\n<\/p>\n
Overhauling England\u2019s schools to take more children with special needs will require complex and detailed changes to how they operate, according to an expert review.<\/p>\n
While the review found a number of examples where schools had accommodated a wide range of children with special educational needs (SEN), it also pointed to the extraordinary lengths schools had had to go to promote inclusion.<\/p>\n
Tom Rees, who led the review and chairs the Department for Education\u2019s expert advisory group on inclusion, said: \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of work that needs to be done so that mainstream schools become more inclusive for pupils with special needs, but in our work we\u2019ve seen many examples that show it can be done and which are a model of excellent practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cParents need to know and have confidence that their child\u2019s needs can be met within a mainstream school. But making mainstream schools more inclusive doesn\u2019t just help those with special needs \u2013 it improves the quality of education for all children.\u201d<\/p>\n
The review recommends that schools establish three internal tiers of support, with teachers able to quickly move children between tiers as needs change:<\/p>\n
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has made greater inclusion a key part of her efforts to remodel special needs provision in England, as the numbers of children and young people requiring SEN support is reaching record levels and exhausting school and council budgets.<\/p>\n
Parents and campaigners fear that the government\u2019s reforms will restrict or phase out the use of education, health and care plans (EHCPs) that give statutory force to support for children and young people assessed as having special needs or disabilities.<\/p>\n
The evidence collected by the review suggested schools would require a series of complex and detailed changes to their operations, including staff training and development, prolonged liaison with parents, and cooperation with external agencies, such as local authorities and the NHS.<\/p>\n
Phillipson said the review would help schools \u201ccreate the foundations\u201d of the changes to be outlined in a white paper in autumn, offering \u201cbetter support in mainstream schools and special school places for those who need them\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Phillipson added: \u201cDespite the system desperately struggling to cope, there are pockets of outstanding practice already in place in schools that show our vision for reform is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: \u201cSchools care deeply about providing an inclusive environment for all children, including pupils with special educational needs, and work tirelessly to achieve this.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, their ability to do so is often hamstrung by shortages of funding, resources and access to specialist staff and support in the community. There is an unfair postcode lottery in the provision available depending on the financial position of local authorities and local health services, many of which suffered from years of underfunding under the previous government.\u201d<\/p>\n Rees said the review gave \u201chope and encouragement\u201d that inclusion could work, but added: \u201cThis project has also reminded us how much inconsistency exists within the SEN system in terms of frameworks, training, advice and resources.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should be ambitious for much better support for teachers and schools in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Overhauling England\u2019s schools to take more children with special needs will require complex and detailed changes to how they operate, according to an expert review. While the review found a number of examples where schools had accommodated a wide range of children with special educational needs (SEN), it also pointed to the extraordinary lengths schools<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[2830,1018,311,583,588,1017],"class_list":{"0":"post-10064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-complex","9":"tag-educational","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-pupils","12":"tag-schools","13":"tag-special"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}