Ministers lay out plans to reduce gap between poorest and most affluent pupils - UK politics live

The government plans to halve the attainment gap in EnglandBridget Phillipson is asked about the government’s school reforms, namely around those concerning children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) in England.Trevor Phillips points out to her that there are 1.7 million children with special educational needs, nearly 500,000 of whom are school pupils. He says the proportion of children with education, health and care (EHCP) plans – which identify a child’s needs and set out the support they should receive – has been increasing. He asks why this may be and Phillipson replies:Part of what we’ve seen is that support for children with Send has been treated almost as an entirely separate issue, rather than it being integral to our school system. Lots of children at some point during their school lives will experience some form of challenge, will need extra support.But the system that we have at the moment… is one that has made it the case that in order to get the support that children need, parents have to fight really hard to get that education, health and care plan. I’ve heard from so many parents just how difficult, how devastating that has been. It can take years. It’s really adversarial.Yes. We will make sure that children get support much, much more quickly than is the case right now. And the commitment that I give to parents is that when they see all of the documents published tomorrow what they will see is a government that is focused on delivering better outcomes for their children. I am fiercely ambitious for every child in our country. Continue reading...