Children and Families Bill

My Lords, I very much support the amendment in the name of my noble friend Lord Lexden. I recently spent a day at Gretton School in Cambridge: an independent school entirely for children across the whole range of autism. Some of the most severely autistic young people are in classes of four and five. At the end of my visit, I took my hat off to the patience and skill of the school’s teachers. As I said, it is an independent school; it also offers boarding. It takes children from a wide range of local authorities from the eastern and East Anglia regions. Most of them come with statements from their local authorities and are supported by them, but many parents have to pay additional fees for boarding. Gretton School and others such as those my noble friend described have an important part to play in the range of offerings for disabled children. It is important that they are named in the Bill, as otherwise local authorities may simply assume that they cannot be included in EHC statements. I very much hope that the Minister will look sympathetically at these arguments.