I started the week with a visit to one of Chelmsford’s Outstanding nurseries. Scallywags cares for children up to school age and encourages the children to spend time outside exploring nature. I was enormously impressed by how happy and inquisitive all the children were are. The children were excited that a robin had begun nesting in their outside space over the Easter break and were treating their new companion with great care.
The expansion of government funded free childcare for two year olds started this month, it will be rolled out to younger children over the coming year. This will be a big help to many families in Chelmsford and will enable more parents to continue with work and careers, thus boosting our local economy.
Scallywags, like many other nurseries, wishes to expand their premises as they would like to take on more children. They rent space from Chelmsford City Council and have been waiting for a response from the council for many months about their expansion. I have written to the council to support their expansion plans. If you know of other nurseries you would like me to visit please do let me know.
I have also been focusing on the need to improve services for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Essex. I met with the leader of Essex County Council on Tuesday and with the Head of Education and Cabinet member for Education on Thursday.
Essex has a lot to be proud about. Their services for children needing help from social care are amongst the very best in the country, and they have recently been graded as “outstanding” by Ofsted for the second time in the row. This includes support for adoptive families, children in care including foster care, and children at risk.
However, the services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Essex needs to improve. There has been a great increase in the level of need with more children presenting with SEND than ever before. This increase is occurring all across the country, and in other similar countries. This is partly because of advances in medical care for those with severed disabilities, partly because we know more about special education needs than previously and partly because of the impact of the pandemic on children. Government funding for SEND needs has increased significantly.
There are currently around 12,000 children in Essex with an education, health and care plan (EHCP). This is more than double previous levels. Another 24,000 children receive SEND support. The council is currently receiving 400 requests for EHCP needs per month. It is currently taking a long time to process these requests, and expert educational psychologists to assess needs are in great demand. This has resulted in a backlog.
We discussed strategies to reduce the waiting time for EHCPs. The council has recruited 46 members of staff and is working on a detailed plan to significantly increase capacity and reduce the backlog.
Four new Special “Free” Schools are planned in Essex. These are state funded schools, two of these new special schools are currently being built in Chelmsford.
Locally, I have also seen how specialist hubs, like the Grow Unit at Newlands Spring, can help children by giving them extra specialist support so they can stay in mainstream schools. Some other Chelmsford primary schools have told me that they would like to host similar hubs. The Government has also allocated £20 million of capital funding for SEND needs in Essex. I discussed with the County Council how this capital funding could help to deliver more of these specialist hubs in Chelmsford and across Essex.
This week also brought the good news that Perryfields school has been rated as “Outstanding” by Ofsted. Many congratulations to all the staff, children and parents at Perryfields. Every single school in the Chelmsford constituency is now rated “Good” or “Outstanding” compared to 2010 when one in three of our local schools were not even good.
In other news, I have received an update on the work that has been happening at Beaulieu Park Station. Over Easter a section of the mainline was suspended to allow engineering work. Construction workers also renewed a set of points (sections of movable track that allow trains to cross between lines) at the London end of Chelmsford station.
At Beaulieu Park station, efforts are focused on the buildout of Platform 1 on the A12 side of the mainline. This has involved, completing the piling work, installing the front walls, drainage, ducting, and foundations for the canopy. Meanwhile, work in the station building has been progressing, pouring the concrete floor slabs and continuing to install the elements of the roof structure.
One of the major pieces of work coming up is the installation of the two station bridges; the first is the main access for all bridge, and the other is a secondary means of escape bridge, a requirement for all new station builds. The team has been busy installing the foundations for these structures and the steel supports in readiness for the lifting operations that will be required over the two May bank holidays.
I continue to hold regular constituency surgeries for those that wish to discuss issues face to face. Often these are complex problems that people have struggled to resolve themselves. If you do need my support with an issue please do email [email protected].
