Thank you Mr Speaker.

I am delighted to be able to talk today about Education and Health in response to the Gracious Speech.

I spoke in this same debate last year, and much has happened since then.

Not only am I now a member of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee, I am also Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Public Health Minister – so today I will not be able to talk in detail about health matters.

Tradition dictates this role would prevent me from expressing my strong support for steps to remove point of sale displays for tobacco products.

It would also prevent me from welcoming steps to help cut the cost of having cancer: through making prescriptions free for cancer patients, and it would most certainly mean that I was not in a position to say how welcome it is that the Department of Health is showing a clear commitment to the health of our children by putting forward joint funding for pilots of extended and universal Free School Meals.

But I always said I came here to break the mould!

However, issues of health are very pertinent to my constituency.

I am enjoying my new role but I wanted to make it clear that I am acutely aware of the priorities for healthcare on my patch and that although my public voice on such matters may be diminished my commitment and campaigning to reduce the health inequalities my constituents face will continue unabated.

So, my focus today will be on education. Last year I called for pilots into universal Free School Meals, and in September they were announced. I also called for better provision for children with Dyslexia and I am pleased to say we are well on the way to securing that too.

It was an honour to play my own part in highlighting the need to improve provision not just for children with dyslexia but for all children with Special Educational Needs. It was a privileged opportunity to successfully steer my Private Members Bill on Special Educational Needs Information through this House and I am grateful for the help and support I received from members on all sides of this House. The Bill or Act as it is now should lead to improved information on the types of needs these children have and it is my fervent hope that this improved information will raise outcomes in years to come. I can’t let the chance go by without reminding Ministers of the need to spell out how the new powers in this Act will be implemented.

In spending so much time talking to charities and stakeholders with an interest in SEN a number of issues came to the fore which I still believe need attention and I hope that perhaps the Education and Skills Bill can be a vehicle for addressing some of those problems that still exist.

Last year I focused on two issues in depth and have achieved some success so this year I will cover more matters in less detail and I hope for similar outcomes!

Recent answers to Written Parliamentary Questions have said that the Government is considering the specific remit of OFSTED’s report into Special Educational Needs in our schools.

The sooner we know what that remit will be the better.

It is good to see that just today an interim report has been published by Brian Lamb as part of his ongoing review of parental confidence in the statementing process. As a parent of a child with a statement of SEN I know all too well the feelings of ‘fighting’ or ‘battling’ the system which this interim report recognises. Better information for parents, better outcomes for children and a place in mainstream policy for SEN and disability issues are all vital and I personally know for a fact that this report is falling on open ears as far as the Secretary of State is concerned.

There is consensus amongst the charitable sector that we need to define type of need more clearly when we record Special Educational Need. So let us hope that the OFSTED report will examine in detail whether the current categories of recording need are sufficient.

There is consensus too that parents deserve better information about SEN provision. So let us hope that OFSTED will consider the need to empower parents to make well informed decisions.

We also know that there are similarities in the difficulties faced by Children with medical conditions, such as epilepsy or diabetes, in our schools and it may be a smart move to ask inspectors to look at how a joined up approach to delivering support to those whose unique physical or mental abilities create barriers to learning.

I realise I am digressing somewhat from the substance of the proposed Education Bill and I wish to return more tightly to it, although keeping a focus on issues of Special Educational Needs.

It is extremely welcome to see that the Bill will provide teachers with the right to request time for training. Not only does this reflect the Government’s wider focus on up-skilling our workforce it also allows scope for teachers to develop specialist skills in support of those with SEN.

Last year the Government announced £18 million pound funding for a masters qualification in teaching and learning. It is imperative if the Government is to match its words with action, that those qualifications are required to contain work on supporting pupils with dyslexia and other Special Educational Needs. This is something that I know Dyslexia Action are keen to secure and they have my full support in doing so.

We must also look at measures to improve the skills of our children’s workforce without requiring huge time commitments from teachers over and above their already heavy workload.

When the Government publishes the Children’s Workforce Strategy I hope they will have considered the possibility of using rights for teachers to request training to deliver further training on SEN.

I am considering a campaign calling for one in five of our INSET days to be given over to our SEN children, who make up one in five of our school population but I understand there are potential barriers to making this a reality.

Although 1 in 5 for 1 in 5 – catchy campaign name I think!

But why not give teachers the right to undertake training in different SEN when they are required every day to teach pupils with such needs?

In the case of deaf children there are a number of things which a teacher could learn in a matter of hours which will benefit a child for a lifetime. Awareness of acoustics and the aural environment can make an immediate difference. I will continue to work with the National Deaf Children’s Society on this idea, which I hope that as well as benefiting deaf children can be adapted in order to help a whole range of children with Special Educational Needs.

The ultimate aim, however, is one which is shared by all of us, and that is to lift the level of support received by pupils in schools.

I note from the information published on the Department’s website that the Bill will look at changes to learning in juvenile detention centres and prisons. It is an established fact that the prevalence of Special Educational Needs amongst the prison population is far higher than the average in wider society. I hope that any eventual changes will look at the specific difficulties which those in prison face with learning and apply the necessary level of attention to ensuring that any attempts at solving the stagnant educational development of our young prison population will ensure that these unique challenges are addressed.

In addition there will be measures to review school transport for those in Post 16 Education and I know that there is already a feeling that a wider review of school transport is needed across all age ranges to plug holes in budgets through which money can often leak, i.e. through use of taxis for example.

The recent outrage felt by the public at the case of Baby P, was shared by all members of this House. It is a cliché to say that ‘lessons must be learned’ following such events, but I do want to make a couple of points.

It has already been noted that we cannot allow such cases to lead to the tarring of all childcare workers with the same brush but at the same time we cannot miss the opportunity to lift the level of professionalism amongst childcare services.

Whatever the whys and wherefores of today’s UNCIEF report, it is clear that we are lagging behind much of Europe and this cannot be allowed to continue.

The report notes that provision here is hampered by a lack of well trained staff.

I mentioned recently in this house the way in which the Danish system utilises pedagogues as professionally trained workers who form an extra layer in the protection and development of vulnerable children. It is so often the case that those of us with a progressive viewpoint in this house hold up the Scandinavian system as an example in the hope that it can be mirrored here. I was pleased when the Secretary of State said that there are already plans to look at trials of such workers because I think these trials could reveal very interesting results.

However, there need not be a presumption that we must put more children into care but for those children who are in the care system, we should strive to ensure that the level of care they receive is world class.

Another Bill in the Gracious Speech which will put us on a stronger footing for the future is the Welfare Reform Bill. The proposals caused a bulge in my postbag when they were first announced. Some constituents were worried their benefits would be withdrawn. The majority though were happy at the prospect of ending a “something for nothing” culture.

We all know the value of work. It isn’t just about bringing home a wage. It offers much more. It is important for children to grow up with work as the norm. It is important for adults to feel as though they are contributing to the community around them and it is important for the country to make the most of all of its talents.

This might sound idealistic, but it is the future we need to aspire to. More now in times of difficulty, than ever before.

We need to get parents into work to set an example to their children. We need to support those parents in equipping their children to take on a job. A job that comes with rights. Rights to a decent living wage, rights to equal pay and conditions, rights to flexible working, rights to gain further skills, and above all, the most important right, which will now be enshrined in law and that is the right not to live in poverty anymore!

Now, I definitely didn’t come into this house to quote literature but there is much talk of the Hard Times which we are now facing. This was also a title of a book by Charles Dickens which marked him out as an early supporter of the rights of the working class – something which I certainly did come here to do.

Dickens used this book, to call on people to ‘strike the heaviest blow in their power’.

With the measures set out in the Gracious Speech it would seem the Government is striking its own blow. Some have said that it only contains a small number of Bills, but this doesn’t concern me or my constituents as long as it has a big impact.

I hope that it will, especially for those children with Special Educational Needs; as well as for those living in poverty – then, this year’s legislative programme, will not only be about impact, but also about legacy, and I very much welcome the measures within it.