Tyneside MP aims to improve special education

May 16 2008 By Graeme Whitfield

A backbench Bill to improve the ``well being" of children with special educational needs looked set to clear the Commons today.

The Special Educational Needs (Information) Bill is being piloted through Parliament by Labour’s Sharon Hodgson, who has a severely dyslexic son.

It requires ministers to collect more information than at present on the needs of SEN children with the aim of improving provision for them.

Mrs Hodgson (Gateshead E and Washington W) said at the Bill’s second reading that her son Joseph was not diagnosed as dyslexic until he was 10, after struggling at school for six years with low self-esteem.

The experience made her determined to try to help others in a similar situation.

The Bill, which has cross party support, has already gained a second reading and completed its committee stage.

Today, in report stage debate, Liberal Democrat spokeswoman Annette Brooke complained that local authorities were ``manifestly" failing to provide the information required of them under present law.

Surveys suggested only 5% of councils in England and Wales were complying with their legal duties, she said.

``We need tougher regulations to make clear that information must be provided to parents."