‘Money for Inclusion’ is a leaflet from the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education. It describes four sources of funding available to mainstream schools to support children with disabilities, learning difficulties or challenging behaviour. It explains what can be funded and how to apply.
Child Education, March 2000.

Special schools often present negative attitudes based on the medical model of disability, according to a recent report. Whose Voice Is It Anyway, the Alliance for Inclusive Education’s well-researched report by Christine Wilson and Rowen Jade, presents information on the current attitudes to disabled children in both special and mainstream schools. The enquiry project has shown that in general, special education in Britain is still based on the medical model of disability which tends to focus on peoples’ impairments and assumed limitations. Also it was clear that the attitudes of fellow pupils showed greater ability and insight into the day to day treatment of pupils with disabilities than many so-called ‘disability experts’.
Disability Times, March 2000.

Thousands of pounds have been wasted by Barnet Council in their fight to prevent a disabled girl being admitted into a Cricklewood School, according to the girl’s mother. Zarah Manuel, 12, has cerebral palsy and has been refused a place at Whitefield School in Claremont Road because her disability is said to be too severe. Her mother, Preethi, of Iverson Road, West Hampstead, applied for a judicial review in an attempt to force the council to back down. The review took place on Tuesday (February 29) and ordered both sides to talk the situation over before a final decision is made. Ms Manuel said: ‘The school said it did not have the resources to integrate my daughter or the time for the staff to spend with her. But they have spent thousands of pounds and hours and hours in liaison, in order to resist my child’s place. It would only have cost a small proportion of this to integrate my daughter into this school’.
Potters Bar and Cuffley Press, March 2, 2000.

Parents are to be consulted about how Gloucestershire’s controversial plan to include children with moderate learning difficulties in mainstream schools should be carried out. Families are to be consulted at a series of meetings about whether for example, the special needs pupils should be sent to a local school or specially resourced mainstream school. Under the plans the county’s four special schools will close. Assistant director of education, Tony Saunders, said: ‘Councillors have already approved the development plan following extensive consultation across the county last autumn. Now we must set about the task of putting it into practice’.
Gloucester Citizen, March 14, 2000.

A unique report carried out by young people with disabilities into their educational experiences was launched in Belfast today. For the first time in the UK, and possibly in Europe, a group of young people carried out and analysed research into the lives of other young people with disabilities. Save the Children and Disability Action worked with the group of nine called Educable, training them to research. They spoke to over 50 students in four special schools and two day centres about the choices available to them in education and social life.They concluded there was a clear picture of enforced segregation, at an early age, limited choice, unfulfilled potential and well meaning but stifled overprotection. One student commented: ‘We’re wrapped in cotton wool’.
Belfast Telegraph, March 14, 2000.

Education chiefs are hopeful a Sunderland special needs school can come out of special measures by summer. Last year inspectors from Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, decided Sunningdale School in Springwell needed the special measures after problems identified in in 1997 persisted. The school which takes in pupils between three and 12 who have problems coping with in mainstream education was originally planned to change as part of a review of special needs education in Sunderland. But the plan was rejected by the Department for Education last summer. Ofsted inspectors are due to visit the school in May.
Sunderland Echo, March 22, 2000.

Coventry has adopted the Government’s controversial policy of greater inclusion of children with learning difficulties in mainstream schools. Three years ago, a leading councillor, Dave Edwards, then chairman of Coventry’s education committee, admitted the Government’s inclusion policy was likely to lead to some of the city’s 11 special schools closing. Closure is not a word being bandied about in the current consultation, but merger or amalgamation surely means the same thing, no matter how council chiefs want to dress it up and disguise it. Dave Williams, senior education officer for special needs and pupil support, said the council had a responsibility to explore with schools, staff, governors, and parents, how provision for special needs can be enhanced. ‘We need to ask are we giving a full range of choice to parents. We are exploring how we fill any gaps in our provision. We want every child in the right place, at the right time, for the right reason with the right support’.
Evening Telegraph, March 23, 2000.

Colleges and universities will be able to deny disabled students entry to courses if they can not meet academic standards. But they will face court action if they fail to take ‘reasonable’ steps to accommodate disabled students. A new Bill, due before Parliament later this year, will extend anti-discrimination legislation to cover education, including the post-16 sector. A consultation document says that further and higher education institutions will not have to plan systematically to improve access for disabled students – unlike schools and education authorities. But they will have to make ‘reasonable adjustments to policies, practices, procedures and buildings to ensure courses are accessible’. In assessing what is reasonable the report suggests providers will need to consider, amongst other factors, the cost and practicality of the adjustment and disruption to others.
Times Educational Supplement, March 24, 2000.

Bert Massie, 51, is the first chairman of the Disability Rights Commission, the new anti-discrimination watchdog that will have similar powers to the commissions for racial equality and equal opportunities. Mr Massie was formerly director of the Royal Society for Disability and Rehabilitation (RADAR). It should be an auspicious year for disability rights. Apart from the establishment of the Commission, the Government is also introducing a Bill to extend anti-discrimination legislation law to disabled pupils and students in schools, colleges, and council-provided adult education.
Times Educational Supplement, March 24, 2000.

A 109-page guide to implementing inclusion sent this week to all 26,000 English primary, secondary and special schools is essential reading. The Index for Inclusion, published by the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education in cooperation with Manchester University and Canterbury Christ Church University College, rips up much of the inclusion debate’s received wisdom. The language of ‘special needs education’ is described as a potential ‘barrier to inclusive practice’. The report blames the label for focusing on students’ problems and deflecting attention from ‘barriers to learning and participation’ within the system. The Index challenges schools to examine their own part in excluding children from education. All sections of the school community are involved in a model consultation process to make inclusive education central to school development plans.
Times Educational Supplement, March 31, 2000.

The Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education has approached the British Psychological Society with a request to endorse the ‘Inclusion Charter’. A working group has been set up convened by Gerv Leyden to prepare a position paper to inform the Society’s response. The working group is inviting feedback from all members of the Society. In particular it welcomes comments on the research perspective and the values and entitlements that underpin inclusive education.
The Psychologist, March 2000.

The ‘mums’ army’ has finally arrived. Local education authorities are now spending millions on unqualified classroom assistants. In many ways this development should be welcomed. The idea of having extra adults to work alongside teachers is a good one. But in practice it is creating some worrying trends. It seems that unqualified assistants can indeed foster more effective learning. But this will not be achieved by attaching them to individual pupils in ways that simply create new forms of segregation in our schools.
Times Educational Supplement, March 31, 2000.

The duty of schools and education authorities to ensure inclusive schooling for disabled youngsters will be enforced by the Office for Standards in Education. The new role results from the Government’s intention to extend anti-discrimination legislation to cover young people in schools and colleges. A new web site is available to help teachers provide for special needs pupils. The site, launched by Schools Minister Jacqui Smith, is at: http://inclusion.ngfl.gov.uk
Times Educational Supplement, March 31, 2000