Christmas Adjournment

I agree with the last point made by the hon. Member for Blaby (Mr. Robathan) and disagree with almost everything else he said, although I do not have time to go into it—[Interruption.] Happy Christmas. I have lived in Norwich in Norfolk for some time, and it is a delight. With its big skies, the Norfolk broads, its beaches, its wildlife, and of course its people, Norfolk is a magical place. It has unique cultural values, with a heritage that goes back to the Romans—people are always turning up Roman towns and coins—which gives us a richness and feel for history that I really appreciate. Last year we survived floods. We have one railway line between Norwich and London, and I hope the train will be on time tonight, although I doubt it. Last week the Evening News described the line as a ““fine mess””, with signal failures, trees falling on the line, and even greenhouses falling on the line—that takes a bit of believing. There have been suicides, strikes, landslides, the derailment of a train with nuclear waste—unique—and closed tunnels. I can add to that list, with overhead cables and foxes on the line. It is a really exciting Michael Palin whirligig on that trip. We hope that something will be done. The cows on the line are quite appetising: none of them has any kind of disease as far as I can see. I look forward to the continuing debate on the first academy in Norfolk—in Norwich, in my constituency, on the Heartsease estate. I quote again from the local paper—this time from a member of the public, who spoke of"““the public being duped at various stages by people who in spite of righteous clamouring have misinformed their way to a position where a character with no educational qualifications is about to take control of an improving school””." He goes on:"““this vile campaign has been orchestrated from being misinformed at all of the public meetings to seeing children at a Christian Youth Club being given a questionnaire and instructed how to fill them in. Seeing sponsors 'ship' in dozens of people without a connection to the high school to sway the adjudicator.””" That has not been refuted, as far as I can make out. A petition was raised on the estate. In the first trawl, over a couple of days, 400 people said that they were against the installation of the academy. There is no question about arguing the principle. They do not want the academy on this improving estate. I hope that Ministers will find time to meet me, and some of my constituents, in the not-too-distant future, before the decision is made. I want to talk about the consultation on the location of complex needs schools and special resource bases in mainstream schools. That, of course, is the arena of special educational needs. It is often implied that people do not like change and always protest. I guess that there is some truth in that, but in this case people do want change. They want more to be happening and are prepared to get involved, if consulted properly. Norfolk county council is not famous for its consultation exercises, as I mentioned in relation to the academy. People want a genuine consultation. I have various letters, all saying the same thing in their own way. A constituent of mine, talking about her granddaughter, says:"““She had spent three years at a mainstream school and it became quite obvious that in spite of the best efforts of teachers and support workers this was not the right placement for her. During this time she was unhappy, isolated from her peers, had ""severe behaviour problems and was showing little progress. She is now a confident happy child, behaviour problems greatly diminished, is learning literacy and numeracy skills and enjoying all the curriculum has to offer. She has a circle of friends that she can relate to and is able to enjoy out of school activities with. We have been very impressed with all Parkside has to offer and were expecting this to continue for the remainder of school life thus giving her the best possible chance of an independent adulthood.””" That is reflected in the views of many other people who have written to me. The school is in central Norwich. It does a good job and is hugely oversubscribed. We need more schools like Parkside in Norfolk. Some children have to travel one and a half hours to the school from parts of north Norfolk. Why do we not have some sense of adventure and some ideas from the county council about developing a school in the northern half of the county? It is said that children who are at the school already will probably stay there, but that will happen only if the school is not closed, following the amazing consultation denoted by the glossy document that I have in my hand. My constituent went on:"““I realise the consultation is in its early stages””—" in fact, it finished last week—"““but the questionnaires sent out for parents have been cleverly worded as usual. There is no room for comments and there appears to be no opportunity for a school such as Parkside to retain the status quo.””" Parkside is a unique school for children with mild to moderate difficulties. Changing its remit to complex needs will completely change the school. Reducing the numbers will result in a loss of teaching staff and an inability to follow the curriculum in the same way. Many Norfolk schools are merely satisfactory, or are described as inadequate. Parkside is not one of those. It has an excellent Ofsted report. I cannot see why the county council would even consider changing a school that has such a success story. The council lacks foresight and an understanding of the problems. There are various ideas in the document, and people are supposed to choose between them. Alternative options are presented, yet there is no mention of the Bercow or Ofsted reviews, which it is hoped will radicalise the whole field. Moreover, we have plenty of evidence that the teachers have not been involved in the process every step of the way. We have already heard about cynicism today, and in this story there is a final point to be cynical about. We find that long after consultation has taken place on the academy, it has suddenly been decided that autism is a new issue, and some autistic children could be placed in that academy. It turns out that the person working in the county council who has made that decision is greatly pro-academy. I think that he is running the whole campaign on children with special needs. Amazingly, we are told that Norfolk has few children in special school places. While the population of Norfolk has risen over the past 10 or 15 years, the number of special school places has not. We can talk about statistics, but the true figures have never been looked at. Despite Norfolk's increasing population—it will continue to grow, with increased housing and so on—the number of young people who will have autism, Asperger's and other special needs has never been determined. We will see new illnesses and diseases unfolding, so more children will need special care and attention in our schools. All those emotional and behavioural difficulties are being sidelined. Mainstream schools cannot cope with some of those problems, yet schools such as Parkside, which I have visited, are amazing. They have turned things round and given people a start in life that will, I hope, allow them to get jobs at the end of the day. I do not believe that Bedfordshire can possibly have as many as four times the number of children with special needs as Norfolk. If anyone wants to change anything, they should get the true figures before they start the consultation. The document shows that the same number of children will be catered for, albeit spread around the county. The consultation might show that there is some sense in taking some children out of the middle of Norwich and sticking them out in the west of the county. For example, it is important to cut down journey times and to have a good local school. However, we would not be dealing with the problems, which would be shovelled aside into people's houses. An amazing, and scandalous, number of carers in Norfolk look after not just the elderly, but young people who cannot get into the special schools. We must talk to head teachers, staff and parents before the consultation results come out. There is an impression that far too often, the view of Norfolk county council is that everything has been decided and—to heck with the consultation—it will happen. The exercise excludes many of the key issues. It puts good schools at risk and does not consider future needs. Norfolk's managerial system has a lot to learn from Alex Ferguson, who, for all his ways, is a great manager who gets things done successfully. Without vision, the people perish—and we are sitting on the edge of a volcano when that could happen to the many dozens of young people who require a specialist influence in their schooling at such a critical stage of their lives.