I do not need to tell the Minister of State the upset this has caused. He will have heard it from his constituents, as well as Members of this House. I want to address the circular. It is deeply disrespectful the role SNAs play. It does not properly define the spectrum of issues they have to deal with. It does not address the various issues that prevent children in our schools from achieving their best possible outcomes and does not outline the basis on which every one of them should be addressed, rather than narrowing it down to a small number of criteria. I have a real concern that what we have seen in the past couple of weeks is symptomatic of an official view that we should be restricting access to special needs assistants, not broadening it. I asked questions in the House about how much it would cost to provide a special needs assistant in every classroom in the country. I am sorry to say I did not get the answer. The question was avoided in terms of how much it would cost. That is the level at which we should state our ambition as regards the provision we make for children. We know access to educational equality is hugely important from the point of view of future outcomes. I will repeat what has been said by various speakers in this debate about the importance of access for children, not because they somehow deserve something beyond but because they deserve it to put them on an equal footing with children who may not have the same challenges with accessing education. If we fail in that role, the problems created will manifest themselves in ten, 20 or 30 years' time through reduced educational attainment and much more serious problems if people are left out of the educational system. Let us make a serious and clear statement of intent. What we saw in terms of the resolution of the issue is not actually a resolution; it is a stopgap. I welcome that the Minister of State and the Minister listened to what Members of this House and people around this country had to say on this, in particular teachers. I had a meeting in my constituency earlier this week with perhaps two dozen principals of primary schools. These incredibly dedicated servants of their communities are delivering for all of us. One thing that came out of that meeting was they feel they are not believed or trusted. Some people in the room said they felt the Government does not trust them. I do not believe that is the case but I think officials in the Department do not trust them. When teachers and principals - highly trained individuals dedicated to the cause - say this is what they need, instead of accepting them at their word, there is a burdensome, bureaucratic process to second-guess that they have to say. Let us trust teachers and deliver for children.

Sentiment score: 0.07