Campaigns

A report on Home Education from the Centre for Social Justice further found children with SEN and/or EHCP likely to have “no final destination” and again, rather than look to Article 24 for a sustainable inclusive solution, recommends replacing the home education system on broadly the same principles.

This continued strategic thinking towards segregation follows previous statements by government, with the announcement of the opening of 60 new special schools. The justification being to address a lack of provision but as our previous article demonstrated, funding for support and provision is not being implemented inclusively.

Local MPs are telling us this solution is based on the ‘few not the many’. Which is the wrong way round for inclusion. More concerning still is the rebranding of Special Schools as “Specialist”, with BBC documentaries displaying ‘idyllic’ settings far removed from the repeated reports of abuse and overcrowding that has led to children being taught in cupboards

A bombardment of content has repeatedly drawn on the crisis parents face to seek educational access for their children, in chronically underfunded mainstream schools, having to resort to legal battles for special provision, that is driven by a lack of inclusive settings, and not by choice. This drive towards “Specialist” rebranded segregation is not isolated from previous comments by ministers describing Disabled children as disruptive and of detriment to the educational achievement of non-disabled children.

Should we then be shocked at the outpouring of parents fighting for the only option that seems achievable and timely? Especially when inclusive education within mainstream schools is only a footnote in the media landscape, and even then is associated with failure... perhaps not.

A cynic may conclude that a SEND Review completely void of any human rights values, or references to the UNCRPD, may have been crafted to feed into this existing narrative - one created to pursue a specific ideological agenda. One that, as IPSEA states may not even be compatible with the existing legal framework if implemented.

More on the SEND Review

⊲ SEND Review Consultation Submission: Right support, right place, right time ALLFIE’s response to the Government’s SEND Review Green Paper

⊲ Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP Improvement Plan: Headlines

⊲ Government’s SEND plan is ‘wholly insufficient’ and ‘an all-round failure’ Disability News Service article