By Nicole Sherwood, Spencer Clarke Group In every classroom, all children and young people deserve to feel seen, heard and supported regardless of their learning needs. The current SEND system is in need of urgent reform as waiting times for assessments are excruciatingly long and children’s needs are not being met. With the […]
By Rachel Filmer, Parent and SEND Campaigner Special Needs Jungle & Save Our Children’s Rights Response to: Brahm Norwich: How government can reduce EHCPs without limiting parents’ rights Perhaps the most confusing part of the current narrative around SEND legal rights is its contradictory nature. The government states that improved early intervention and […]
Enhancing Public Dialogue about Inclusion in School Education: a Citizens’ Panel Pilot (UKRI-RSA Rethinking Public Dialogue Programme) Brahm Norwich and Rob Webster Public dialogue gives members of the public opportunities to learn about and debate important issues in a safe and respectful space. The discussions produce practical recommendations to share with the people […]
By Peter Imray This short response paper concentrates specifically on children, young people and adults (CYPA) with complex learning disabilities (CLD), a fairly new ‘category’ of LD marking those who are on the severe end of severe learning disabilities. The ‘label’ itself does not carry any special significance, other than being an indication […]
What is the consequence of more children being sent to private special schools? Gary Thomas, University of Birmingham There have been large increases in the number of children sent to non-maintained special schools in recent years. To assess the extent of this trend and its probable consequences, I and my colleagues sent Freedom […]
‘Inclusion is not a place you commute to’. Why accountability measures must reflect inclusion’s relative dimension. Rob Webster Reader in Education & Director of the Education Research, Innovation and Consultancy Unit, University of Portsmouth There is a seemingly contradictory model of inclusion that seems prevalent in English mainstream schools. A longitudinal study I […]
Klaus Wedell responds to recent SENPRF blog posts from Peter Gray and Julie Wharton & Christopher Robertson below. Julie, Christopher and Peter very pertinently query the way in which the ‘mainstream offer’ is presented in the White and Green Papers. I wonder whether the ‘confusion’ is actually a manifest indication of the lack […]
Quality and consistency of the mainstream offer (schools): Targeted Support and SEN Support – coherence or confusion? (NB please note this blog post was updated 28 April 2022 to include information about the proposed national standards) Julie Wharton and Christopher Robertson Targeted Support in mainstream In some respects, the White Paper (Opportunity […]
