My Lords, I am speaking in place of the noble Lord, Lord Addington, who was at a meeting at the DfE. As he arrived late, he did not want to be accused of not being part of the debate. He was talking about dyslexia at that meeting. I would rather hear from him than me, but I will just say a few words.
First, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, for his very important amendment. I want to understand a bit more about the usage of language in respect of that. He gave some examples, but he did not give any real steer on the language we should use. Maybe that is
something we could have between now and Report. I am conscious that special educational needs will loom large over the next few months in any case.
I was at a meeting at lunchtime hearing from families of children in alternative provision. These are children and young people who have been permanently excluded from school. The fact that linked them all was that they all had special educational needs. Had those needs been identified at a very early stage and provision made, maybe the problem of exclusion from school would not be as great as it currently is.
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If we look right across the board in terms of disabilities and special needs, we see that it is almost a postcode lottery; it depends on where you are. Some local authorities are very proficient at responding quickly in providing to education, health and care plans. Often, it is those local authorities that are well resourced. With other local authorities, it is almost passing the buck. They are not resourced; the money is not there, so delay upon delay occurs. That should not be the way it operates. We know that these young people need the best possible support we can give.
It is concerning that in some of the key provision that is required—whether for the deaf, where there has been a 17% reduction in teachers of deaf children, or for visually impaired young people—there are huge shortages. There is a shortage of speech therapists. For young people who are visually impaired and might need some speech therapy support but who do not get an education, health and care plan for that, the resource is not available because it is supporting those young people who are on a plan. Right across the board, there is a huge shortage of support and that must be changed as soon as possible.
My noble friend Lady Brinton made many important points. My first ever amendment, which I was quite petrified of moving, was during the passage of the Children and Families Act. I moved the amendment that she referred to, which gave a duty of care to schools to ensure that children and young people had the medication they required in school. Prior to that, a school could refuse a child if they were carrying medicine that they needed. It just seemed plain daft that schools would not give the medication within the school. My noble friend says in her amendment—and I would like to understand it a little more—that there should be a doctor’s note as well. That makes sense, but I do not want to think that it would delay the learning and schooling of young people. These amendments are really important, and I look forward to the Minister’s reply.