Speeches by McKinnell.

“I recognise what you set out and the challenge. To be clear, and I know I have probably responded to this both at in-person meetings and in the Chamber, we did keep the national funding formula as it is 2025-26 because changing the national funding formula needs to be done very carefully and needs a significant amount …”

“This is all part of the broader picture of the system that we want to create and we will set it out in the White Paper. I appreciate the challenge in that under the current system many schools are facing significant challenges in meeting the needs of children and clearly local authorities are, too. That is why we recog…”

“I will certainly look at that.”

“I am not entirely sure what the relationship is to the current discussion.”

“That is a good point, and when we produce the White Paper there will be a period of consultation that will follow that. At the moment, we are engaging extensively to produce that but clearly, as you rightly identify, consultation is key to not only getting it right, which is our No. 1 priority, but also to rebuilding t…”

“I am more than happy to take that away.”

“What I was going to say was that a core part of its inspection framework will be inclusivity and the provision of inclusive mainstream education within the school system. Therefore, schools will want to make sure that they have the best training and the best support available for their workforce to deliver on that, to …”

“It is now part of the initial teacher training and early career framework that I have mentioned. All new teachers coming into the system will have SEND training as part of their journey, part of their rite of passage through to teaching. It is mandatory for SENCOs. We are also very keen that school leaders take up the …”

“No, but it is part of the jigsaw that we are putting together on creating an inclusive mainstream school life that both the children and young people and the teachers feel they belong to, want to belong to and can get good outcomes from.”

“We recognise that support staff play such a crucial role in schools, and teaching assistants in particular often work very closely with children with special educational needs and disabilities. It is very important that the balance is right in that respect, that we get the balance right between the time children may sp…”

“Clearly, engagement is important for us, not only because we want to hear about current experiences, but because we want to make sure that any changes that we make build that confidence of parents, of families, of stakeholders. That is a real priority for us. I must be clear that since I took on this role I have spent …”

“Yes. We are not interested in—I have said it very clearly; I do not know how much more clearly I can say it—removing any support that is currently available for children that they are getting and that is helping them with their education. What we are looking to do is to expand the system so that that best practice can …”

“Yes, we want to change that. We do not want it to be the case that parents are left fighting for their child’s education or that children are left without the education support that they should have within a system. It should not be that that must be fought for. It should be available as part of the system. If you look…”

“There are inspection systems in place. I understand we are coming to accountability, but there are processes in place for holding schools to account through the Ofsted inspection system. There are processes for holding local authorities to account through the CQC Ofsted inspections as to how the support for children wi…”

“We are very clear that we will protect existing provision that is working for children and young people, but we want to change the system to make it work for all children and young people. That is what we are very focused on delivering.”

“We know that effective early identification and intervention is critical to improving the outcomes for children, and that is what we are focused on delivering, moving away from a system that is reliant on labels, plans and diagnoses before the support that is clearly needed materialises. That means a system that can ac…”

“Sorry, do you mind just asking the question again?”

“We are very keen to change the system so that it works for children and young people.”

“We are not looking to change the existing provision that is working for children, but obviously the system—”

“We have been very clear that we are not going to remove effective current provision that is working for children and young people.”