Following its second reading in the Commons, the Children and Families Bill has entered the committee stage.
This bill when enacted will have implications for children and adults with learning disabilities, and their families e.g. with its aspiration to introduce a single learning disabilty assessment to coordinate and improve the delivery of health care, social care and education; with its aim of improving the ‘transition processes’ in care and education provision (which are so often points of failure and confusion) with the introduction of ‘one system that goes from birth to 25’. Details of the bill may be found here
On 6th March, the committee heard evidence from three invited experts on Special Educational Needs (SEN): Jane McConnell, chief executive of the charity Independent Parental Special Education Advice; Brian Lamb, chair of the charity Achievement for All set up following the ‘Lamb Inquiry’ into SEN and parental confidence; and Julie Dockrell, professor of psychology and special needs at the Institute of Education.
The committee chair launched the session with the key question: ‘Do you think that the Bill will increase parental confidenc n the SEN system’? and concluded with a discussion of how, and how best, ‘education, health and care plans’ could be delivered. In between, the evidence heard covered a wide range of topics related to learning disability, not just SEN but also health and social care. The transcript of the session, although quite long and thus not easily summarised, is well worth reading.
A key early exchange was this, between a comittee member Sharon Hodgson MP and Jane McConnell:
‘Do you think that, in general, the Bill will do what parents have been led to expect it will?’
‘Put simply, no, not at the moment. The whole Bill was put to parents in the original Green Paper, “Support and aspiration”, as bringing radical reform to the system. We are introducing a new plan called an education, health and care plan into the system to take over from statements. Looking at the Bill and analysing it from a legal point of view, we still have at the moment an education plan. It is very similar to a statement. Yes, it is extending up to the age of 25… but at the moment it is still an education plan. I know that this morning the Minister talked about duties on health. When we get the details of that and we have looked at it, we may have an education and health plan, but I suspect that at the moment, if this Bill and this plan were put under the Trade Descriptions Act, for instance, the Government would be liable to a successful prosecution for calling it an education, health and care plan when it is not; it is an education plan at the moment. Our call to the Government is to be transparent about this. Is it a genuinely joined-up plan that goes across all three aspects of a child’s life, or is it still an education plan, very similar to the system that we have at the moment? I think that until we address that properly, you will always have issues with parents thinking that they are going to get one thing and something different being delivered under the Bill.’
Rescare will monitor the Bill’s progress…