4.35 pm
I beg to move,
That the House has considered the matter of the Bercow review of services for children and young people (0-19) with speech, language and communication needs.
On behalf of the Government, and in particular on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department of Health, I warmly welcome the important report by the hon. Member for Buckingham (John Bercow) and its recommendations for further action. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families said in his written ministerial statement, under the hon. Gentleman’s exemplary leadership, the Bercow report has set
“a benchmark for future reviews”—[Official Report, 8 July 2008; Vol. 478, c. 71WS.]
My Department and the Department of Health want to thank the hon. Gentleman and his team of expert advisers for their hard work over the past 10 months. They have been meticulous in collecting and analysing the evidence, and they have been very effective in involving interested parties in their work. They visited every part of the country, from Norwich to Newcastle and from Westminster to Wigan, and collected evidence from front-line practitioners on the challenges that they face and how those challenges might be overcome. Above all, they have successfully drawn on the experiences of children, young people and families, providing a range of opportunities for them to contribute to the review. For example, the online consultation generated about three times the number of responses that are usually received in similar reviews.
As we all know, the hon. Gentleman has a deep and passionate commitment to this issue. His determination to transform the lives of children and young people with speech, language and communication needs has made the report the success that it clearly is. I think we picked the right man for the job, but I want to make it clear—I know that the hon. Gentleman would agree with this—that the Government did not commission the review because we thought he was a top bloke and an all-round good egg; we commissioned the review because it fits in with the ambitious task that we set ourselves in the children’s plan: to make this the best country in the world for children to grow up in.
In many ways, the review encapsulates many of the principles that are at the heart of the Every Child Matters agenda, the children’s plan, and all that our Department, in conjunction with the Department of Health and the whole Government, is trying to achieve. The review envisages a service that is universal, but that adapts to the needs and circumstances of individual children and their families. It stresses the need for early intervention, supported by joined-up working by all the professionals and agencies involved.
Does the Minister appreciate the needs of such people as Sarah Wates in my constituency, who came to my surgery on Friday? She takes a close interest in the issue because her son, Alex, has speech difficulties. He was meant to be assessed at the age of two, but he was not assessed until six months later, and they have been trying to catch up ever since. The report by my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (John Bercow) stresses the importance of early intervention, as the Minister has done. Will the Minister say how constituents such as Sarah Wates will be helped in future, and how we will ensure early intervention, which is so important?
Such people will be helped principally by the implementation of the review’s recommendations. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right: clearly, there must be an emphasis on early intervention. If there has been a historical fault with these services, it has been that intervention has not been early enough. In his report, the hon. Member for Buckingham has rightly stressed the importance of early intervention—the need for us to commission services that achieve it across different Departments and for us to work together towards the vision and make sure that services are aiming to intervene early, rather than too late.
This is about trying to support the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of our society and helping children to make the most of their potential. To that end, I visited a school last week with the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, who has joined us today. We met a young man who had had communication difficulties when he first went to secondary school. That manifested itself in bad behaviour, poor achievement and his getting into trouble at school. However, as a result of the measures taken by his school, the young man was able to turn his life around. He described to me and the Secretary of State the feelings that he had when he was frustrated by his inability to communicate and how that had meant that he was getting into trouble with his peers and teachers. He told us how he had turned his life around, a fact that was confirmed during our conversations with his teachers and parents. It is absolutely clear that early intervention is the key to dealing with these issues.
I have been given a delightful choice. [Interruption.] I shall take the intervention of the hon. Member for Ashford (Damian Green), as he has been bold enough to remain on his feet.
On early intervention, one of the most important recommendations made by my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (John Bercow) was in respect of the need for local and regional centres. May I draw the Minister’s attention to the charity Find a Voice—which is based in my constituency and of which, irrelevantly, I happen to be president—as a possible model? It has achieved tremendous results in directly helping children and adults to communicate better. It has also helped teachers and therapists throughout Kent and Medway with its resource library of communications aids. Obviously, the Minister is welcome to visit, but he should certainly investigate Find a Voice as a model for the future which could be replicated in other areas. It would make a significant practical difference to the lives of many people.
As the review shows, the hon. Member for Buckingham saw all sorts of different approaches taken around the country; they are often imaginative and involve charities such as the one in the constituency of the hon. Member for Ashford. Clearly, they have a big part to play as we commission these kinds of services.
Will the Minister examine some of the early interventions and experiences of other countries, particularly those of Scandinavia and Israel? Early interventions there have proved very successful and can help greatly in subsequent years.
The hon. Gentleman is right; we need to learn from abroad. The hon. Member for Buckingham visited Denmark while undertaking his review for exactly that reason: to find out the sorts of lessons that we can learn from abroad.
We have already committed to taking action in each of the areas highlighted by the hon. Gentleman in his report. We are building on the record of investment and improvements to the work force and the targeted programmes of support already in place for those with communication needs. In the past seven years, local authorities’ planned expenditure on special educational needs has risen from £2.8 billion to £4.9 billion last year. Since 1997, the number of speech and language therapists has risen by more than a third. Our new inclusion development programme is now ensuring that more new teachers and early-years professionals have had training in speech, language and communication needs.
Will the Minister give way?
In the interests of fairness to all the parties represented in the House, I shall give way to the hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink).
Does the Minister intend to take action on the plight of young people with hearing loss, who are suffering from a recent massive increase in the cost of lip-reading classes imposed by uncaring county councils, such as Essex county council, which are not spending their money appropriately?
The role of central Government is to set the standards and framework, and it is for local government to deliver on that. That should be inspected against any action to be taken as and when necessary. I note the point that the hon. Gentleman has made.
The Minister talks about the plans to invest more in speech and language therapy. The Government are spending some £63 million on education in young offender institutions. Research by Professor Karen Bryan and others indicates that perhaps two thirds of inmates of such institutions cannot access those programmes because of their learning difficulties and language skills. Can the Minister clarify how many full-time speech and language therapists are operating in those institutions, and what plans the Government have to increase that number?
I cannot give the hon. Gentleman that information at this point, but I will be pleased to write to him in order to do so. It is vital that we ensure that young offenders have an opportunity to deal with such issues while they are in custody, and that formed part of the discussion in the report. The Government have indicated that we accept that there is a need for action in all areas covered in the report, and that an implementation plan will be published in the autumn.
On investment in the education of children through local authorities, is the Minister aware of the fantastic work done at Fairley House school, behind the Tate, where there is a blend of pupils: those from the private sector and—a significant proportion—those who are funded by Westminster city council? However, certainly up to four years ago, the annual fees for that day school were about £18,000, which is a considerable amount of money. What can be done to bring the rest of state sector up to the standards that Fairley House provides for its pupils to deal with their learning difficulties?
We have to approach special educational needs, particularly these sorts of difficulties, from the point of view of the individual child in trying to ensure that we are able to provide the best possible support for them. In the instance that the hon. Gentleman indicates, Westminster city council will have taken a decision that that is the most appropriate provision for such a child at a local level. The more that we can do to implement the recommendations in the report, the more we will raise the standards of what is available at a local level, as well as ensuring that there is more comparability between what is available in local areas, which was a key point in the report.
Will my hon. Friend give way?
I will, as I have not given way to a Labour Member, and then I will make some progress.
I join my hon. Friend in welcoming the report by the hon. Member for Buckingham (John Bercow). Carden school in my constituency was one of those that he visited, and he has acknowledged the excellent work done there. The Minister has emphasised the work being done and support being given in our schools. Does he agree that children’s centres have a unique role to play in bringing together the education service, primary care trusts and other services in one location to work on early intervention with children and their parents?
Yes, I agree with my hon. Friend. Like schools, children’s centres have an important part to play in the whole programme and approach as regards early intervention and the co-location of services. The 21st century school, working closely with children’s centres and so on, will be a place where services are co-located and where early intervention is a natural part of its work.
I will now try to make further progress, as the purpose of these debates is to give Back Benchers an opportunity to participate. [Interruption.] I am sure I would be criticised by the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) if I did not give way, so I will not apologise to him.
On 9 July, my right hon. Friend the Minister for Children, Young People and Families launched “Every Child a Talker”, a new £40 million programme that will be rolled out to early-years professionals across the country over the next three years. Characteristically, the hon. Member for Buckingham has not pulled any punches in his report. He made 40 recommendations for further improvements to services for children with communication difficulties, and, given the admonitions from those on the Opposition Front Bench, the House will be relieved to know that I do not intend to go through all 40 during the course of this short speech. I can confirm, however, that we agree on the need for action in each of the areas that he has addressed. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Children, Young People and Families has announced that the Government will invest up to £12 million for this purpose. Later this year, we will produce a detailed action plan, setting out how we will implement each recommendation, the relevant time scales and the way we will allocate our investment.
For now, I shall just comment on each of the five main themes of the report. First, we agree fully with the hon. Member for Buckingham that communication is critical for all children and young people, and I can confirm that we will create a ministerial-level communication council. We will appoint a communication champion, who will oversee a national year of speech, language and communication, and we will ensure that good quality information, advice and support are available to parents. Secondly, we agree that early identification of needs and early intervention are vital, and we will introduce measures to improve the monitoring of children across the age range.
Thirdly, we agree that speech and language services should form a continuum around the family. As the report recommends, my Department and the Department of Health will work together to develop a joint commissioning framework for universal targeted and specialist services, and we will do that through pathfinders in a number of local areas throughout the country. Fourthly, we agree with the call for joint working between agencies at all levels, from strategic managers to front-line professionals. As the report says, children’s trusts have an important role to play, and we agree that each trust should consider appointing a senior lead on speech, language and communication issues. Fifthly, we agree that there must be greater consistency in the services provided for children, young people and families with communication needs in different areas of the country. We will, therefore, use our commissioning guidance to promote better monitoring of performance. In particular, we will encourage better use of the data on the educational attainment of children and young people with speech, language and communication needs.
Once again, I thank the hon. Member for Buckingham for his excellent work on these important issues. His review challenges us to support local areas and front-line professionals in transforming the lives and prospects of children and young people with speech, language and communication needs, and we will do our utmost to meet the challenge that he has set for us.
Royal assent
I have to notify the House, in accordance with the Royal Assent Act 1967, that the Queen has signified her Royal Assent to the following Acts:
Appropriation (No. 2) Act 2008
Finance Act 2008
Sale of Student Loans Act 2008
Special Educational Needs (Information) Act 2008
Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2008
Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008
Health and Social Care Act 2008
Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Act 2008
National Insurance Contributions Act 2008
London Local Authorities and Transport for London Act 2008