Andrew Pelling

National Autistic Society 'Make Schools Make Sense' campaign

23 July 2007

Andrew Pelling supports the National Autistic Society's campaign

I think this is an excellent campaign, and the Society is to be congratulated for all its hard work. They recognise that all children, regardless of ability, or mental or physical disabilities, deserve and should demand the same high quality education as any child without such obvious handicaps might expect.

Every child has talents and potential. Education must be about realising that potential and offering each child the opportunity to expand their horizons and grow as individuals. It is crucial that there are adequate facilities and support from trained professionals to make sure that this is not the aspiration but the norm. There are excellent examples of special schools, specialist units and mainstream schools meeting the needs of children with SEN and their example should be followed.

To promote the example of the very best schools, I would like to see a national policy that clearly supports special schools and the particular problems of children with special educational needs.

David Cameron has set up a Special Needs Commission which will review the provision of special needs in the British education system, and more recently the Conservative Party pushed the Government to hold a debate on the issue of SEN provision.

I will certainly follow progress with great interest, and press the government to do more; indeed I have signed Early Day Motion 1359 to encourage the Government to take a long term strategic approach to improving education in a mainstream setting for those with autism.

EDM 1359 'AUTISM'

That this House notes that the Prime Minister met autism campaigner Ivan Corea, who presented a report on autism; backs the call of the Autism Awareness Campaign UK for the Government to undertake a 10 year programme of building specialist autism schools, building autism units in mainstream primary and secondary schools, tackling the failure of some secondary schools in bringing in educational strategies to deal with autistic children in a mainstream setting, providing access to further education and higher education, labour market opportunities for people with autism and tackling the whole question of bullying and autistic children; requests that the Government review the provision of recreational services for autistic children; and calls on the Government to launch a cohesive national strategy for autism.