Speeches by Paffey.

“I rise to support this important Bill. I have been incredibly humbled by some of the speeches, particularly from the hon. Members for Dorking and Horley (Chris Coghlan) and for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire (Ian Sollom) on the Lib Dem Benches, from the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Dr Spencer) given his ex…”

“As a former cabinet member for children’s services, I have learned through experience that early intervention will always be far better value for money than reactive services, which are obviously very necessary but often come too late. We need both compassionate, up-to-date legislation and the resources to make it mean…”

“My hon. Friend makes an incredibly important point, and I fully agree that the wait facing many people is excruciating. I have had constituents come to me in tears because they do not know whether their children will make it to adulthood. The services are just not there, and they are subject to hugely long waits and of…”

“Why was the revised framework that you have both mentioned, which came in in 2023, necessary? What led to the revision of the framework?”

“Before Lucy comes in, to clarify, you are saying that 23% or one in four local authorities satisfactorily meet the needs of children in their SEND provision?”

“My questions are for the representatives from Ofsted and CQC. Can you say a bit about what your area SEND inspections tell us about the performance of local authorities in this area?”

“Taking as a whole all those measures, have those changes proven effective in improving the assessment process?”

“From here on, will you ensure that that definition is reconsidered to make sure it is robust and, importantly, that it is capable of being meaningfully measured in inspections? Do you have a plan for that?”

“If I have heard you right, it does strengthen some of the school accountability, but you have talked about a number of further measures.”

“Is it fair to say that any further improvements or changes to the framework will happen after you have started monitoring visits, or are you planning to make any tweaks or changes at this stage?”

“Can I come to Georgina and Sharon on this, to get your view on whether the new inspection framework reflects a comprehensive approach to SEND or whether it could be strengthened further?”

“I am interested in how Ofsted’s proposed inspection framework strengthens schools’ accountability for including pupils with SEND. You have set out a definition of what inclusion looks like, but there is concern of course. Some unimpeachable values are in there and some stuff that we all agree with, but will the traditi…”

“Adam, is there anything you wanted to add?”

“T8. Given the Prime Minister’s warning that the world has fundamentally changed and that we are in a dangerous new era, will the Secretary of State commit to protecting the British Council and its soft power role in strengthening global relationships, and does he agree that any cuts to its support would undermine decad…”

“I will skip to the next question because Jill brought it up. The EBacc has been mentioned. ASCL has called for the scrapping of the EBacc. I wonder what the panel’s view is on the advantages and the disadvantages of doing so. Maybe we will quickly start with Tom and then take any other comments from others within the t…”

“One comment that Jill Duffy made was that, as a country, we examine far more at the end of our compulsory schooling, but it is also true to say that we examine far more throughout our schooling with SATs, GCSEs and A-levels. We can compare that to other countries that are equally high in PISA tables, where some of them…”

“I have a quick supplementary on this to underpin. We have talked a lot about assessment, but there is the content as well in the curriculum. The interim report identifies a major problem with modern foreign languages teaching. I declare an interest: I am a former university lecturer of languages and I have my own views…”

“Is that disconnect between the aspirations that 17 and 18-year-olds have and the likely jobs that are available to them the same across all groups or do they differ by sex, ethnicity or socioeconomic status?”

“Do you know how much that research on the misaligned aspirations is feeding into how our careers advisers work? Obviously, our point here is on the curriculum and assessment review. I have long said if we tailored maths more towards, “Here is the maths you are going to need for running a small business, running your ow…”

“One comment that Jill Duffy made was that, as a country, we examine far more at the end of our compulsory schooling, but it is also true to say that we examine far more throughout our schooling with SATs, GCSEs and A-levels. We can compare that to other countries that are equally high in PISA tables, where some of them…”