This has gone on for almost two weeks. The point was made earlier that it is a battle a day for the parents of children with special needs. All of us in this House know that because all of us are being contacted every day of the week by families who are trying to get an assessment of need, a place in a school or an appointment somewhere in the health service for their children but cannot get them. They are fighting continually and they are worn out. Sometimes they have children who hardly sleep at all and they have to stay awake with them. This is the one time they get something that actually works. I know a school with a number of special classes and SNAs in place and to which children attending were very difficult. Within a short period of time - a number of months - you could see improvement and advancement, mainly because of the work being done on a one-to-one basis by the SNA with those children. To suggest that somehow or other, the Minister miscommunicated or that there was a misunderstanding is the greatest load of rubbish anyone ever heard in their lives. The reality is that for two weeks, the Minister has wrangled and tried to say this or that but she would not come out and say she gave an instruction to review the SNAs with an intention of removing them from children in certain schools where she felt she could get away with it. That is what she tried to do and she needs to own up to that reality. There are schools in all our constituencies looking to open up additional classes but cannot get it done. There are a number of them in my constituency. There are also special schools that want to open up more spaces but cannot do it because they cannot get the resources. This entire system is a shambles and has been a shambles for a long time. However, this debacle over the past week or two has shown where the Government stands. It does not stand with the ordinary people out there who need the help they absolutely must have for the most vulnerable in our society. The Minister and Minister of State need to own up to this and apologise for what they have done.

Sentiment score: 0.09