Sir Keir Starmer promises to hold Local Authorities to account over SEND law

Sir Keir Starmer has told ITV Central that if he becomes Prime Minister next month, he would hold Local Authorities (LAs) to account for the service they provide for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities or SEND.

Our exclusive poll of SEND families last year found 1 in 3 in the Midlands were forced to shell out on lawyers to challenge LA decisions.

Sir Keir was with shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson on a visit to Nursery Hill Primary School in Nuneaton on Monday 10 June.

They were there to announce Labour's childcare provision proposals which include free breakfast clubs for every school and 3000 new nurseries which would be created in empty classrooms refurbished with the money made from taxing private schools.

After he and Ms Phillipson had sat in a craft lesson with children making pirates I asked if his party would promise to fund LAs properly and hold them to account if they did not follow SEND law.

In response, Sir Keir said: "I can make that promise because I know the frustrations parents have. Obviously today we're rolling out our plan for nurseries, 3000 new nurseries, 100,000 places and based in schools and that is so well received by parents.

"One of the parents (I spoke to today) said how good it would be and she in fact has an older child with SEND and so to have it all in one place is of huge benefit to her.

"On the question of Local Authorities we do need to work with them to improve provision, that means changing the way the budgets are allocated to them and of course holding them to account."

Mother-of-four Steph Carter from Nuneaton who has an eight-month-old and a nine-year-old with autism, who has not attended school in three months due to lack of specialist provision, welcomed what she heard from Sir Keir and Ms Phillipson but said she would like more focus on SEND which is a big issue for so many parents.

"It all sounds good in theory doesn't it? I mean they're addressing some of the issues that we've obviously got. I'm not sure that they've thought enough about the SEND side of things. They didn't say anything in their statement until you asked the questions and the LAs are not meeting targets with getting Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and so on and I think it should be a big priority."

The Conservatives launched plans to reform support for children with SEND last year to improve what it called a 'postcode lottery' system.

Plans for early diagnoses were included as well as a commitment to build 33 more special schools.

There also pledged to digitise and speed up paperwork to get support to children more quickly.

The Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has in this election campaign pledged to be the voice of carers and has opened up about his own experience with his severely disabled son

He has promised to give LAs extra funding to provide for SEND and establish a new national body to oversee SEND provision.