My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for suggesting that we can have a further conversation about this, and that may be the way forward, because I think that there are some issues that still need to be explored. I think that there is a problem with saying that we already have a legal framework in place, and that therefore there is no problem, per se. It is one thing to say that you have a legal framework and another to look at the practicality of what is happening on the ground. We have to marry those up in some way—so, if we have a legal framework but parents of disabled children are not accessing it, we have a problem, and we really need to get to the heart of why that is the case.
I am pleased to hear that the funding review will consider the issue. As I said in opening the debate, the call for evidence does not explicitly say that we want to hear from parents of disabled children. I think the noble Lord is saying that that will be done as a separate exercise or a parallel exercise. If that is the case, I am very pleased to hear that. Rather than just assume that parents of disabled children were responding to a general call for evidence, we need to go and seek them out in a more targeted way.
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There still is an issue about staff training, where ILEA staff feel that they do not have the skills or confidence to deal with some of the disabled children who might otherwise be able to attend their facilities
in a perfectly happy and healthy way. All of this needs to be explored in more detail, and I very much welcome the suggestion from the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland. In addition to trying to gather the evidence through the funding review, some specific work on the pilots, which really look at that on the ground, would help us all. In the mean time, let us have a conversation outside this about what more we can do. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.