Hodgson, Blunkett and Bercow back SEN support bill

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.”