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Parents and children let down by schooling, says damning Commons committee report
A damning report will raise serious questions this week over the way children with special needs are educated, highlighting 'significant cracks' in an underfunded system that leaves desperate parents without sufficient support.
While the government denies it has an 'inclusion policy' - increasing the number of children with special educational needs (SEN) taught in mainstream schools - that is the message it is sending to local authorities, the study by the Commons Education and Skills select committee will claim.
The policy is 'failing to cope with the rising number of children with autism and social, emotional or behavioural difficulties', the report will conclude: 'The government needs to rethink its approach to involving or - as is more often the case - not involving parents.'
Many campaigners argue that every child has a right to be included in mainstream school. Others, who often include parents of children with behavioural difficulties, say some cannot cope in a busy local school and would benefit from a place in a special school.
The report will say both options - and others in between, such as specialist units - must be open to all parents. That is not the reality at the moment, the committee has found.
The findings come a month after an Observer investigation revealed that thousands of parents were being let down by the system. Local education authorities were found to be deliberately delaying assessments so that children did not get the right educational support.
The report will also say that children are being needlessly excluded from school because of behaviour associated with learning difficulties, while teachers are not trained to cope. Families face a 'postcode lottery' where 'good practice is the exception rather than the rule'. SEN must be 'radically improved' or society will face heavy costs in terms of exclusions and youth crime, it will argue. At present 87 per cent of exclusions in primary schools involve children with SEN and 60 per cent at secondary.
But the report is too tame for one MP on the committee. Nadine Dorries, a Tory backbencher who has a daughter with special needs and is herself dyslexic, is expected to deliver a hard-hitting minority report, further attacking the policy of inclusion as damaging to children.
Dorries is expected to argue that the situation has worsened significantly since the introduction of legislation in 2001 which imposed a duty on schools to include such pupils in mainstream school unless it was either against their parents' wishes or incompatible with a proper education, which she maintains has been interpreted as a general policy to educate all children in mainstream schools. Dorries is said to believe that the main body of the report has not tackled the reasons why SEN has become so problematic. She refused to comment in advance of its publication.
Some parents also criticised the committee. Julie Maynard, whose son Joshua has multiple disabilities, including autism, said she was angry they did not take direct, verbal evidence from parents. But she welcomed the news that they would call for the government to clarify its confused position on inclusion.
She said many children thrived in a mainstream setting, but that had not been the case for her son. 'Sadly, I think the argument for inclusion of all children in mainstream has for too long been dominated by the physically disabled who were - in the past - wrongly placed in special schools.' But for many children with behavioural issues, it was a different debate, she added, where mainstream was right for some, but not all.
The committee will call for a statutory requirement for local authorities to provide a minimum level of support for children such as Joshua. SEN training should be a core and compulsory part of teacher training, it will say. It will also call for a fundamental review of the 'failing' system that gives children statements outlining their needs: 'If SEN was given sufficient priority, this would not be allowed to continue.'
Experts are likely to welcome the findings, but many will feel it has not gone far enough. Allan Willis, an educational psychologist who represents parents, argued it was wrong that many had to spend thousands of pounds just to get their child's basic needs satisfied.
Meanwhile, John Friel, one of the country's leading barristers handing SEN cases, said local authorities did not offer services unless they were fought for. 'Parents feel like they are knocking their heads against a brick wall,' he said.
Source: The Guardian
While the government denies it has an 'inclusion policy' - increasing the number of children with special educational needs (SEN) taught in mainstream schools - that is the message it is sending to local authorities, the study by the Commons Education and Skills select committee will claim.
The policy is 'failing to cope with the rising number of children with autism and social, emotional or behavioural difficulties', the report will conclude: 'The government needs to rethink its approach to involving or - as is more often the case - not involving parents.'
Many campaigners argue that every child has a right to be included in mainstream school. Others, who often include parents of children with behavioural difficulties, say some cannot cope in a busy local school and would benefit from a place in a special school.
The report will say both options - and others in between, such as specialist units - must be open to all parents. That is not the reality at the moment, the committee has found.
The findings come a month after an Observer investigation revealed that thousands of parents were being let down by the system. Local education authorities were found to be deliberately delaying assessments so that children did not get the right educational support.
The report will also say that children are being needlessly excluded from school because of behaviour associated with learning difficulties, while teachers are not trained to cope. Families face a 'postcode lottery' where 'good practice is the exception rather than the rule'. SEN must be 'radically improved' or society will face heavy costs in terms of exclusions and youth crime, it will argue. At present 87 per cent of exclusions in primary schools involve children with SEN and 60 per cent at secondary.
But the report is too tame for one MP on the committee. Nadine Dorries, a Tory backbencher who has a daughter with special needs and is herself dyslexic, is expected to deliver a hard-hitting minority report, further attacking the policy of inclusion as damaging to children.
Dorries is expected to argue that the situation has worsened significantly since the introduction of legislation in 2001 which imposed a duty on schools to include such pupils in mainstream school unless it was either against their parents' wishes or incompatible with a proper education, which she maintains has been interpreted as a general policy to educate all children in mainstream schools. Dorries is said to believe that the main body of the report has not tackled the reasons why SEN has become so problematic. She refused to comment in advance of its publication.
Some parents also criticised the committee. Julie Maynard, whose son Joshua has multiple disabilities, including autism, said she was angry they did not take direct, verbal evidence from parents. But she welcomed the news that they would call for the government to clarify its confused position on inclusion.
She said many children thrived in a mainstream setting, but that had not been the case for her son. 'Sadly, I think the argument for inclusion of all children in mainstream has for too long been dominated by the physically disabled who were - in the past - wrongly placed in special schools.' But for many children with behavioural issues, it was a different debate, she added, where mainstream was right for some, but not all.
The committee will call for a statutory requirement for local authorities to provide a minimum level of support for children such as Joshua. SEN training should be a core and compulsory part of teacher training, it will say. It will also call for a fundamental review of the 'failing' system that gives children statements outlining their needs: 'If SEN was given sufficient priority, this would not be allowed to continue.'
Experts are likely to welcome the findings, but many will feel it has not gone far enough. Allan Willis, an educational psychologist who represents parents, argued it was wrong that many had to spend thousands of pounds just to get their child's basic needs satisfied.
Meanwhile, John Friel, one of the country's leading barristers handing SEN cases, said local authorities did not offer services unless they were fought for. 'Parents feel like they are knocking their heads against a brick wall,' he said.
Source: The Guardian
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