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This Could Be Our Sure Start- Scarborough & Whitby MP On SEND Plans

This isn't a case of forcing children into school, it's about meeting children's needs- Alison Hume has high hopes for the government's new plans on special educational needs.

Alison Hume compared the plans to those implemented under Tony Blair's Labour government more than 20 years ago to help families in deprived areas:

" This is a big issue for the government and I think if we get this right and we start rebuilding our SEND system, this could be our version of Sure Start, because so many people who are desperate will be helped. And that just would be transformative because we've got to have better ambition for our children and not just our children with SEND, not just children who have an EHCP, that's only about 5% of children, but for other children who are being failed.

"The white working class, many of which I represent in Scarborough and Whitby, particularly boys, the schools white paper looks at ambition for all of our children."

Sure Start is a UK Government area-based initiative, announced in 1998 by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.

It introduced a network of children's centres and other services to support local families with children under 5, including health services, parenting support, early learning and childcare, and parental employment support.

Alison added:

 "The children I'm most worried about are the in-betweeners, the children who are too complex maybe for mainstream settings at the moment, but they're unable to meet the strict criteria for special schools. They find themselves following part-time timetables or they're not in school at all, and that is really upsetting for them and their families. And I think that children will really benefit from the money that we are putting into targeted mainstream provisions to allow children with additional needs to learn alongside their peers when they are able to do so. This isn't a case of forcing children into school, it's about meeting children's needs."

 

 

 

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