THE SEND system we inherited from the Tories after the last 14 years has got to a stage where it is so broken that it has completely lost the trust of children, parents, schools and local authorities.

When I was a teaching assistant at Falmouth School I saw the need for a strong SEND system firsthand, for both pupils and parents. That experience is one of the reasons why I am now one of the vice chairs of the f40 organisation which looks at provision across the country for schools and SEND. In Cornwall, our share of school and SEND funding is comparatively low and the funding formula across the country needs reconsidering.

One of the issues raised time and again when I was knocking on doors before the election was how many parents were utterly worn down by the failure of the systems meant to support their children. SEND is also one of the most common reasons for people contacting me asking for help since the election. For good reason: only 22 per cent of children with SEND are currently reaching the levels they need in Maths and English to access further study.

I know many parents have questions about education health and care plans. The Education Secretary has given her reassurance that there will always be legal rights to support for children with SEND, and the SEND tribunal will remain as a backstop for all families. But, we want to hear from children and families on the best way to secure those rights because our current bureaucratic system, where parents feel they have to fight every step, and children often have to wait months if not years for support, doesn’t work.

The new government has restructured the Department for Education to put SEND at its centre and put in vital investment - £1-billion for support of the children with the most severe learning needs, £740-million to create more specialist places in mainstream schools—and over £8-million of that £740-million has come to Cornwall. We’ve rolled out and piloted programmes to make schools more inclusive, to improve speech and language support, to give children with SEND better access to music and sport and tech. There are numerous schools in Cornwall, five within Truro and Falmouth, that participated in the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools programme last year. We want to build a system shaped by the good practice that is happening already.

Last week, I held a roundtable with parents, carers and campaigners with experience dealing with the SEND system. And next month I'm holding another roundtable with professionals. After this second roundtable I will write to the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, to feed these views directly into the Department’s work ahead of the new White Paper that will follow in the autumn.

We won’t make false promises. It’s clear there is no magic wand or quick fix. But a better way of supporting children with SEND must be possible under Labour. Children in Cornwall deserve the best, so we must build a system where every child can achieve and thrive.