Graham Stuart MP
Chair of the Education Select Committee

 2^nd October 2012 

Dear Graham,

I am writing with regard to your Committee’s ongoing pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Children and Families Bill to ask that your recommendations ensure the Bill creates the best possible system of support for all disabled children and their families.

I have received many letters from constituents who are concerned about two aspects of the draft Bill.

Firstly, there is a serious concern that disabled children will only benefit from the changes being brought in if they have a special educational need.

Disabled children who do not have special educational needs will not be included in the new system. According to the Department for Education, a quarter of children identified as disabled under the Disability Discrimination Act do not also have an identified special educational need. 

A system that improves and simplifies access to education, health and social care for disabled children is to be welcomed, but not if it means that that disabled children who don’t have special educational needs will be excluded from the benefits of integrated health and social care services.

I would also urge your Committee to make recommendations to ensure that the new arrangements being brought in under the Bill do not create a create a ‘perverse incentive’ for local authorities to provide lower quality information to families with disabled children who don’t have special educational needs, by keeping them outside the proposed ‘local offer’.

At this stage, this could be addressed within the Bill by the addition of ‘and disabled children’ whenever it states ‘children with special educational needs’, and I hope that this will be a central recommendation of your Committee’s pre-legislative scrutiny.

My constituents are supporters of the Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM) campaign and I am sure they would be pleased to hear whether you are working closely with the EDCM consortium of leading charities - Contact a Family, the Council for Disabled Children, Mencap and the Special Educational Consortium - who represent over 770,000 disabled children and young people in the UK, and that you will be giving their proposed amendments to the Bill the utmost consideration.

Secondly, I hope that your Committee will also give full consideration to proposals from Scope for the inclusion of a ‘Provide Local Principle’ designed to ensure that high quality support for disabled children and their families is available locally, by placing a duty on  local agencies to ensure inclusive and accessible services that meet the needs of local families.

I am copying this letter to Edward Timpson MP to ensure that he is also aware of the importance of these two crucial changes to the Bill and the strength of feeling of my constituents.

Thank you in advance for the full consideration that I am sure your Committee will be giving to these matters, and I very much look forward to the publication of your report

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas MP, Brighton Pavilion