Ed has personal knowledge of stammering, and in the past year he has raised the issue of how stammering has affected him a number of times in the media. He will share with the audience some of his own experiences. For many young people who stammer, role models such as Ed who demonstrate that having a stammer is neither an obstacle to success, nor a bar to personal and private fulfilment, are crucial.
Ed has shown great leadership and also personal courage in championing children and adults who stammer. As well as being open and honest about his own stammer, he ensured that Government took practical steps to increase support for children and young people with communication difficulties including those who stammer. As Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, he led the way in making it clear that good communication is the crucial life-skill of the 21st century and that all children with speech and language problems including children who stammer, must get extra support and better services.
Through commissioning the Bercow Report, and the Better Communication Action Plan which followed, Ed ensured that the needs of our children have, for the first time in my working life, been at the centre of Government decision making. Lately he has been crucial in laying the foundations for a new centre of excellence in the north for children and young people who stammer.
We greatly look forward to him contributing to our Open Day on 4th September."
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