AN East Lancashire MP has raised his constituents’ concerns about provision for children with special needs with the county council’s schooling boss.
Pendle and Clitheroe’s Jonathan Hinder met Lancashire County Council’s director of education Paul Turner to discuss the issue.
The meeting to discuss the challenges surrounding special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) was initiated by Labour backbencher Mr Hinder following a significant number of concerns raised by local parents, schools and governors, with a very high number of cases brought to his attention in recent months.
He said: “I know how deeply emotive and important this issue is for so many of my constituents.
“The meeting was constructive and lengthy, and I hope it marks the beginning of further meaningful dialogue around improving SEND provision in our area.
“I look forward to working with Mr Turner and Lancashire County Council to tackle these pressing issues to improve outcomes for our children and families.”
Mr Turner said: “The meeting with Jonathan Hinder MP was very constructive.
“Nationally, there is a huge increase in the number of children who require SEND support and Education, Health and Care Plans (ECHPs).
“We are already working to address this through our SEND sufficiency strategy, which delivered more than 170 extra places in September through specialist units in mainstream schools and extensions to our maintained special schools.
“We have also invested over £2.5million this financial year into additional SEND staffing and have commissioned a digital solution to improve our processes in relation to Education, Health and Care plans.
“We will also continue our work with school leaders in Pendle, Clitheroe and across the whole of Lancashire, exploring ways to create more specialist provision, using the funding that has been supplied by the Department for Education to increase capacity.”