Charlotte calls for improvements in identifying Special Educational Needs  

Charlotte  has called for education improvements after it emerged more than two-thirds of the summer rioters had special educational needs. Speaking at Education Questions in the Commons, she told MPs many of those involved had also been repeatedly excluded from the classroom, showing more needed to be done to help such children. She said “Given that two thirds of the August rioters have special educational needs-a rate well above the national average-and that a disproportionate number have been subject to school exclusions, what steps has the Minister taken to ensure that if a child is subject to permanent or repeated exclusion, they are assessed for special educational needs, so that if such needs exist they are… In reply, Minister of State (Children and Families) Education Sarah Teather told Charlotte:  “What we are trying to do with is to focus better on early intervention....