MINISTERS faced protests in both Houses of Parliament over plans to change special needs statements, weakening a requirement that councils spell out the support a child needs. Tory peers were last night planning to lead a challenge to a new code of practice, following criticism by Labour and opposition MPs. The current code of practice requires education authorities to quantify the hours of specialist teaching a child will need. In the new draft, the wording is changed to “quantify as necessary” which has been attacked as vague.