Last week, I visited Alderman Knight School in Tewkesbury to meet school leaders from across the county to discuss key issues surrounding SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) provision.
I was joined by fellow Gloucestershire MPs Alex McIntyre, Cameron Thomas, and Simon Opher. We were kindly hosted by Clare Steel, the school's headteacher, and the meeting was chaired by Roy Blatchford on behalf of the Gloucestershire Education Forum.
The discussion and questions covered a wide range of issues, including:
- The challenges of supporting SEND pupils in mainstream school settings
- Concerns that the Government’s School and Wellbeing Bill contains very little on SEND
- Teacher retention and the cumulative pressures on staff
- Widespread opposition to the proposal of supervised toothbrushing in schools
- The importance of early intervention in supporting young people
- Disparities in funding due to different funding formulas across the country
- The collaboration between mainstream and SEN schools in Gloucestershire
I was grateful for the open and honest feedback on these points and many others. As Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, I recently oversaw a report on SEND funding and provision, which I found particularly helpful in this discussion. You can read the report here: