Tories challenge Labour on special schools
Shadow Education Secretary David Cameron will today challenge Labour to deliver on its promise of an audit of special schools provision.
The Conservatives are calling for an end to the closure of SEN schools, arguing that the policy of integrating children with special needs into mainstream education is flawed.
Labour’s education mini-manifesto promised a “national audit of special school provision to give better comparative information to local authorities, headteachers and school governors as they plan future special needs provision to meet their local needs”.
But the Conservatives say that have since heard nothing about this audit, or what its provision will be.
Mr Cameron is set to use a speech in Tewkesbury to challenge Education Secretary Ruth Kelly to take firm action.
He is expected to say: “Given the continued closure of special schools, we challenge the Government to act rapidly and deliver on their promise.
“These children are some of the most vulnerable in our country and they should be at the top of the Government’s priorities.”
The Conservatives want a moratorium on the closures of SEN schools until an audit is completed, an inquiry into the role of local education authorities in special school closures, a review of the principal of inclusion and proactive research into what the parents of special needs children think of current provision.
They claim that since Labour came in power 90 specialist schools have been closed.
However, the Government is likely to deflect such criticism by pointing to the fact that it has recently given 12 special schools specialist status, providing them with extra money and securing their future.
Labour has also previously insisted that it is for LEAs, in conjunction with parents’ wishes, to determine special needs provision.
