My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have spoken in this debate. I think that we all share the common ambition to improve the scope and quality of early years provision and to make sure that special educational needs are identified at the earliest possible time, as we said at the outset. I think that there is common cause there.
In several of the contributions it was asked who should be responsible for some of that identification. We feel that early years area SENCOs in the model
that we have proposed could be the people to take on that responsibility, although I understand that everybody else whom noble Lords have mentioned could also play a role in that. That model has already been developed by local authorities as a way of taking on some of that responsibility, and it is important that the people in those posts are properly trained and supported. I was slightly disappointed by what the Minister said about not requiring them to be trained and qualified, because it seems to me that we have already identified a skills lack among some of these people. This is an opportunity to address that lack, and it will be a shame if we do not embrace it when we have the opportunity to do so.