Reform UK Mayor Andrea Jenkyns, whose son has ADHD and autism, has said Britain’s education system needs a complete overhaul to better meet the needs of SEND children.
In an interview with The i Paper ahead of Reform’s party conference in Birmingham, Jenkyns, 52, who is also neurodiverse, said children should no longer have to “sit at a desk for six hours being talked at and taught to memorise”.
She said the system is failing children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including her son, who she has taken out of school.
Jenkyns, who struggled with school herself, said her own experience has made her question whether the conventional teaching model is capable of bringing out the best in every child.
‘Pupils shouldn’t sit at a desk for six hours’
“I got tremendously bored. I felt quite uninspired,” she said. Jenkyns returned to education as a mature student, studying economics at the Open University, and then later international relations.
“I’m neurodiverse myself, my son is as well and he’s amazing, he is brilliant at maths,” Jenkyns added.
“We don’t realise people’s potential… And I think that’s the sadness. I think every child’s got potential in something and it’s down to education to bring that out.”
For Jenkyns, the answer is not simply to provide more support within the existing system but to rethink how children are taught.
“I think personally the whole education system needs to change,” she said.
“Long gone should be the days where a pupil sits at a desk for six hours and being talked at and just being taught to memorise.”
She wants greater emphasis on practical learning and teaching that reflects different ways of processing information, and far more engagement with children.
“People learn kinesthetically, visually, auditory, get them out into the outdoors and yeah, so it’s more of a blended form of education,” Jenkyns said.
‘Children should be treated as individuals’
She described the existing approach as a “factory model of education” and argued that children should be treated as individuals rather than being expected to conform to a single model.
While Jenkyns cannot dramatically change the education system in her role as mayor, she does have responsibility for skills – an area she believes gives her an opportunity to start tackling some of the problems facing young people in Greater Lincolnshire.
She points to the high proportion of young people not in education, employment or training (Neets), who have additional needs or have come through the care system.
“These are the forgotten people in our society,” she said.
Jenkyns is using her skills budget to examine how education and training can be better tailored to those individuals.
“What I’m doing at the moment is… looking at how can we ensure that they get the best education which actually suits their needs.”
She also wants youngsters with SEND to have access to new technology, and is developing plans for a free coding and artificial intelligence course.
Her wider ambition is to create an advanced manufacturing, AI and coding college in the region, giving young people skills which can be used in industries she expects to grow.
“I want that because this is how you create the entrepreneurs of tomorrow and the great inventors.”
Her argument is that a better education system should not simply prepare children to pass exams, but should identify what each individual is capable of and help them develop those talents.
“If we get the classroom right for SEND children, we get it right for everybody,” she argued.
Jenkyns backs a return to fracking
Transport is one of her other priorities. She said Lincolnshire has historically been badly served and has established Transport for Greater Lincolnshire to bring key organisations together.
“A bus should be a lifeline, not a last resort.”
She is also working on an integrated transport app for the region and a veterans’ travel card covering bus travel.
But much of her agenda is focused on attracting investment into Lincolnshire rather than relying on central government.
Jenkyns has signed a memorandum of understanding with Taiwan covering agriculture and agri-tech and says she is pursuing similar international links.
“I’m going over to the US later this month to do a similar thing.”
One of the more controversial elements of Jenkyns’s economic vision is her support for the return of fracking under a Reform government.
Fracking extracts oil and gas from rock using high-pressure fluid, but is controversial because of earthquakes, water contamination and climate risks.
She said Lincolnshire has significant gas reserves beneath it, and believes the resource could have a role in Britain’s energy supply. She argued that if the financial benefits could go directly to people living in the areas affected, there would be “less opposition”.
Jenkyns also believes the return of fracking could boost jobs in Lincolnshire’s “thriving energy sector”.
‘Being mayor is amazing’
The former Tory MP for Morley and Outwood in West Yorkshire said the advantage of being mayor is that she can directly pursue projects rather than simply argue for them.
“I prefer being a mayor,” she said. “I can’t see myself ever going back to Westminster.”
She has responsibility for around 1.1 million people and a budget of just under £1bn.
“The difference is, as a backbencher, really, you are just a loud mouthpiece, aren’t you, for your constituents?” she said.
“But once you elected as mayor, to have that power to change people’s lives, it’s amazing.”
However, Jenkyns said she understands the dangers facing politicians “only too well”, having received seven death threats while she was a Conservative MP.
She said she received repeat emails from a constituent for three months, threatening messages telling her to buy a stab vest and had to have CCTV installed at her home after the gates were pulled down. Jenkyns said the threats have also extended to members of her family.
In the wake of Ann Widdecombe’s murder, she has provided with a protection officer by Reform. “They’re taking me and my safety seriously, which, you know, I’ve never, ever had this throughout my time in politics.”
She believes the danger faced by politicians is too easily forgotten once the immediate public reaction to an incident has passed.
“I think people forget that there’s a human being, there’s a mother, there’s a, you know, wife, husband, brother, sister, grandfather, who is still a politician.”
And she believes social media has made the problem worse.
“Unfortunately, social media has actually created a bit of a safe wall for this vitriol and for this anger to really breed.”
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