HARLOW MP Chris Vince has welcomed his government’s SEND reforms.

Mr Vince said: “As an ex-teacher, I know how important Labour’s SEND reforms are for families in Harlow.

Whether you blame Covid, social media or the Tories, most people with experience of it will tell you that as it stands, the SEND system is broken. When I meet with parents of SEND children, they genuinely seem broken from battling to get their children support. Then if they do get the golden ticket, or EHCP as they are called, they find their ‘legal requirement’ to get the required support for their children isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

Meanwhile, I speak to ex teaching colleagues and educational professionals, who feel like they have to be the bad cop and inform parents that despite what they are told, the school can’t provide the support promised. All we want is for every child to have the best possible chance at succeeding in school and in life. ‘Every child matters’ – wasn’t that the phrase?

I know that reforming the SEND system has been high up on this government’s priorities but also that they were determined to get it right. I genuinely think they’re not far away from achieving that, with a system that is very similar to the one we had when I first started teaching twenty plus years ago. This system includes those who are most at need still receiving an EHCP with targeted support, alongside schools being properly funded so that even those without a formal diagnosis are still getting support. This has been a big issue for the parents I have spoken to in Harlow. As the minister for schools said last week- no child will get less support but many will get substantially more.

I am expecting the naysayers who will claim that we are taking away students’ legal requirement to get support, but as I have said, in reality that legal requirement wasn’t and couldn’t be met. You could take your local authority to a tribunal, but that wasn’t going to change anything, and in the meantime, children are spending years getting no support at all. Children only get one go at their time in school!

I have seen some great examples of schools who work really hard to support all students in their care, in particular those without SEND. What we need to do is give them the tools and the funding so that no child misses out.

“My task, both as your local MP and member of the education select committee, is to ensure we have systems that work for every young person.”