Education (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2009

My Lords, I want to say a few words on this subject because my wife is a governor at a school in Bedfordshire for children with learning difficulties. We have had some dyslexic children so we have met a lot of this at the sharp end. I want to echo support for the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, and to say that we must be careful not to make the best the enemy of the better. We have a lot of dedicated people, some of whom may not be as good as others, but very often the personality matters more than the qualifications. Just having qualifications does not mean that someone is brilliant. Removing flexibility, which we need, and consistency, which is often the most important thing, and taking people away to get a qualification which may not be necessary, could be damaging for children. I do not see why we cannot trust our head teachers and other people in education to try to do their best for the children within the limited resources that we have. They may be financial limitations or the number of people available may be limited. Further to restrict it and limit their options would be foolish. I am concerned that we are trying to overbureaucratise something that is working, even if it is not perfect.