Proposed
legislation to record special educational needs in schools has
received the backing of former education secretary David
Blunkett.
The proposal would
amend the 1996 Education Act to compel the collation and publishing
of statistics on special education needs support.
The private
members bill, put forward by Sharon Hodgson, Labour MP for
Gateshead East and Washington West, has had its first reading.
The bill has 12
sponsors including David Blunkett and Conservative MP John Bercow,
but does not yet have government support.
Hodgson said:
“With a solid understanding of the scale of SEN, we can better make
the case for the training of a qualified dyslexia specialist in
every school from existing staff, coupled with a requirement for
all new teachers to receive SEN training for at least one module of
the teacher training qualification.”
