Robert Buckland Weblog

The fact that Ruth Kelly had to make a statement about her child’s educational needs tells us more about the sad state of the Labour Party and its ideological hang-ups than it does about anything else. It is an ill wind that blows no-one any good, so I was glad to hear the BBC use this story as a chance to remind people of the fact that there are 1.5 million children in England with some form of Special Educational Need, and that the Education Select Committee Report of last Summer was highly critical of Government inertia and lack of leadership in this area.
Like tens of thousands of other parents of children with SEN, she and her husband have taken the right decision to ensure that he gets the best possible start in life. I am sure that she was torn by a decision that means he will be educated separately from his siblings for a while. I have had exactly the same experience, but at the end of the day, you have to do what is best for your child.

The only comment that I have to pass about this particular case was that Ms Kelly used the words “acting on professional advice – which the education authority accepts…”. Does this mean that the advice tendered came from a LEA educational psychologist or was it as a result of a report that she commissioned privately? It has been the sad experience of too many parents that they have had to resort to pay for private consultations and reports before the LEA would act. In some cases, even this has not helped them.

I applaud Ruth Kelly for her choice, and see that in deciding to cover the costs of the special provision herself, she may well be helping the LEA cover the costs of another family who cannot afford private provision. Tower Hamlets LEA have not indicated whether they would have in fact covered the costs here, which again begs the question: what about those families who cannot afford to pay?

Rather than using this case as some sort of crude political football, it would be better for all of us to remember that there are too many children out there who are not getting either an appropriate assessment of their needs or appropriate educational help, and that more improvements to SEN provision are needed.

Please log on to the Swindon Special Educational Needs Network on the link to the side of this article to see the work that we are trying to do to bring parents and professionals together to share information about SEN in and around Swindon