Political Opinion: Steve Yemm Column: Fixing the SEND system must be a national priority
One of the issues I’ve been most engaged with since becoming Mansfield’s MP is the support system for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The system left behind by the Conservatives has lost the trust of too many families. Even the last Tory Education Secretary described it as “lose, lose, lose”. The current Deputy Chief Whip said they should “hang their heads in shame”. I agree. But more importantly, I’m doing something about it.
Locally, I’ve been meeting with parents and carers through a SEND coffee morning, hearing their experiences and frustrations first-hand. I’ve visited schools across Mansfield, speaking directly with headteachers and SENCOs, and I’ve submitted a contribution to the Education Select Committee based on what families here have told me. Their voices need to be heard in shaping the future of the system.
Nationally, Labour has already begun making the changes that families have waited years for. We’ve restructured the Department for Education so SEND is not an afterthought. We’ve invested £1 billion for children with the most complex needs, and £740 million to create more specialist places in mainstream schools.
We’ve introduced new programmes in schools to support speech and language, improved access to music and sport, and put cutting-edge learning technology into the hands of children who need it. We’ve brought in independent experts to help guide these reforms and keep momentum going.
We’re also working to make the system more joined up and less confrontational. Too often, families feel like they’re in a fight just to access basic support. That’s not right, and we want to build a system where schools, families and professionals work together.
Let me be clear: the legal rights that protect children with SEND will stay. But the way we deliver support needs to be better. And it will be.
I’m also concerned by the dangerous language coming from Reform UK. Nigel Farage said diagnosing children with additional needs is “creating a class of victims”. Their party chair claimed children with SEND are just “naughty” and the result of “bad parenting”. That sort of rhetoric has no place in serious discussion and it will never be Labour’s approach.
Every child deserves to thrive. That’s what I believe, and that’s what I’ll keep fighting for.