Speeches by Paffey.

“Why should it remain if your task in the review is to look at the fundamentals? Are we flogging GCSE maths and English, or should we be looking at the broader point of literacy and numeracy and how you achieve those? Is now not the moment to say in the review, “There is a better and more effective way of doing this,” r…”

“It is really welcome that you are looking at it from primary because there is literally no other subject that we ask students to start aged 11 and then be assessed on aged 15, 16. I will just bring you back to the social justice point and the EBacc; there is a tension. In some cases, the EBacc is one of the sole driver…”

“It is the post-16, but obviously something is not working pre-16. This leads to a wider point: if enough children do not grasp, or are not motivated enough to grasp, why maths and English are crucial—do not get me wrong; I absolutely believe they are—is there not a wider point around what is in the curriculum? Is there…”

“Yes, apologies.”

“Staying on the theme of jobs and careers and then motivation to learn, it is pretty obvious that if there is a greater knowledge of the potential careers that are out there, and you foster an aspiration in young learners to do one or multiple of those jobs, then there will be a greater engagement with studies and their…”

“I want to ask a particular question about the broad and balanced curriculum which is designed to have children ready for the world around them. That world is not a monolingual world. I declare a bit of an interest: I was a linguistics researcher and teacher for 20 years. There is an increasing need for languages; we ha…”

“Without pre-empting what the final report will say, do you think that will result in changes to how it is taught or how it is assessed, or both?”

“There is evidence to suggest that the 30% of GCSE maths candidates who achieve below grade 4 are held back by misunderstandings of maths concepts that originate in primary schools. I visited a primary school last week and saw the work of the maths hubs. I saw some fantastic work there. Have you had discussions on how t…”

“Twenty five years ago this year, the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, joined my predecessor, John Denham, in opening one of the first Sure Start centres in the country, on the Weston estate. We remember the good that that did for families there, and we remember the effect of over a decade of slashing council budgets an…”

“One way of strengthening multi-agency working that has been suggested to this Committee by the charity Contact was to strengthen the Children and Families Act 2014 by making these joint legal duties between Health and Social Care and Education for delivering those EHC plans. In your view, would that be effective? What …”

“In that White Paper, do you accept that in some cases, responsibilities that should be Health’s, and therefore the cost of them, are falling to schools, colleges and local authorities? Do you accept that in the White Paper, that needs to be addressed by some change in the legislative levers?”

“Forgive me, just to press you on that, does that mean that essentially Treasury has spoken and you and MHCLG simply must solve this with what you have, or are there specific conversations going on that recognise that this is a crisis and that it is going to take cross-governmental and departmental strategy and rolling …”

“On that point, then, can you offer reassurance to this Committee that the conversations are happening between the DFE, the Treasury and MHCLG on a long-term sustainable funding solution for SEND? Is that work happening yet?”

“In that case, what would be in your discussions with MHCLG, especially as it has announced a consultation at the same time as the override has been renewed? Catherine McKinnell: The conversations are constantly ongoing with local authorities. I was looking at the list of local authorities and their most recent inspecti…”

“As someone who used to be the budget holder on council for SEND, I know that the extension of the statutory override will be welcomed by councils across the country. However, is this just kicking the can down the road or is there a set of concrete actions that the Government are going to be working with councils on to …”

“Minister, in your opening statement you talked about achieving inclusivity by building expertise, as you put it. Of course, we know that continuous professional development on SEND is still optional. There is lots of evidence out there to show that training is crucial for effective support to help children, so do you a…”

“The responsibility should not just lie with SENCOs. This is about building a culture of inclusion in all schools. Will you at least commit to considering making that mandatory and ensure that schools carry out regular audits, as has been suggested by a leading head teacher, on this issue to make sure that we are moving…”

“I speak as a signatory to the reasoned amendment tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier), because I recognised, as many across the House did, that there were serious problems with the original version of the Bill. Welfare reform, which we all believe in, has to be fair, c…”

“Most of the answer to that question is obviously a matter for the Minister, but I do not want to delay the uplift in universal credit, so I am willing to vote that through today. We understand the catastrophic financial mess that we inherited, but we have to underscore the fact that abstract OBR dogma means nothing to …”

“I am coming to a conclusion. Let us build a system that is sustainable, but that is, above all, just and fair.”