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Legislation
This is the right place for links, downloads and commentary on UK legislation as it relates to Inclusion. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities received its 20th ratification on 3 April 2008 Triggering the entry into force of the Convention and its Optional Protocol 30 days later. This marks a major milestone in the effort to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity. Read more here.... It is essential for the UK to ratify this- we have signed but NOT ratified ... start lobbying now! Watch and listen to Richard Rieser describing the Convention its implications for us all. Contact: r.rieser@btinternet.com for a copy his new book Implementing Inclusive The Convention marks a "paradigm shift" in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. It takes to a new height the movement from viewing persons with disabilities as "objects" of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing persons with disabilities as "subjects" with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active members of society. The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It clarifies and qualifies how all categories of rights apply to persons with disabilities and identifies areas where adaptations have to be made for persons with disabilities to effectively exercise their rights and areas where their rights have been violated, and where protection of rights must be reinforced. House of Commons Inquiry into Special Educational needs: June 2006 Inclusive Solutions Press Release re this Report July 2006 Inclusion Policy: exactly who is confused? Inclusion truly means that children and young people belong in local communities, are welcomed and actively participate in local mainstream schools whatever their difference. This is what many, many parents, carers, educationalists, disabled adults, pupils and others work daily to make a reality. SENDA 2001, SEN Code of Practice 2001 and the 2004 SEN Strategy unmistakeably state that the 'proportion of pupils educated in special schools should fall over time' and there should be 'reduced reliance on statements'. The Committee suggests that this approach is mistaken, but is it? We believe the government set this direction and should hold to the courage of its own policy maker's convictions that this was the correct direction to be heading in. What is needed is not the rethinking of this direction, a rewriting of policy, procedure and legislation but a fuller embracing of an inclusive vision for the future. It is much too late to turn the clock back as suggested in this report! We now know that for every impairment conceivable there is a child who is being included somewhere in the UK. How can it be right that this cannot happen for all across the UK without the postcode lottery so well described in this report? Imagine if the £1.81 billion reportedly spent on maintained, independent and non maintained special schools was added to the £2 billion spent in mainstream schools on meeting special needs. This almost doubling of the pot might just sweep away resourcing concerns and comments such as in this report that ' SEN remains under funded, particularly in mainstream schools'. The time is right to be clear in our vision for 2020, if not sooner, that we are working towards a future that does not rely on separate special schools and settings for disabled, socially disadvantaged and excluded pupils. In such a future all the energies of educationalists, collaborating agencies, parents and communities would combine to ensure that a pupil's support needs were met with the right resources and with a healthy flexibility and creativity from those involved! The question should no longer be 'should they be here, but rather, how can we figure out how to best include them? Yes we want better training for all staff from initial training on. Yes we want to end reliance on statements for resourcing and accountabilities Yes we want safeguards for resourcing for pupils Yes we want an end to the domination of the standards agenda Yes we want an end to exclusions Yes we really want to listen to young people, who in this report are the only ones to mention the crucial issue of building friendships when being included. This is surely as key to an individual's life opportunities than changes in attainment scores that according to OFSTED, cited in this report, are as likely to take place in any setting with the right preconditions. James: 'if I was born 20 years ago I might not have had the opportunity to go to a mainstream school. I wouldn't have the friends I've got now, so things have got a lot better, but we have a long way to go.' The conditions for friendship must involve being seen regularly by your peers, in ordinary local situations and having opportunities to interact freely, to do stuff together without adult involvement. How can providing a broad continuum of flexible provision including high quality special schools ... .be in the spirit of the Disability Discrimination Act. Surely it is discriminatory to be excluded, or to be placed in an alternative special school when a mainstream school is not prepared to, or is unsuccessful in making reasonable adjustments that would allow you to be present? We can do better at making our mainstream schools more flexible and inclusive. This is where we should invest and gradually relocate all our SEN resources. Now is not the time to turn the clock back and to start building new special schools and units. We need to invest in: Peer support Parent collaboration Person centred planning and delivery Creative problem solving High quality trained staff Excellent differentiation and diversification of the curriculum Buildings that have flexible arrangements and spaces Grouping around pupils' passions and interests rather than 'abilities' We need to have courageous vision, just as Martin Luther King did when he pronounced: 'I have a dream....' Colin Newton: Inclusive Solutions
Alliance for Inclusive Education Press Release: Select Committee report ignores 20 years of good inclusive practice in education
Disabled people are concerned that good inclusive practice in education developed over 20 years has, once again, been ignored in favour of the moral panic about the closure of segregated 'special' schools. The Alliance for Inclusive Education and BCODP broadly welcome the Education & Skills Select Committee report, particularly with regard to the call to review the existing and overly bureaucratic statementing process, better training for teachers, and a focus on pupil-centred planning. We also agree with the report regarding the confusing and unclear messages, which the government has given over the last 10 years and which have obstructed the development of a deeper understanding of the values and principles of inclusion. We are not denying that many schools still have a very long way to go in meeting all children's educational and social needs. However, this report has effectively ignored the very real and positive experiences of the many disabled young people who have had the opportunity to learn alongside their non-disabled peers in mainstream schools. These schools are successfully delivering inclusion on a daily basis to a diverse pupil community. It is a fact that those of us working in the inclusion movement, many of whom have had first-hand experience of special schools as pupils, had to fight very hard to have our voices heard, during the evidence gathering process, and we think that the resulting report focuses on the negative experiences of parents. The Select Committee talks about 'effective partnership with parents and communities' but, this must take into account the forthcoming public sector duty to promote equality for disabled people, and properly involve disabled children and young people in decision-making. How else will we as a society achieve the government's bold target of true equality for disabled people by 2025? Tara Flood, Director at the Alliance: Simone Aspis, BCODP: "We are disappointed that the Select Committee have not made concrete recommendations on how the educational legal and policy framework could be improved in order to promote disabled children's civil and human rights to inclusive schooling. We think that a key recommendation of the expectation that each LEA should provide a continuum of educational provision including special school placements will undermine and adversely affect their ability to provide fully inclusive education for all" Contacts for press enquiries: Tara Flood, Director of Alliance for Inclusive Education - tara.flood@allfie.org.uk - 020 7735 5277 Simone Aspis, Campaigns & Parliamentary Officer, BCODP - simone@bcodp.org.ukFurther reading: " Snapshots of Possibility" , shining examples of inclusive education.
Removing Barriers to Achievement (DFES) We provide a range of training, visioning and consultation opportunities for LEAs and schools that link directly into supporting the Governments strategy for SEN. Specialist Skills - Advanced Skills - Core Skills
Every Child Matters 2003
This was an extremely important Green Paper setting out the future direction of services working around children. and here is a link to a copy of the Children Act 2004 Full Print out (Word Doc) of Training Opportunities linked to the Children Act 2004 Because the Laming Inquiry and Every Child Matters made an unassailable case for delivering radical improvement in opportunities and outcomes for children. They showed that: • the effects of disadvantage are felt early and often have lasting consequences; • the gaps in outcomes between socio-economic groups is widening; • disadvantaged and 'at risk' young people are lagging behind their peers; • services are often not working together as well as they need to; • there is too much focus on cure rather than prevention; and • safeguarding children and child protection are too seldom considered to be " everybody's business" The Children Act 2004 provides the legislative spine for the Every Child Matters: Change for Children programme, which will power the local and national changes to the system of children's services that are need to deliver: • improved outcomes for children and young people; • a focus on opportunities for all and narrowing gaps; • support for parents, carers and families; • a shift to prevention, early identification and intervention; • integrated and personalised services; • better safeguards for children and young people. What is the Every Child Matters: Change for Children programme? Every Child Matters: Change for Children is a programme to deliver changes to the whole system of children's services - locally and nationally. It provides a national framework of expectations and accountability in which 150 Local Authority-led change programmes will operate, each designed to address local priorities for children, young people and families. The policies that have been developed to support this programme embody the Government's principles of personalisation, diversity in provision, workforce reform, freedom and autonomy for the front line, and effective partnership working. Key Documents that relate to this legislation can be found at this link. Full Print out (Word Doc) of Training Opportunities linked to the Children Act 2004 UK Ministers with responsibility for Education and Health – DfES & DH. Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 Full text of this law to end discrimination The New SEN Code of Practice 2001 This revised Code links to the 1996 education Act and informs practice across England and Wales. Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004
The Act is the first major revision of special
educational needs Report on Implementation of Act: November 2007 Assessments and statements
Useful Commentary on current legislation on Inclusion from Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education Policy Writing LEAs , schools, early years settings and others who need to write policies in relation to emerging legislation will at times require support from external advisors and facilitators. This where we can help. We can also provide a training video on writing inclusion policies. Phone 0115 9556045/9567305 to discuss.
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