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Attending and speaking at the recent Fourth International Conference on Inclusive Education in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I was struck by the energy and commitment to developing inclusive education. Bangladesh has in recent years been operating one of the largest primary education systems in the world for a low income country. Net enrolment is at 98.7% with gender parity (1.02) and a rapid growth in pre-primary schools. However, behind the statistics of 20 million children attending 85,000 state primary schools, there are many groups who have been excluded, and 20% do not complete elementary education.

It has been left to NGOs to plug the gap:-

Nilphamari, Leonard Cheshire Disability

Since January 2012, Leonard Cheshire Disability’s (LCD) South Asia Regional Office and Gana Unnayan Kendra (GUK) have been working in partnership in Nilphamari to implement “Promoting Rights through Community Action: Improved Access to Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities”. The project was funded by the European Union and drew to a close in December 2014. It has had a significant impact, with more than 2,100 children with disabilities supported to enrol and stay in 262 schools in Nilphamari District. More than 300 teachers have been trained on aspects of inclusive education; 100 parents’ groups have been formed; 100 inclusive children’s clubs have been formed; more than 90 schools have been made accessible; 10 inclusive resource centres have been set up in mainstream schools.

https://youtu.be/hG2IqSyk2JU?t=23

Mirpur Protibondhi Centre

Run by the Bangladesh Protibondhi Foundation, this was founded in 1984 and since 1999 has been practising a policy of reverse inclusion, accommodating non-impaired children from the local areas alongside those with impairments, funded by government and Save the Children. There are twelve branches all across Bangladesh. They also run a community based rehabilitation programme in surrounding areas. The school we visited in the Mirpur district of Dhaka has 556 students, 136 of whom are part of the reverse-inclusion programme. There are 22 teachers and 36 teaching assistants. The school has a psychologist and speech and occupational therapists. Children have three pre-levels and can then join their grade class up to Grade 5, at the same levels as those in government schools. Parallel classes are run for those with more severe disabilities. They have developed a peer support model that seems to work very well; classes that we visited exhibited pairing of disabled and non- disabled children.

There is concentration on vocational education with which students with intellectual impairments are encouraged to join in: designing and printing fabrics, making wooden puzzles, sewing and making toys are the main focuses. These are then sold in the school shop, which is run by students, to raise income.

BRAC

Building Resources Across Communities (formerly Bangladesh) is a development organisation based in Bangladesh, currently the largest in the world, largely funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID). Over the last forty years it has developed education facilities for those who would find it hard to access government education. Their main focus has been to get girls into education and provide schools in remote areas. They now cater for 2.5 million children with better results and less drop out than government schools. The organisation trains teachers themselves, running two year short courses (government schools only employ graduates). BRAC training is focused more on facilitating children’s learning than on formal government pedagogy methods. In 2015, BRAC provided education to 179,000 children with mild to moderate impairments, with a programme of adjustments available. They also run workshops for children with disabilities to prepare them for mainstream education.

We visited a school in a Dhaka slum at “Shahparzan 29” which consists of two classes at year 4 & 5 levels. There are 17 other classroom schools situated in a dense area of self-made houses and workshops built mostly of corrugated iron and breeze blocks. The school is built of these same materials. There is no state primary in the neighbourhood. The class we visited had around thirty students with an equal gender balance and seven children with visual impairments, some of whom had had corrective surgery through BRAC. Pedagogy is traditional, with the teacher reading from a textbook and children following. It was clear on speaking to the children that they had understanding of the studies. The level of English was very high. Children were on task, interested, motivated and achieving the tasks set. They take exams after four years to gain access to government secondary schools. Girls and children with impairments do particularly well.

At the conference there was a great deal of verbal commitment by the government in Primary Education Development Plan III to the development of the capacity for inclusion.

Plan International: Developing A Model of Inclusive Education in Bangladesh

An Australian Aid funded project that has worked with the government Directorate of Primary Education to develop a sustainable and replicable model of inclusive education in fifty state primary schools in six districts.

The model addresses “Hand, Head and Heart” to develop the capacity of communities and the primary schools that serve them; working in the :community to develop 1-5 years pre-primary classes with community outreach; developing community resource people to provide training for teachers, heads and school management committees; making the environment and learning accessible.

Involving pupils in peer support and actively seeking their views has demonstrated a rapid improvement in quality education for all. https://youtu.be/1Hy4CALv1SE?t=15. Plan International have been expanding this programme to cover more schools and reported to us that the model was not working as well in Dhaka. This is probably because the stable community structures found in rural Bangladesh do not exist in the teeming streets and slums of Dhaka with its population of twenty million. We suggested that the task here might be aided by making the government primary school the centre of its own community. This could be achieved by using the resources of the school to provide adult education, social and medical support.

Disabled children are just one group not in education. Rapid urbanisation has led to 1.1 million street children in Dhaka.

https://youtu.be/tQeMEgeuszA?t=255

Despite the difficulties, there are many teachers, community leaders and local education officers ready to make the transformation if money can be found from donors such as DfID and GPE to bring the model of inclusive education to scale.

Richard Rieser, World of Inclusion

There is global recognition of the importance of inclusive education, not only in ensuring that every young person enjoys their right to quality education but also as a means of building more inclusive 21st century societies. Yet despite more than 30 years of promising educational innovation, it remains the case that rather few jurisdictions have implemented a comprehensive system of inclusive education. One of those which has is the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Here we tell the New Brunswick story and offer a framework for transforming public education systems so as to provide inclusive education for all.

Gordon Porter, as a teacher, school principal, district leader and state policy adviser has been an integral part of this story. In discussion with David Towell, he identifies important features of a 30 year journey towards creating educational environments where all children learn with their peers in community schools.

In New Brunswick, there were three major factors at work as the movement toward inclusion began in the late 1970s. First, many families were unhappy with the outcomes of segregated schooling for their children. Parents were becoming vocal and increasingly their voices were being heard. Second, there were legislative and policy factors setting new directions. Specifically, Canada included a Charter of Rights and Freedoms in its constitution in 1982, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability. Third, a cohort of teachers and school leaders developed a commitment to providing instruction to all students, based on the simple proposition, “All students can learn”. Building on success, one teacher at a time, then one school at a time, New Brunswick’s educators found there was a path forward that provided both quality instruction and inclusion for all students.

Of course, this transformation took time. In the district where I worked, it took us 2-3 years to fully define our approach (from 1982), then a further 3-4 years to institutionalize it. We were not alone since several other school districts welcomed the change to inclusion and invested in the training and capacity building needed to give teachers, principals and support teachers what they needed to succeed.

At the provincial level, the Ministry of Education provided a policy framework as well as funding to support the change. There were province wide seminars and training events over the course of several years. We accepted that if we waited until everyone in the system was ready for inclusion to begin, we would fail to progress. The focus was on moving forward and solving problems as they emerged.

One of the strategies we found most effective at the school level was to identify the most challenging situations faced by teachers and provide as much support as needed to make the situation better. We also invested heavily in developing a cadre of “support teachers” who could provide direct assistance to teachers as they worked to make inclusion a reality in their classrooms.

All these things happened in the context of planning at the school, district and provincial level. The Ministry of Education fostered partnerships with districts, and districts developed cooperative initiatives with each other. Parent/family advocacy organizations, universities and professional groups were also part of the partnership efforts. Moreover the provincial leadership throughout this thirty years has been committed to regular reviews, always seeking to identify ways in which we could do better. Success is always a work in progress.

In New Brunswick, the evidence is that every investment made to make a school inclusive is an investment in making the school a better school for all the students.

In New Brunswick, systemic change has not relied on small scale successes in independent-minded schools; still less on ‘grafting on’ inclusion to traditional educational practices without tackling the inherent contradictions this generates. Rather they have recognised that inclusive education requires transformational change in public education so that inclusion becomes an intrinsic dimension of policy, culture and practice at all levels from the classroom to the government.

Reflecting on this and other examples of radical change, we have identified ten keys to this transformation (see box). Critical here are an enriched conception of quality education as preparation for life, coupled with a commitment to making inclusion work for everyone. Also essential is leadership which promotes the active participation of all the stakeholders in education and sustained investment in learning from experience as change proceeds.

The Transformational Change Matrix

This table lists the ten keys to inclusion which have to be entrenched at all three levels of school/classroom, district and state.

  1. Educating for life
  2. Promoting inclusion
  3. Encouraging transformation leadership
  4. Developing partnership
  5. Investing in equity
  6. Tackling barriers to participation
  7. Strengthening inclusive pedagogy
  8. Prioritising professional development
  9. Learning from experience
  10. Plotting the journey to inclusion

A fuller version of this article, identifying the actions required at the levels of the school, the local education authority and the education ministry is available here.
UNESCO has produced a complementary set of materials, Reaching Out to All Learners.

Gordon Porter and David Towell

At the time of going to press we are still waiting for each of the political parties to officially publish their manifestos, but we know already the current administration is determined to force through selective education by increasing the number of grammar schools. It is likely therefore that all parties will use their manifestos to set out their position on this issue.

This really is our opportunity to secure support from prospective parliamentary candidates of all parties for the very different type of education system we want – an education system that is focused on inclusivity, equality and welcome for all including disabled pupils and students with or without SEN.

Given the increasing disquiet amongst teaching and education unions, campaigning organisations and parents about severe cuts to school budgets, political parties are very likely to set out their position on funding for education. ALLFIE knows this is a huge issue for parents and disabled pupils and students. Indeed the Local Government Association has said that the continued cuts to SEND budgets will lead to local authorities failing in their statutory duties, particularly around the presumption of mainstream education for disabled pupils and students.

So given the general election date is very close ALLFIE has decided to focus on these two issues specifically. We have approached the four main parties and asked them about selective education and the impact on disabled pupils and students, and about the impact that school funding cuts will have on the inclusion of disabled pupils and students with SEN in mainstream education.

We have set out their responses over the next couple of pages and you will see that it’s a bit of a mixed bag, so there is a huge amount for the inclusive education movement to do if we’re going to build a groundswell of support for disabled people’s right to inclusive education that the next government cannot ignore!

These are the two election asks we asked all of the parties to commit to:

Tara Flood

The political parties’ positions

Scottish National Party (SNP)

Former SNP Westminster spokesperson for Social Justice and Welfare and candidate for Banff and Buchan Eilidh Whiteford said: “The SNP is a strong supporter of the presumption of mainstream education. We support the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc Act 2000 that places a duty on education authorities to provide education in a mainstream school unless specific exceptions apply.

“A cornerstone of our inclusive approach to education is the presumption of mainstreaming for pupils with additional support needs.

“We know that significant numbers of children, young people and their families have benefited from that inclusive approach. However, it is necessary that we ensure that the approach to mainstreaming is undertaken in an effective fashion, which is why John Swinney Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education has commissioned a review of the guidance on mainstreaming.

“That is to ensure that the existing guidance reflects the legislative and policy context and succeeds in delivering on individuals’ expectations. The extended consultation on that guidance will begin on 19 May and will run until the end of August. That will enable individuals to respond to the issues over a long period of time.

“The SNP wants all children and young people to receive the full support that they need to reach their full potential and will continue working hard to help enable this.”

Labour Party

The Labour manifesto includes the following: “We will deliver a strategy for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) based on inclusivity, and embed SEND more substantially into training for teachers and non-teaching staff, so that staff, children and their parents are properly supported.”

The manifesto also lists the following:

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats responded:

“Full implementation of disabled pupils’ and students human rights to mainstream education (including apprenticeships) under UNCRPD Article 24 and the Children and Families Act”

The Liberal Democrats are fully committed to this. Successive waves of institutional, curriculum and qualifications reform have been rolled out without regard to the interests of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The Government is then forced to ‘bolt on’ additional guidance when it realises its statutory duties are not being met. Consequently, students with SEND and their parents are forced to navigate an incredibly complex legal framework.

For example, changes to Disabled Students’ Allowance mean that universities must now meet some of the lower-intensity needs of disabled students. However, the Government has not issued guidance on how universities should meet this duty. When Liberal Democrat peer Lord Addington asked Ministers what they would do about this, they replied that “we would let the courts decide” when a university failed to meet its duties. It is simply unacceptable that a 19 year old has to go to court in order to secure for themselves an inclusive university education.

This sort of problem is being replicated across the education system. For this reason, we believe that any new education policy must be preceded by a full impact assessment that considers the effect of the reform on children with SEND. In particular, the policy must be demonstrated to comply with the Equality Act 2010.

” Full funding of a universal inclusive education system that will include the support disabled pupils and students need to flourish in mainstream education.”

Schools face £3 billion of cuts by 2020. This is the most financial pressure schools have been in since the mid-1990s. Around £1.7 billion of these cuts will come to staff budgets, and teachers are telling MPs that counsellors, pastoral services and other support staff will be first to go. Local councils can help schools support vulnerable pupils, but the funding for their support services has been cut by 75%. It is simply unfair that the pupils who need the most support will face the brunt of these cuts.

Yet at the same time, Ministers are introducing two new National Funding Formulas: one for schools and one for high-needs pupils and students at specialist SEND institutions. Approximately 9,000 schools lose out under the formula and so will be hit twice with cuts. The new formula cannot be ‘fair’ on pupils if schools lose money as a result of the changes. The Liberal Democrats will be setting out clear plans to ensure schools receive the funding they need to in our manifesto.

UK Independence Party (UKIP)

A spokesperson for UKIP responded: “The policy of closing special schools will be reversed. Every child is unique and the needs of each child should come first. Those who learn better in a tailored, non-mainstream environment should have the opportunity to do so.”

Conservative Party

A Conservative Party spokesperson said:

“We are determined that every child, no matter the obstacles they face, should have the same opportunity for success as any other. This ambition is backed by a £5.3 billion investment in 2016-17 for children and young people with high needs. We have also announced a £215 million fund for councils across the country to improve and create more special provision, which will help build new classrooms and improve facilities for pupils with special educational needs, so that no child is left behind.

“The choice at the election is clear: it is a choice between Theresa May providing the strong and stable leadership we need for Brexit and beyond to keep on improving schools, or a coalition of chaos and instability led by Jeremy Corbyn, putting our economy and funding for schools at risk.”

Green Party

Mags Lewis, Disability Spokesperson for the Green Party responded:

“The Green Party fully support disabled pupils’ and students’ human rights to a mainstream education. This was in our 2015 manifesto (our 2017 one has yet to be released). The Green Party is committed to the social model of disability, and a basic tenet is to have full inclusivity in education. People who are disabled have a right to participate fully in society.

“Specifically, we will:

ALLFIE says:
Keep an eye on our website to find out if your local candidate has signed up to our election asks.

For disability news and discussion around the election you can follow the #CripTheVoteUK hashtag on Twitter.

Katie’s first piece of homework for Geography was to learn the keywords and definitions for energy and climate change. Katie only had the weekend to learn it due to her timetable so I decided to email her teacher, Mr Crockett to ask if I could modify the homework slightly to speed up the learning process and depending on how we got on could Katie be tested verbally if necessary on Monday. I was very pleased when I received an email back saying…

“I am really interested to see how you have done this as I can then get a better and quicker handle on Katie’s understanding, and as you know Katie best I am sure that your alterations will be more than suitable.”

This was my eureka moment, something that words just can’t describe, someone had recognised that my knowledge of how I work with Katie was valuable .For Mr Crockett it was to gain a quicker understanding of Katie and how best to personalise and differentiate the work to get the best out of Katie and for her to flourish with the rest of the class. And that moment of receiving that email will stay with me forever. Mr Crockett bless him just thought it was an everyday occurrence and just an example of good practice, but for me it was huge!!!

So I set to work to differentiate the homework. I found an image for each word, I modified the definition by simplifying the words where possible, I sent a copy to Mr Crockett. I then cut them up and made them into a word/picture matching game to gain an understanding of the different words and their definitions and then we progressed to Katie being able to tell me what each word and definition meant. It was good fun, Katie really engaged with it and most importantly she could remember the keywords and definitions. Katie went to school on Monday and got 10/10 for her test. She was so pleased with herself. Mr Crockett emailed to tell me the good news regarding her test results. He also said he was going to set up a meeting with the Teaching Assistants in the Geography department to create similar resources to help support Katie.

So have the modifications and visual resources helped Katie? I asked Mr Crockett how Katie was doing in class and this was his reply.

“Regarding how Katie is doing in class, in summary she is currently exceeding expectations. Considering her baseline threshold she is constantly achieving beyond this and therefore making good progress. It is clear that she enjoys Geography and while she may at times need a greater degree of scaffolding I really do believe that she enjoys the high expectations that I have of her in Geography.”

This has never been said about Katie before therefore in my opinion Katie is thriving because she has a teacher that looks beyond her label and just sees Katie. He understands her strengths and utilises them by producing visual resources for her so that she can achieve just like the rest of the students in her class. He believes in her and pushes her forward and in doing so Katie now believes she can achieve. Geography is now by far her favourite subject and is already talking about taking it as her GCSE choice. I think Mr Crockett has made Katie feel exactly as Miller and Katz (2002) describe in their definition of inclusion.

“A sense of belonging: feeling respected, valued for who you are; feeling a level of supportive energy and commitment from others so that you can do your best.”

And it doesn’t stop there as we then had the geography project… a landscape in a box! Katie decided she would make Angel Falls, the world’s tallest waterfall! Katie struggles with her fine motor skills and the thought of constructing a model or making something is always a daunting task….and then she had an idea. She asked Mr Crockett if she could make it out of cake. Katie absolutely loves to bake, it is her ultimate passion. It would appear that Mr Crockett likes cake too as he got very excited and agreed as long as it still contained all the relevant research and information.

And here it is…Angel Falls! By modifying the project to making a cake Katie was motivated, excited, eager to learn about Angel Falls and very proud of the end result. I think Mr Crockett liked it too!

“Not only was the scale of the cake staggering, but so was the thought and detail that had actually gone into making it. Despite not being the easiest “material” to work with, it was one of the (if not the best) presented models and I thought the use of the icing was amazing. From a teachers point of view the research on the landscape was of a similar, if not as delicious, standard showing that Katie had really enjoyed the project.”

Rachel Froggatt

The Inclusive Education Committee of the International Disability and Development Committee (IDDC, a consortium of NGOs in disability and development), has published the Costing Equity report, important research into what it will take to deliver Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. The report’s recommendations were launched at the UN last October with huge interest, but on 22nd March the full report was launched at the Open Society Foundation (one of the funders), attended by CEOs from twelve NGOs and representatives of other organisations. Nafisa Baboo, a visually impaired South African who is the Inclusive Education Lead for Light for the World, played a key role in promoting this work.

The context:

Costing Equity makes 64 recommendations to address this situation. Some of the most important include: governments to develop their tax base, improve existing resource use, increase percentage of spend on education and develop twin track budgeting to match a twin track approach.

Track 1: invest in changing policies, practices and attitudes at all levels of the education system to remove barriers and create enabling situations for all children via disability inclusive teaching.

Track 2: offer learning and participation opportunities for individuals via differentiated teaching methods and reasonable accommodations, sign language and materials in accessible formats. The decline in external funding needs to be reversed, and funding needs to be disability responsive and harmonised in national plans. The Global Partnership for Education invests £2 billion a year and is committing to focus more on disability inclusion.

Capacity building is crucial especially around understanding the UNCRPD General Comment No. 4 on Inclusive Education Article 24. This needs to be for DPOs/NGO staff, ministry of education staff, teachers and education administrators, parents and donor organisations. This must be based on the paradigm shift at the heart of the UNCRPD from disabled people as objects to subjects – from the medical to the social model.

The report points to many innovative approaches: involving the private sector, public campaigns, cash transfer programmes for attendance in education, reasonable accommodation funds, provision of assistive devices and more involvement of DPOs in budget planning.

The spirit of the report was picked up by Priti Patel MP, Secretary of State for Overseas Development at the Bond Conference for development organisations, on 20th March 2017.

“We will also strengthen our work on disability … Disability is shamefully the most under-prioritised, under-resourced area in development. But with the help of your organisations, we can change this.”

She went on to announce a small charities challenge fund for charities with a turnover of less than £250,000 and recognised the valuable work carried out by smaller NGOs such as Exeter Ethiopia Link who help thousands of disabled children go to school by providing wheelchairs, training teachers and providing support for teachers.

With thirteen years to go to 2030 when the SDGs are to be implemented, a major change is necessary. Building the campaign for disability responsive inclusive education and securing the changes and resources to make this happen is now one of the great struggles of our age. Make sure you do what you can to ensure the right outcome locally, nationally and internationally.

The Costing Equity report is here.

Richard Rieser, World of Inclusion

Q: Whilst I know that the underlying principle of the Children and Families Act is the presumption of mainstream education, I understand that a local authority can rely on several caveats in determining where my child should go to school, including a special school even if it’s not what we want as a family. How can I use Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in arguing for a good inclusive education placement when the LA has the legal power to segregate my child from mainstream education?

A: Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides disabled learners (those with mental and physical disabilities) with the right to receive a mainstream education, with appropriate support.

In theory, this means that all disabled learners within the UK should be able to access mainstream education and not be forced to attend special school placements.

However, this is not the case: the UK government has not fully signed up to Article 24, and has instead placed a restriction on Article 24, known as an Interpretive Declaration, which states that an inclusive education system in the UK includs both mainstream and special schools.

Does this limitation impact EHCPs?

The reality of this limitation is that a local authority (LA) can decide to name a special school in a child or young person’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), against a parent’s wishes, without being in breach of Article 24.

Until the UK government signs up fully to Article 24 a “good, inclusive education” can include placement at a special school as part of an EHCP.

The government has also placed a Reservation on Article 24, which states that disabled learners can be educated away from their local community if more appropriate educational provision is available elsewhere. For example a child or young person living in Manchester could be educated in Derby, if it is deemed the most suitable placement for them by the LA.

Appealing Against An EHCP

It is worth noting that these restrictions do not prevent parents from referring to Article 24 when putting arguments forward for a placement at their preferred mainstream school; it just means that the LA is not forced to comply with Article 24 in naming a placement.

If an LA does name a special school in a child or young person’s EHCP and a parent wishes to challenge this decision, it is best practice for parents to lodge an appeal with the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal following the issue of the final EHCP.

As part of the appeal, parents should gather evidence from independent experts where possible, in particular an independent educational psychologist, to support their claims that an inclusive mainstream education is more appropriate for their child or young person than a special school placement.

Such evidence would need to show that the parental preference school is as capable of meeting their child or young person’s needs as the Local Authority preference special school, if not more so, particularly in accordance with the age, ability, aptitude, or special needs of their child or young person.

Parents will also need to show that a child or young person’s attendance at a mainstream school would not be incompatible with the provision of efficient education of others or the efficient use of resources.
It is the tribunal panel’s job to determine which school is considered most appropriate to meet the child or young person’s needs based upon the evidence before it from both the parent and the LA.

Rachael Smurthwaite

Rachael is a solicitor with Simpson Millar, and specialises in education law

Dear friends,

As many of you know the General Election produced a surprise result, a hung parliament where no one single political party has overall control. Whilst the Conservative Party won the majority of parliamentary seats, they did not gain sufficient seats to govern by themselves without the support of other political parties. So they have secured support from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party.

The great news for ALLFIE is that the government have ditched their plan to expand selective education in the state sector. This success is no doubt down to all the people including ALLFIE members and supporters who have campaigned against these divisive plans to bring back grammar schools.

We are now in a period of ‘wait and see’ so we must organise ourselves to seize every opportunity to get our voices heard and make a real difference in the lives of disabled pupils and students and their families.

In solidarity

Simone Aspis

(Policy and Campaigns Coordinator)

 

Summary

The Government have, for the moment, dropped their plans to create more grammar schools.

However they are still going ahead with plans to change how much money schools will get for their pupils. The current funding situation is already difficult for good inclusive schools that welcome disabled pupils. We hope the government’s plans will ensure that good inclusive schools can still afford to take disabled pupils.

The Government are also thinking about making some changes to further education. One possible change is to allow disabled students to take a year to develop their basic and work-related skills in work they are interested in doing. The one year course should allow disabled students to go onto other courses or into work – more detail to follow.

Department for Education Ministers

Following the election, Theresa May has undertaken a cabinet reshuffle, including the replacement of some of the existing Ministers of State for Education.

Justine Greening MP

The Secretary of State is responsible for the work of the Department for Education including early years, the school curriculum, school improvement, the establishment of academies and free schools, further and higher education and apprenticeships and skills.

Justine Greening continues as Secretary of State for Education. She has been reappointed despite strong hostility to the government’s grammar schools and school funding reforms.

Nick Gibb MP

The responsibilities of the Minister of State for School Standards include headteachers and teacher recruitment, retention, training, schools funding, the curriculum, assessment and qualifications as well as school accountability.

Nick went to school in Maidstone, Leeds and Wakefield before going on to study law at Durham University. He was formerly a chartered accountant specialising in corporate taxation with KPMG. ALLFIE’s experience of Nick Gibb is that he has a very traditional view of education.

Lord Nash

The responsibilities of the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System include developing and maintaining a strong school system, school governance, performance, admissions and school capital investment. Lord Nash runs the charity Future, which works with young people and sponsors academies including Pimlico Academy and Millbank Primary Academy.

ALLFIE knows Lord Nash too well – from when we staged a sit-in at the Department for Education to secure a meeting with him to discuss the Children and Families Act’s failings in upholding disabled pupils’ and students’ rights to inclusive education.

Joe Johnson MP

The remit of the Minister of State for Universities and Science covers universities, higher education policy and widening participation and social mobility. Despite this the same Minister oversaw the savage cuts to Disabled Students Allowance which are starting to have a negative impact upon disabled students’ participation in higher education.

Anne Milton MP replaces Robert Halfon MP

The portfolio of the Minister of State for Apprenticeships and Skills focuses on post 16 education policy and funding, covering adult education, apprenticeships, technical training, careers education and reducing numbers of young people not in education or training.

Anne, a former grammar school pupil, has over 25 years’ experience working in the National Health Service including a period of time as a trained nurse at St Bartholomew’s Hospital She appears to have no experience of education and apprenticeships either at the coalface or around public policy.

Robert Goodwill MP replaces Edward Timpson MP

The portfolio of the Minister of State for Children and Families covers major areas of children and young people’s policy including the provision and funding of school education up to the age of 16 and 25 if disabled. It includes SEN and disability, children in care, care leavers, adoption, child protection and improving social mobility.

Mr Goodwill has said of his new role:

“I am delighted to be appointed Minister of State for Children and Families. It is vitally important that all children, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, get a good start in life, have an education experience that allows them to reach their full potential, and lead a productive and fulfilling adult life. I am looking forward to hearing from families about their experiences, and to listening to partners who have expertise in this area. I want to continue to work with them to ensure we have an education system that provides the best possible support to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.”

It is very disappointing that the new Minister does not mention anything around his role in promoting disabled pupils’ and students’ human and civil rights to inclusive education and addressing issues of disability equality in mainstream education.

Robert was educated at the Quaker Bootham School in York and has been a farmer (since 1979) of 250 acres of land near Malton, which has been in his family since 1850. He is the managing director of a funeral company.

It is interesting that the two new Ministers have no experience of education or disabled pupils, which could work in our favour.

Shadow Cabinet

Angela Rayner MP remains the shadow Secretary of State for Education.

Angela is a mother of two disabled children, both of whom attend mainstream schools. We look forward to Angela providing strong opposition to government proposals to expand segregated education, particularly given the Labour Party General Election Manifesto support for implementation of disabled pupils’ and students’ rights to inclusive education under Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Queen’s Speech

This year’s Queen’s Speech was later than usual due to the General Election and so on the 21st June the government set out its two year legislative programme. Whilst the political agenda will be dominated by Brexit, the speech also included a range of proposed bills and policy reforms which are of interest to ALLFIE and the inclusive education movement.

Grammar Schools

It was expected that, if the Conservative Party had overall control, laws would be introduced to lift the ban on the creation of new grammar schools and increase selective education within the state education system, as set out in their manifesto. Similarly, the Democratic Unionist Party has pledged their ongoing support for increased academic selection in the Northern Ireland education system. Therefore in theory, with the DUP’s support, the Conservative Party could force grammar school policy changes through Parliament.

What does ALLFIE think?

The great news for ALLFIE is that the government have, for the time being, ditched their plan to expand selective education. This success is no doubt down to all the people including ALLFIE members and supporters who have campaigned against the government’s divisive plans to bring back grammar schools. However, the government have not given up on the possibility of increasing selective education sometime in the future as suggested in the Queen’s Speech:

“We will look at all options and work with Parliament to bring forward proposals that can command a majority.”

ALLFIE will be keeping a very close eye on education policy developments to make sure that selective education is not introduced by the backdoor!

Fairer Funding for Schools

According to research by the Education Policy Institute, schools will face cuts in real terms of 11% per pupil as a consequence of school funding reforms. The London Council’s Talking Heads research reported that disabled pupils have been and will continue to be adversely affected by the school funding cuts. For instance:

“70% of primary schools have already reduced their numbers of Teaching Assistants, impacting especially on children with Special Educational Needs…”

Just a year ago, a survey by The Key found that over 80% of mainstream schools felt they no longer have sufficient resources to cover all the pupils’ SEN and reasonable adjustments requirements under the Equality Act, a view echoed in the Local Government Association’s response to the Department for Education consultation on the High Needs funding formula:

“If councils do not receive sufficient funding to cover high cost SEND, they will not have the resources to allocate extra funds to highly inclusive schools that take higher than average numbers of pupils with additional needs. Equally, mainstream schools may find it difficult to accept or keep pupils with SEND because they cannot afford to subsidise the provision from their own budgets, as they are already under significant pressure.”

When there is a cut to inclusive education, the whole school community is affected as everyone loses out on educational and social opportunities for developing and strengthening community cohesion. As a result of growing discontent from school heads, unions and parents together with a rebellion of backbench MPs, the Conservative Party were forced in their manifesto into announcing £4 billion for schools by 2020, to make up some of the shortfall in school budgets. Whilst no detail was provided, fairer funding for schools was announced in the Queen’s Speech.

What does ALLFIE think?

Whilst we expect that fairer funding for schools will focus on individual school budgets, we will be seizing every opportunity to highlight the impact that savage cuts are having on schools’ ability now to develop and sustain inclusive education practice.

Technical Education

The Government have promised to invest half a million pounds in technical education.

In the Post 16 Skills Plan the government has accepted all 34 recommendations from the Sainsbury Independent Panel on Technical Education to improve vocational education, covering apprenticeships, reforms to vocational qualifications, career guidance and sufficiency of funding levels. Recommendation 27 drew our attention as it could have an impact on disabled students’ access to mainstream education.

“Individuals who are not ready to access a technical education route aged 16 (or older if their education has been delayed) should be offered a “transition year” to help them prepare for further study or employment. The transition year should be flexible and tailored to the student’s prior attainment and aspirations.”

The transition year should consist of a tailored study programme reflecting the student’s prior attainment, needs and their longer term aspirations. The objective of the courses focuses on developing personal behaviours, basic skills and work-based experience rather than acquiring various level 1 qualifications which are below GCSE Grade C standard. The transition year is intended to be a stepping stone onto further study or into employment rather than an end within itself.

What does ALLFIE think?

Whilst the panel did not provide any further guidance, they suggested the transition year programme would be similar to study programmes undertaken by low attainment students with more emphasis placed on progression. We are concerned that the transition year, like any other discrete course claiming to be tailored around a disabled person’s needs, will just become another merry-go-round course that leads to no progression onto mainstream courses. As usual it’s very disappointing to see no innovative methods such as pilots on how mainstream vocational courses and study programmes can accommodate a disabled person needing a more personalised study programme during their transition year.

 

-end-

 

Inclusive education is certainly a hot topic at the moment. The front cover of this issue shows some of the several hundred photos we received in response to our campaign against proposals to increase the number of grammar schools. And as we write, the government has launched a review into residential special schools, on the basis of a report by the Council for Disabled Children which expressed considerable concern about these institutions. We need your help to respond to the review, so please talk to us/email us/write to us if you have experience of residential special school or college.

Our legal question also addresses the legality of selective education as so many of us have been wondering how grammar schools can possibly not be classed as discriminatory.

And other articles illuminate some of the background to these public debates. Both Shaun Webster and Colin Newton talk about how segregation and stereotyping of disabled children can lead to low expectations and unmet potential. Colin explains how IQ testing fails to capture potential and favours those who are already doing well in life, and Shaun’s story illustrates this from a personal perspective. Yet he has learned to overcome these low expectations and make up lost ground.

We also have a really interesting article from researchers at Edge Hill University, exploring how inclusion is perceived, and how we can know whether it has taken place – you can read more about this and comment on the article on our blog at www.allfie.org.uk/blog

We hope you enjoy this edition of Inclusion Now, and please let us know if you have any comments.

Jess Cahill

Evidence revealed that 21% of disabled young people aged 18-21 years old in NHS mental health inpatient care have transferred directly from previous residential placements, including residential special school settings. Residential special school and college placements were not left unscathed by the report, which raised their lack of expertise and inadequacy of provision to meet the needs of their disabled children and young people.

The report dispelled the myth that residential school was a parental choice. Lenehan found placement was one means of diverting a crisis as a result of the local authority’s failure to provide early years intervention, SEN provision and out of hours support facilitating the child’s rights to family life and local mainstream education.

In light of the criticism, the Department for Education has commissioned Lenehan to conduct an independent review of residential special schools. It will focus on the role and quality of residential special school and college provision covering

So the remit assumes that residential special schools continue to be part of the solution rather than a barrier to preventing institutionalisation of the next generation of disabled people. It fails to ask the fundamental question: do we need these residential special schools and colleges if there is availability of great local inclusive education provision? The question would recognise that separation of disabled children and young people from their families and communities is often a traumatic experience, and can be a lonely path to lifelong institutional care and warehousing of disabled adults. If we want to stop disabled people entering mental health in-patient care or assessment and treatment units we need to close down institutionalised provision.

We must clearly tell the review that we need a programme of closure of segregated education provision. We can be sure that if residential special school and college survivors and their allies do not speak up the Government will have the green light to not only continue funding but also expand residential special school and college provision.

What do we need from you?

The review of residential special schools and colleges closes 17th March – please tell us your stories. We need to tell the Department for Education about the long term negative impact residential schools have in promoting disabled people’s civil and human right to full participation in society. We are focusing on the following sections of the review:

How and why children and young people end up in residential special schools and colleges
The experiences and outcomes of these children and young people and their families, and how these can be improved
Destinations for the children and young people

We are providing additional guidance on how to complete the review questions so that members and supporters are able to respond in their own words whilst letting the Department for Education know that the only way forward is to close residential special school provision down. Our full briefing is here. Please contact ALLFIE if you need a paper copy.

Simone Aspis

 

These days Shaun Webster is an internationally recognised campaigner for the rights of people with learning disabilities. His work for Leeds-based human rights organisation, Change, has focused on employment, independent living and self-advocacy. He’s also worked with Lumos (a European children’s’ charity founded by JK Rowling) to campaign for the closure of long-stay institutions and aid the reintegration of young people with learning disabilities into their communities. In 2015, Shaun received an MBE for his services to people with learning disabilities and their families.

But, as Shaun starts describing his early schooling, I soon realise that his successes haven’t come without a struggle. “I was sent to special school when I was seven”, he explains. “Before that I attended my regular, local primary school. They told my mum, I wasn’t keeping up and I was struggling. And I stayed in that same special school till I was 16.”

“How did you feel about that?” I ask.

“I didn’t understand why I had to move. I was scared and really upset, because I was losing all my friends. But, at the time, I just had to go with it. Later, maybe in my early teens, I began wondering why I had to go somewhere different from everyone else.”

“What started you wondering about that?”

“The special school was on the other side of Rotherham. I had to go by a special coach that picked me up. I remember, we had to drive past this other, big school and all the kids would take the micky out of us on the coach. They’d call us horrible names, like “retard”, “basket” and “thicko”. I was angry and I decided to teach myself the regular bus route to school. But the first time I went to school on my own, I got in trouble for doing it.”
We both laugh.

“What subjects did you do at school?” I ask.

We did history, maths, English, cooking and woodwork. I was good at history and maths. They never taught us any science, and I would have liked a turn at that. I didn’t get on with English. I couldn’t read or write properly and I felt very isolated in English. Two weeks before I left school, when I was 16, they said they’d found out I was dyslexic.”

“So you never received any specialist dyslexia support?”

“No. Then, I went to college for two years, and I didn’t get any dyslexia help there either.”

“Looking back, do you think there were other important things you didn’t receive at school?”

“There were no lessons about life skills, living independently or anything like that. The only thing we did was cooking. I know people need to cook, but I would like to have been taught how to look after myself.”

“What are you thinking of?”

“I’m thinking of things like opening a bank account, paying rent, budgeting my money, transport issues and having a job. None of that happened. And there was no careers advice, like in other schools. They had sex education, but it was a joke. They didn’t expect people like us to have sex or relationships. They never thought we could have different sexuality, like gay, lesbian or straight. So, there was no proper explanation about that or about condoms.”

“It sounds like there was a whole bunch of things they never expected you to do – like travel independently, live independently, have a job, have a relationship, become a parent and a grandparent – all of which you’ve done.”

“That’s right.”

“Following school, you went to college for two years. How was that?”

“I liked the woodwork but, really, it was about as big a waste of time as school. At the time, my dream was to mix with other people without learning disabilities. I thought, maybe if I had the right support, I could join in some mainstream classes. But I never got the chance and, because students with learning disabilities worked in a separate unit, I felt very isolated.”

“Did you finish education with any qualifications?”

“No. No qualifications and I couldn’t read or write. For a long time, I was very angry and bitter about that.”

“Have you been able to make any progress with reading and writing since leaving college?”

“Yes. In my work now, I write emails and use Twitter.”

“How did that happen?”

“It didn’t happen until my early thirties, when I started working at Change. Before that, I’d given up all hope and thought I’d never read or write. To begin with, I was quite shy and scared of the office work. But they gave me one-to-one help when I needed it, always on my own terms, and I never felt judged by anyone. I started doing little tasks, step by step, and over time I became more confident and they encouraged me to push myself. When I first tried writing emails, I felt very scared and thought, there’s no way I’m doing this. But Change made me think I could do it. At first, someone would check every email before I sent it but, these days, I mostly don’t bother. I also now have some speech software from Access to Work that helps with my dyslexia.”

“So it was Change who provided the support you should have received at school?”

“Yes. What happened at school made me angry but, through my campaigning work at Change, I’ve learnt to use my anger for turning bad into good.”

“Where did you acquire the life skills that have enabled you to live by yourself?”

“Mostly through an organisation called KeyRing. They met with me, identified my weaknesses and helped me, step by step, with things I couldn’t do. The way KeyRing works, they give a lot of support at first but, in the long-run, they want you to live independently, as part of the community.”

“Finally, what advice would you give to parents wondering how to educate a child with a learning disability?”

“Parents need to find out which local schools provide one-to-one support and promote inclusive education. Don’t think about special schools. Look at other options, where the child will receive a proper education and won’t be isolated. And above all, never give up.”

Mike Lambert, ALLFIE trustee

 

Q: Can you explain what powers the Mayor has over education in London?

A: Whilst the Mayor has no statutory powers in education, we are working closely with London Boroughs, schools, the London Economic Action Partnership, employers, London’s wealth of voluntary and community organisations (such as ALLFIE) and young people themselves to act as a catalyst for change.

Q: What do you think are the challenges and opportunities ahead for education in London and in particular disabled children and young people with SEN?

A: Whilst London schools remain the best performing in the country with the gaps between disadvantaged children and their peers narrowing faster than anywhere else, there are still groups of children that academically perform worse than their peers. This starts from when children begin school and widens as they move through the school system. We recognise that pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, or those with an education, health and care plan are one of the groups that perform significantly worse than their peers and have higher rates of exclusions. We need to ensure that schools have access to specialist provision and support for these groups. The proposed government national funding formula will mean that London schools will lose out and this will impact on those with additional support needs the most. City Hall is submitting a response to the government consultation on the national funding formula in which we will refer to its impact on disadvantaged groups, including children with disabilities.

Q: We know that it is your aim to ensure that there is a ‘good school place for every child in London’, please tell us what plans you have to encourage those good school places to be inclusive of disabled children and young people with special educational needs (SEN)? (Sadiq stated his commitment to inclusive education as part of his mayoral campaign)

A: Local Authorities have worked extremely successfully over the last few years to increase school provision, particularly primary schools. The school population is now moving through to secondary and the Mayor’s immediate priority is to ensure there is sufficient secondary provision. The Mayor will work with a range of partners to ensure we have enough schools in London. We will work with Teaching Schools and other networks and forums to disseminate good practice; this will be inclusive of disabled children and young people with special educational needs.

Q: What is the Mayor’s plan to ensure that apprenticeships under his remit or responsibility are inclusive of young disabled Londoners? (Sadiq stated his commitment to inclusive apprenticeships as part of his mayoral campaign)

A: Ensuring that learners with disabilities get the support they need to access training opportunities is key to the Mayor’s aspiration to be a Mayor for all Londoners. The Mayor made a specific commitment in his manifesto to protect and support the development of schemes which expand opportunities for people with disabilities to work and gain skills. City Hall is realising this commitment through a programme of activity funded by European Structural and Investment Funds targeting people with health conditions and disabilities.

The London Assembly Economy Committee (which I am a member of) recently published a report ‘Apprenticeships: An un-level playing field’ which highlighted that, despite a small increase in Londoners with a learning difficulty or physical disability accessing apprenticeship opportunities over recent years, progress in making apprenticeships a genuine route in to work for people with disabilities has also been too slow. We have made a number of recommendations on how the Mayor can support accessibility and diversity of apprenticeships during his mayoral term.

We encourage applications from disabled candidates and operate a guaranteed interview scheme for those disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria. We also monitor our recruitment process at each stage of our annual apprenticeship campaign. There has been an increase in the percentage of candidates with a disability applying for an apprenticeship and successfully starting an apprenticeship in the last few years.

Q: The Goverment’s Autumn Statement announced the devolution of some FE education and Adult skills funding to the GLA – please tell how you think this could be used to encourage FE and Adults Skills providers to be more inclusive of disabled learners?

A: The GLA is presently working through the readiness conditions for the devolution of adult skills funding which is expected to take place in 2019/20. Skills devolution forms just a part of the Government’s wider Growth Deal agenda. London has just completed the Skills Area Review process in advance of devolution, and the GLA will now be working with partners to conduct a pan London review of SEND education provision.

Q: Do you share the Mayor’s commitment to working with voluntary sector organisations and if you do how might you work with the Alliance for Inclusive Education?

A: The Mayor has made it clear that supporting Deaf and Disabled Londoners to access services and opportunities in the capital is a priority. He has committed to being an advocate for Disabled people living in London and I’m pleased to say his team recently met with a group of the capital’s Disabled People’s organisations. We’re setting up a new disability stakeholder group and look forward to working together with voluntary sector organisations including the Alliance for Inclusive Education to positively progress inclusive services and opportunities for Disabled Londoners and visitors to the capital.

 

As a parent of three children, one of whom is disabled, as a school governor and as an education advocate, I wear a number of hats giving me more than my fair share of school experiences – both good and not so good… I have gleaned a few things along the way which I hope might be useful to you whether you are a parent, an ally, or a practitioner which I am going to explore here;

What is a good school?

I have often been asked the question in relation to my children’s school: ‘Is it a good school?’ My response has always been ‘It depends on what you think is a good school.’ “If ‘good’ means the top academic results then it isn’t, but if by ‘good’ you are looking for a school that will try its best to educate well and meet the needs of a diverse group of children – then it is a good school.”

I believe a good school is an inclusive school – one that welcomes all children, values each and every one of them as individuals and also enables them to be part of a supportive community.

Some hallmarks of a good school are: a diverse intake, tolerant values, robust equality policies and evidence they work hard never to exclude any child. It is a school that wants to work with you as a parent or practitioner and values your partnership. A school that makes sure students have a meaningful voice in the school. Most of all it is a school where my children and all children can be happy and achieve in the way they want.

Looking at these hallmarks – a ‘good’ school’ is a far cry from the Ofsted outstanding benchmark! However holding this view of ‘good’ as a governor in this education climate is hard.

Schools are increasingly forced to conform to tougher and tougher attainment measures which, by their very nature, are exclusive. I see it every day – where the children that are unable to conform are at risk of exclusion. I often feel there is little I can do. I am the one parent governor at the school and am part of a dying breed as academies are not required to have any parent governors at all!

I am a minority in a governing body which does not govern in any meaningful way – we really rubber stamp what the head teacher has already decided! You may well ask why I am continuing to be a governor? Well, it does give me insights into the challenges schools face. It also allows me to understand what my children’s school are doing and where they are going and It helps me to build relationships with key people at the school – and relationships are very important.

So what can you positively do as a parent in this climate?

My first piece of advice for parents of children who are perceived as different or difficult – terms which I reject, would be to intentionally and proactively build relationships with staff at your child’s school. I would also advise that you become an ally to your child and realise that you know them best; you are the expert in them! Remember too that the school needs to work with you in a child-centred way – the law requires it and you can remind the school of your expertise, offer your support and of course promote your child. Indeed schools generally want to work with parents, Ofsted requires them to and where schools involve parents well the children do better and are happier.

Also be very clear that as a parent of a child that has been labelled, you have been oppressed and isolated – by the prejudice which says your child is the problem. My advice would be to reject this assumption and remember it is the barriers that prevent your child from being included that are the problems – it maybe the environment, or it may be attitudes but it is never your child that is the problem.

To conclude:

Finally – remember and remind the school that you are on the same side – wanting the very best for our children, for all children.

Lucy Bartley

 

Supported by

ALLFIE’s campaign for Inclusive Education as a human right is backed by funders and donors who reject the systemic segregation of Disabled people from society.