the waiting list in the east of England. The latest available figures show that 2,672 children and young people in the Lancashire and South Cumbria integrated care board area were waiting for speech and language therapy. That is a damning statement on the inheritance that we received from the Opposition, and that inheritance is further demonstrated by their Benches being almost empty for this debate. Earlier today, we heard the shadow Secretary of State for Education, the right hon. Member for Sevenoaks (Laura Trott), make a big noise in the Chamber, but she did not take seriously the challenges that the Opposition have left us and how we can tackle them. The regional disparity is adding another level of disadvantage to children growing up in my constituency of Hyndburn. Like all children, they deserve to be supported to learn. It is important that we are careful, when we speak about children with special educational needs and disabilities, not to suggest that their educational performances or communication skills are due to some internal difference or lack of ability: it is the systems and structures around them that we must fix to make sure that every child and young person has the same access to opportunities to fulfil their potential. It is important that we provide wraparound support for families so that the Government can make better use of standard two-year check-ups to unlock pathways to support. Time and again, I hear of children and families in my constituency who are on pathways for not just weeks or months but years, without access to the education, health and care plan that they might need or the wraparound services intervention required to make sure that a child has the best possible chance in life. It is welcome that the Government’s mission to build a health service fit for the future will look to design a system that meets the changing needs of our changing population, but can the Minister share more about how speech and language services will feature in the current national conversation on the 10-year strategy? Effective speech and language interventions can reduce the need for more intensive and costly healthcare services down the line, and as hon. Members have mentioned they have a significant positive return on investment in the long term. Investing in early screening and diagnostic services will help identify speech and language issues at a young age and allow for more effective interventions. Effective intervention does not just help young people to access language and communication skills but helps with their confidence and the ability to make friends and start school with their best foot forward. I know that Ministers across Government appreciate that there is a crisis affecting the SEND education system. We have had a 140% increase in the number of children and young people with EHCPs, but outcomes have stagnated. More money has been put in, but we are not seeing better results for the children impacted. That is why I welcome the commitment that this is not just about investment but the right reforms. I would like to ask the Minister about closer working relationships with education professionals—not just how it happens at the top of Government but on the ground. Is there an opportunity with the schools rebuilding programme to look at the co-location of education, health services and therapy and make sure that they are built into the design right from the start? The headteacher leading on the rebuilding of Hyndburn Academy is open and keen for this thinking, so it would be great to hear the Minister’s views as to how that will be rolled out nationally. There are many wonderful examples of inclusive schools, but many parents have felt forced to seek an EHCP for more specialised speech and language support. Has the Minister made an assessment of how a focus on speech and language specialised support as well as inclusion in schools could create a system where parents do not always have to go through a formal written process to secure the resources they need? That might tackle the huge challenges we face in that part of the system. We cannot solve the problems in the SEND system without increasing support for children struggling with speech and understanding words. My comments have focused a lot on language development and formal education, but I have had the immense privilege of knowing children who are non-verbal but wonderful and profound communicators. Communication comes in many forms. That is why I spoke about the systems and structures we facilitate around our children to ensure that every child and young person is given the opportunity to thrive. No child should be held back from the strong social participation, relationships, learning and wellbeing that can be forged with the right support.

• 8 Jan 2025 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  How does the hon. Gentleman respond to the situation under the current system, whereby a third of young people fail to get a good GCSE in English and maths, and we have the most unhappy young people in the OECD?

• 8 Jan 2025 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for Dorking and Horley (Chris Coghlan) for his moving contribution. Members on the Opposition Benches should be ashamed to defend the status quo. The current system has seen one third of young people being failed. They leave the system feeling like failures because they have not achieved the basic qualifications of a decent GCSE in English and maths to be able to progress with their lives. We have the unhappiest young people in the OECD, and when we speak to young people, they tell us that their experience in the education system is a significant contributor to that feeling of unhappiness, and the mental health crisis that they face. The legacy of the previous Government is that home education, which has only recently been properly counted year on year, has risen in the last 12 months from 92,000 to 112,000, but post covid, it has probably doubled or tripled. That reflects the fact that the system is not working for far too many parents, because it is not inclusive and does not meet their needs, and the changes to the curriculum have limited young people, who have different abilities, being able to prove their strengths and be valued in the classroom. That is not to mention the failures in SEND, and the urgent change that we know that we need to meet the significant support needs of some young people. I challenge the defence of the existing system made by my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh). The huge improvements in London are not just based on academisation. We can look at evidence such as the research that was done following the London Challenge strategy. Multiple factors contributed to the great gains that London made, but when we have tried to replicate them outside London, in genuinely the most deprived parts of this country, we have not seen the same gains. I have seen academy trust after academy trust take on a failing school, with the most vulnerable children in our country, and fail to make the improvements that it desperately deserves. That is why we need to think differently and bring forward new reforms to make a genuine difference in communities that do not have the other advantages that somewhere like London does. My experience of tackling educational disadvantage in the most disadvantaged communities is that, when we take a place-based approach, the reality of competition incentivises schools in some parts of an area to off-roll and not be inclusive, because if they want to seek an outstanding rating from Ofsted, the best way to do that is to get rid of the more difficult children. If they just implement the Michaela approach, children with autism and other more complex needs do not thrive in the same way within those structures and requirements. Parents therefore have to take them out of the school, either because they see their child’s mental health issues and choose to, or because the school forces them to do so. That has to change, which is why I welcome the reforms that the Government are bringing forward. The evidence shows that education is the primary determinant of where children fall on the income distribution relative to their parents. That is why I truly believe that education needs to be put back at the heart of our national life, as the Bill provides for, if we are to ensure that barriers to opportunity are broken down for all. The Bill takes a huge step towards that, and I am proud that children’s interests are being returned to the heart of Government policy. That is why I am proud to support the Bill.