CSIE has responded to the Education Committee’s call for evidence into solving the SEND crisis. CSIE’s main response was included in the response from the collective voice of the Special Educational Consortium.

In its additional submission CSIE welcomed the Committee’s recognition that the system is letting children down, its intentions to explore how schools and other educational settings can become more inclusive, and to review the way SEND is funded.

Our submission emphasised that real, systemic change is long overdue. Over the past 25 years, education in England has become less inclusive, leaving many children with labels of SEND excluded from mainstream schools, and repeating the same problems identified more than a decade ago: frustrated families, poor outcomes, and spiralling costs. We drew the Committee’s attention to international examples, such as New Brunswick in Canada, where government commitment and clear policies have successfully created inclusive schools for all children.

To achieve this in the UK, as the global call to develop more inclusive education dictates, CSIE calls for a systemic transformation: a workforce development plan across education, health and care; an inclusive curriculum and assessment system; inspection frameworks that require inclusion; and a new funding model that supports schools to build inclusive services rather than allocating money to individual children. CSIE stresses that inclusion is a matter of human rights, requiring culture change, disability equality training led by disabled people, and a shift towards the social model of disability. With proper funding and commitment, the UK can create an education system fit for the 21st century where, as Professor Mel Ainscow says, every child matters and they matter equally.