• April, 2025

    CSIE response to Ofsted consultation

  • February, 2025

    CSIE response to the Education Committee’s call for evidence into solving the SEND crisis

    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.

  • November, 2024

    CSIE response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review

    CSIE has responded to the Department for Education’s call for evidence towards the Curriculum and Assessment Review. CSIE’s main response was included in the response from the collective voice of the Special Educational Consortium. In its additional submission CSIE drew particular attention to the following issues:

    1. Embracing the social model of disability and understanding disability as an ordinary part of human diversity are at the heart of developing a more equitable education system, which expects educators to have high aspirations for all children and young people, and which responds to the needs of all learners with equal commitment and effectiveness.
    2. Under the Equality Act 2010 schools have a duty to advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. The current system s increasing reliance on separate special schools, however, means that instead of receiving the support needed to access learning in their local community, many disabled children and young people receive so-called special provision instead of what is offered to their peers. The Curriculum and Assessment Review can set a good example of how such equality of opportunity can be pursued.
    3. The Equality Act also places a duty on all schools to make Reasonable Adjustments so that disabled children and young people are not at a disadvantage. Recent evidence suggests that many schools are reluctant to welcome children with labels of SEN or disability. The Review offers a great opportunity to articulate a range of Reasonable Adjustments which can make the Curriculum, and the Assessment process, more accessible for disabled children and young people.
    4. Initial Teacher Education and Continued Professional Development will also need to be revised, to support a transformation of attitudes and cultures in a way which places children and young people with labels of SEND at the centre of the education system, rather than in the periphery or as an afterthought.
    5. The global call to develop more inclusive education remains strong (for example through the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Sustainable Development Goal #4) and the UK has been repeatedly criticised by UN Committees for its slow progress towards developing more inclusive education.
    6. Finally, CSIE suggested that the entire model of financing inclusive education is thoroughly reviewed, bearing in mind that: a) changing systems of financing inclusive education is a key lever for achieving more widespread inclusion; and b) countries which implement a financing model based on funding services provided, have greater success compared to countries where funding is based on some aspect of individual need (e.g. types or categories of need).

  • November, 2024

    CSIE response to the Public Account Committee’s inquiry

    The Public Accounts Committee invited CSIE to submit evidence to the inquiry into support for children and young people with special educational needs. In its response CSIE drew attention to the following issues:

    Since the introduction of the Children and Families Act the education system has become less inclusive. Increasing numbers of children and young people are identified as having SEN or as being disabled, are not in mainstream schools, and are achieving poor outcomes. Parents are frustrated at the lack of provision to meet their children’s needs. And there is growing concern that the financial impact of this system is becoming unsustainable.

    The lack of national commitment to inclusive education has left inclusion as a moral choice for school leaders. The consequence is that too many children and young people are not accessing the education that they need, do not feel welcome in school, and outcomes for them are poor.

    The capacity of schools to respond to children with a range of SEN and disabilities continues to be significantly affected by the availability of specialist local education, health and care services. In recent years, there has been significant erosion of local specialist services such as educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, autism outreach, teachers of the deaf and other sensory specialist teachers.

    This review by the Public Accounts Committee represents an opportunity to review the architecture of our education system as a whole, rather than revisit the detail of the SEN system. In order to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all, as Sustainable Goal no. 4 invites every country to do, planning for SEND issues needs to be built in, not bolted on. This is a welcome opportunity to build capacity in schools and strengthen inclusion, with careful consideration of key issues such as curriculum & assessment, teacher education, workforce planning, the disability duties in the Equality Act 2010, and funding (and in particular considering recent research suggesting that countries which implement a financing model based on funding services provided, have greater success compared to countries where funding is based on some aspect of individual need, e.g. types or categories of need).

    Finally, in its response CSIE expressed concern that many of the approaches put forward to date focus on driving down demand, rather than managing the drivers of that demand. In effect, they are designed to address high costs, and not the poor outcomes and parental dissatisfaction that are driving the high costs. There are no quick fixes, only long-term solutions. The clear articulation of a core set of values should frame the range of reforms that are required. Without clarity on values, any developments to address the long-standing problems of the system are likely to exacerbate, rather gradually resolve, these problems.

  • March, 2024

    CSIE response to the Department for Education s consultation on non-statutory guidance on gender questioning children

    CSIE has responded to the Department for Education s consultation on the draft Guidance for Schools and Colleges: Gender Questioning Children.

    In its response, CSIE argued that the draft guidance is not fit for purpose. It is inconsistent with existing law and statutory guidance, there is no Easy Read version, and the consultation document itself has been presented in a form which looks more like government guidance than a consultation document. As a result, it has been widely misunderstood, even mis-represented in the media, as the long-awaited guidance that schools have to follow.

    CSIE s response also stated that are significant gaps in the guidance, for example the absence of any reference to neurodiversity, learning difficulties or any other issues of SEND, and no reference to the intersection of trans and SEND identities. These issues need to be explored and understood by educators who will be called upon to support children and young people who are questioning their gender identity.

    There are also significant conflicts with existing legislation and statutory guidance.

    The Equality Act 2010 protects all trans people regardless of age, so there is no justification for a blanket ban in primary schools in fact that would seem unlawful.

    Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) places a statutory duty on schools to safeguard and promote the well-being of all pupils, yet the proposed guidance invites staff to act in ways which undermine trans pupils’ well-being particularly suggestions that staff should ignore pupil wishes and disregard their identities, for example by not adhering to requests for change of name, pronouns or use of spaces. Such practices would also be in conflict with the Equality Act s Public Sector Equality Duty, especially the duty to eliminate harassment and discrimination.

    Further, KCSIE states that sharing with parents an LGBT disclosure may not be in the pupils’ best interest and could constitute a breach of confidentiality. The draft guidance says that parents should be informed, which is in direct conflict with existing statutory guidance and, potentially, with young people s well-being.

    Our response further suggested that if a “watchful waiting” period is interpreted as a blanket policy for no immediate action, this could prove detrimental for some young people who have waited a long time before confiding in an adult and are ready for things to begin to change.

  • July, 2022

    CSIE response to the Department for Educations consultation on the Green Paper SEND Review: Right support, right place, right time

    CSIE has responded to the Department for Education s consultation on the Green Paper SEND Review: Right support, right place, right time. CSIE s main response to this consultation was included in the response from the collective voice of the Special Educational Consortium. In its additional submission CSIE drew particular attention to the following issues:

    i) The need for new SEND legislation is simply not justified. CSIE believes that there is little evidence to support the Government s proposals for new legislation. There seems to be no analysis included in the Review of how these proposals will create more inclusive settings, or improve outcomes for disabled children & young people.

    ii) National Standards stand to undermine existing rights. The Review proposes a set of National SEND Standards which, if approved, could get in the way of existing person-centred decision-making processes set out in the Children and Families Act and the Code of Practice. In other words, the introduction of the proposed standards would risk undermining children s rights as specified in existing legislation.

    iii) Changing the way inclusive education is financed, is a key lever for achieving more widespread inclusion and better outcomes for all. Recent evidence suggests that in a system set up to fund individual children s needs, costs can spiral out of control. A restructured system, with a financing model focused on generating services rather than attempting to meet individual need, has been shown to be more effective. All the more so, when sufficient incentives are offered and barriers to inclusion are removed.

    The government had originally announced in 2019 that it would carry out a review of the special educational needs and disability (SEND) system in England. This was in order to find out what had been achieved by the major reforms introduced by the Children and Families Act in 2014. This had intended to overhaul a system which was no longer seen as fit for purpose, and to re-ignite parental confidence in the system. By 2019 the proportion of children attending separate special schools had already started to rise, as shown by CSIE s Trends reports among other reports.

    In March 2022 the SEND Review concluded that there are three main issues in the SEND statutory system causing concern: frustrated parents and young people; poor outcomes for children and young people with labels of SEND; and unsustainable financial strain on the system.

    CSIE s additional submission highlights that this, alone, is a major cause for concern. The Children and Families Act was developed precisely in order to provide: a clearer focus on outcomes; a stronger voice for parents; a more strategic local approach; and a greater degree of accountability. It seems, therefore, that the Children and Families Act has not managed to solve the problems it was supposed to address.

    The Special Educational Consortium s response includes a detailed analysis of the reasons behind the concerns identified in the Green Paper, and offers a number of recommendations for developing more inclusive schools and securing better outcomes for children, young people and their families. In the long-term, these are also expected to relieve the pressures on high needs budgets.

    CSIE stands by these recommendations and suggests that the most effective way forward is to ensure the consistent implementation of existing legislation, in line with these recommendations.

    After all, frustrated users and poor outcomes are matters of implementation, and do not call for amendments to the law or guidance. There really seems to be no evidence to suggest that any law reform is needed, or that any arbitrary proposals will deliver the improvements that continue to be needed in the system.

    We remain confident that when the SEC recommendations have been implemented and models of financing inclusion have been revised in line with recent evidence, it will finally be possible for children to receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time.

  • August, 2021

    Every teacher an SEND teacher: CSIE response to the Department for Education s consultation on the Initial teacher training (ITT) market review recommendations

    The Department for Education appointed an expert group to review courses that lead to qualified teacher status, with the aim of providing high-quality training to teachers, and has sought responses to its recommendations.

    In its response, CSIE welcomed the single acknowledgement that teachers must be adequately prepared to teach pupils with labels of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). At the same time, CSIE s response stressed that the omission of any reference to this from the rest of the document makes it unlikely that teachers will be sufficiently prepared to respond to the full diversity of learners. If every teacher is a teacher of SEND, as the government has suggested and as they should be, then ITT must ensure that they can be.

    In the current landscape, the education of children with labels of SEND is largely seen as the domain of specialists. This can give rise to the assumption that if one does not have such a specialism they are ill-equipped to respond to these children’s needs. In the process of developing a system where “every teacher is a teacher of SEND”, it is essential to prepare all teachers to work in inclusive classrooms, and equally important to provide sufficient professional development for those who support newly qualified teachers.

    CSIE drew attention to the fact that the government s annual survey of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) regularly finds that only about half of NQTs report that their ITT equipped them well to teach pupils with labels of SEND.

    Current data suggests that fewer and fewer children are benefitting from the core high quality provision in our education system, as more and more children are segregated in separate special schools and alternative provision. CSIE s response suggested that, in the 21st century, this needs to change. Education needs to better reflect the level of disability equality achieved in other parts of life.

    The principal of Universal Design was put forward as an alternative basis for initial teacher education, with issues of SEND woven into its fabric instead of being bolted-on as an afterthought. This would contribute to the much-needed culture change in which disabled children s right to an inclusive education is fully understood and respected in all schools. This, after all, is what the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have repeatedly recommended to the UK as a matter of urgency.

    CSIE s response also suggests that the consultation may have been ill-timed, given that the summer holidays are not the best time to engage all key stakeholders in a meaningful way.

    Finally, the response queries the need for such a radical transformation of ITT at all, given the apparent absence of evidence upon which this review was commissioned, or upon which its recommendations are based.

  • October, 2020

    No child should be hard to place : CSIE response to the Department for Education s consultation on Changes to the School Admissions Code

    CSIE has responded to the Department for Education s consultation on Changes to the School Admissions Code. CSIE s main response to this consultation was included in the response from the collective voice of the Special Educational Consortium. In its additional submission CSIE drew particular attention to the following two issues:

    a) Some schools continue to undermine equal opportunities by discouraging parents of disabled children from applying for a place in that school. To support this claim, our submission referred to the earlier report from the Office of the Children s Commissioner It might be best if you looked elsewhere: An investigation into the schools admission process .

    b) The proposed new Code refers to vulnerable children, without clearly defining who they are, and claiming that they are hard to place . In its submission, CSIE pointed out that some disabled children may currently be hard to place because schools have not yet fully developed capacity to respond to the full diversity of children s needs. If the DfE were to support schools to develop such capacity, as is required by the Equality Act 2010, the SEND Code of Practice, the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, then schools would be better prepared to include all children and no group of children would be considered “hard to place”.

  • April, 2019

    CSIE response to Ofsted s consultation on the proposed education inspection framework 2019

    The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) has had an open consultation, inviting feedback on its proposed new inspection framework Education inspection framework 2019: inspecting the substance of education , which is expected to be introduced in September.

    In its response, CSIE welcomed the proposal to introduce a quality of education judgement, seeing this as a more inclusive approach, shifting the emphasis away from performance outcomes. It added that this could be more closely aligned with the statutory duty which schools have, under the Equality Act 2010, to make reasonable adjustments to respond to the needs of disabled pupils. As this is an anticipatory duty, CSIE suggested that any evaluation of the quality of education should include an evaluation of the school s readiness to respond to the needs of existing and prospective disabled pupils, as is the legal requirement. CSIE also asked for greater clarity on the criteria which inspectors will use to make judgements on the quality and implementation of Education and Health Care Plans, particularly for children and young people who have low incidence needs.

    CSIE also suggested that the new inspection framework should be more closely aligned with key themes from the Code of Practice, such as the concepts of person-centred planning, empowerment and preparing for adulthood, to help ensure that schools are encouraged and supported in its implementation.

    With regard to the Equality, diversity and inclusion statement which formed part of the same consultation, CSIE s response welcomed the existence of this document and its clear emphasis on the public sector equality duty. At the same time CSIE expressed concern at the apparent hierarchy of protected characteristics and the implication that some should be given priority over others, as there is no such hierarchy suggested in the Equality Act. At a time when homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying continue to be rife in schools, the protected characteristics of sexual orientation and gender reassignment are just as important as those listed as more relevant to schools.

    Last but not least, in its response CSIE suggested that the new framework offers an excellent opportunity to reinstate the limiting judgement according to which a school cannot be judged to be outstanding unless it can evidence its work to promote disability equality and increase its capacity to respond to the needs of disabled children and young people. This would be in line with the Government s declaration of 2009, made in the process of ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which states that the UK Government is committed to continuing to develop an inclusive system where parents of disabled children have increasing access to mainstream schools and staff, which have the capacity to meet the needs of disabled children.

     

    CSIE responds to Ofsted s consultation on the proposed education inspection framework 2019. (doc)

  • June, 2018

    SEND Inquiry.

    CSIE has responded to the Education Committee’s inquiry into special educational needs and disabilities. In its response, CSIE provided details of the multiple agencies which have recently emphasised the need to develop a more inclusive education system, including the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. CSIE also emphasised that recent law reforms do not fully embrace other relevant legislation, including the Equality Act 2010. Finally, CSIE’s submission referred to ongoing barriers to equality of opportunity: a) the chicken-and-egg relationship between parental choice and the context in which it takes place stressing that, until schools in every part of the country are willing and able to include the full diversity of learners, the promise of parental choice remains hollow; and b) inflexible ideas about how teaching and learning are organised in schools, leading to widespread belief that some disabled children cannot be included in ordinary schools.

  • January, 2016

    CSIE response to the Education Committee’s inquiry into the purpose and quality of education in England.

    CSIE has responded to the Education Committee’s inquiry into the purpose and quality of education in England. The call for submissions included a link to a short video where a range of people said what they thought the purpose of education should be. Their views included: to get people a good job, or basic life skills, to help people realise their full potential, to give preparation for day-to-day life, to enable critical thinking leading to informed choices, and to enable people to get a good job and be happy. These do not appear to be conflicting views; they are all variations on the theme of creating the possibility of a better tomorrow. They are all, however, focused on what individuals get out of a good education, with no mention of the benefit to society as a whole.

    In its response, CSIE suggested that the primary function of education is to enable children and young people to become responsible and informed citizens, capable of sustaining happy and fulfilling lives for themselves and for others. It added that an agreed set of core values and a culture of respect, for one another and for the environment, are essential in order to enable future generations to establish sustainable communities free from prejudice and discrimination. CSIE further argued that, at a time when information has become easily and readily available, education’s role needs to expand from a conventional learning of facts and skills organised around a range of curriculum subjects, to a more empowering set of life skills relevant as much to information processing as to interpersonal relationships and communication.

    In addition, CSIE’s response highlighted concerns about the narrow focus of what the DfE calls “fundamental British values” and about the negative impact which league tables and the standards agenda can have on school admissions. CSIE recommended that the Equality Act 2010 should be reflected in any framework used to evaluate the quality of education. CSIE further recommended that pupils should learn more about equality and human rights and be supported to monitor and promote these in school. In addition, schools should take every opportunity to challenge stereotypes and educate people away from prejudice, as well as enable pupils to develop a range of interpersonal skills such as collaboration, negotiation and conflict resolution. Last but not least, CSIE recommended that schools should be encouraged and supported to educate all children from their local community, including disabled children and those categorised as having special educational needs, especially when their parents have requested this, and that schools should be specifically evaluated on their development of provision for these learners.

    CSIE submission to inquiry into purpose and quality of education in England

  • December, 2014

    CSIE response to the Department for Education’s consultation on performance descriptors for statutory teacher assessment in KS1&2

    The Department for Education has sought views on new performance descriptors for statutory teacher assessment at the end of key stages 1 and 2, which are being revised in light of the new curriculum introduced in September 2014.

    In its response, CSIE highlighted the damaging effect that the proposed terminology could have on children’s self-esteem and suggested a number of alternatives. Our response also suggested that the draft descriptors should be revised, rather than introducing a new system which acknowledges a gap in its own structure.

    Above all, CSIE expressed significant concern at the way in which the standards agenda continues to stand in the way of including disabled children in their ordinary local school. To mitigate against this, CSIE suggested that there should be scope within league tables (or other systems which compare attainment results) to value schools’ contribution to the learning and development of disabled children or those identified as having special educational needs. In other words, we proposed that schools should also be judged on how well they serve their local community and that the government should offer incentives to encourage schools to admit children expected to make slow academic progress.

    CSIE response to the Department for Education’s consultation on performance descriptors for statutory teacher assessment in KS1&2. (doc)

  • September, 2014

    CSIE response to the Department for Education’s consultation on Special Educational Needs and Disability Data Descriptors

    The new Children and Families Act has introduced wide-ranging reforms in the education of disabled children or those identified as having special educational needs. The new law applies to children and young people aged 0-25 and the Department for Education has been reviewing the terminology used in different parts of the sector. In the past, further education had used different terminology from schools, even when attempting to describe the same person. In an effort to allow for better monitoring and to improve the support provided by schools and colleges, the DfE has produced a set of proposals on appropriate terminology and consulted on these during August (and, granting a week’s extension, until today, 10 September).

    In its response, CSIE stressed that any terminology used should be consistent with that proposed by UK disabled people’s organisations. For example, a clear distinction should be made between “impairment” and “disability” and the two words should not be used interchangeably.

    CSIE’s response also drew attention to an important omission in existing data collection systems, which is in danger of being perpetuated. No information is currently available on the proportion of time that children and young people spend in different settings, for example on how time is divided between ordinary and special schools for children in dual placements. For children in special classes, units or resource bases in ordinary schools, no information is available on the proportion of time they spend alongside, or separated from, other pupils in the school, which means that pupils in such placements may have remarkably different experiences. The recent Trends report (“Contrasting responses to diversity: school placement trends 2007-13 for all local authorities in England”, researched and written by Dr Alison Black and Professor Brahm Norwich, published by CSIE 2014), recommended that the DfE collects time-based information from schools and colleges, in the way that USA data collection systems have been doing for years. A key aim of this consultation was to improve the experiences of disabled children and young people, or those identified as having special educational needs. It is hard to imagine how experiences can be improved, without a clear picture of what they are in the first place.

    CSIE response the revised SEN and Disability Code of Practice: 0-25 years. (doc)

  • May, 2014

    CSIE response to the Department for Education’s consultation on the revised draft Code of Practice

    Setting a consultation period of only three weeks including Easter break and May Bank Holiday (total just 12 working days) the Department for Education has sought responses to the revised SEN and Disability Code of Practice: 0-25 years.

    Blink and you’ve missed it. Such astonishing haste adds salt to the wounds of those concerned at the pace of change and the magnitude of major changes to the education system, especially as there is little or no evidence of how these changes will improve existing arrangements. We also deeply regret the limited number of closed and very specific questions on the online response form, the only route for submitting responses, which effectively deprived respondents of any opportunity to voice concerns about the current state of the Code of Practice and its fitness for purpose. We quip poorly that this seems more like con-saltation than consultation.

    CSIE’s main response has been made through the collective voice of the Special Educational Consortium (SEC), of which CSIE is a member.

    In its individual response, CSIE welcomed the newly added references to the Equality Act 2010 and to Article 24 (Education) of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and recommended that these should be mentioned consistently throughout the Code, so that new legislation can be understood in the context existing. CSIE’s response also called for a more thorough incorporation of the existing statutory guidance on Inclusive Schooling, as had previously been promised by the DfE. CSIE warned that, without strategic leadership and clear guidance on how to advance more inclusive education for disabled children and young people, the DfE could be in breach of its obligations to them.

    CSIE response the revised SEN and Disability Code of Practice: 0-25 years

  • December, 2013

    CSIE response to the Department for Education’s consultation on the draft Code of Practice

    As part of the passage of the Children and Families Bill through Parliament, the Department for Education (DfE) has been consulting on the draft Code of Practice and draft regulations and transitional arrangements.

    CSIE’s main response has been made through the collective voice of the Special Educational Consortium (SEC), of which CSIE is a member. This includes the SEC statement informing the DfE that the draft Code of Practice could not be supported if it was laid before Parliament for approval in its current form, and the more detailed consultation response submitted on 9 December. Both these documents are available on the SEC website.

    In its individual response, CSIE recommended that national and international equality legislation should be more clearly reflected in the revised Code of Practice and that the Department for Education should use the ongoing legal reform as an opportunity to safeguard and promote greater disability equality in education.

    Our response focused on two significant aspects of the law reform. The draft Code of Practice reflects what is currently in the Children and Families Bill as this moves through Report Stage at the House of Lords. Both documents repeat what the last law reform established more than ten years ago: that children who want (and whose parents want) a mainstream education, will be placed in a mainstream school as long as this is thought to be compatible with the efficient education of others in that school. In our response, we argued that in the 21st century this sounds inappropriate and anachronistic. It would not be said for a child from an ethnic minority background, or who speaks little or no English. Schools are presented with small and large challenges all the time; on the whole, they do a very good job of responding, and often rising, to the challenge. If any school is concerned that the presence of one child could compromise the efficient education of others, the government should support it to organise teaching and learning in a way that benefits everyone; not say that they do not have to include disabled children. We argued that the pretext of efficient education of others allows schools to continue to exclude disabled children, and that this seriously undermines parental choice. Promising a choice without building capacity in schools is like issuing a ticket and keeping the door locked.

    Our response also focused on the unexpected suggestion that children and young people can be placed in special schools indefinitely, even if their needs have not been formally assessed. We suggested that this appears to be an oversight, which we urged the DfE to rectify as a matter of urgency. We also added a brief note on why we think this could be detrimental for some young people, for the unlikely event that establishing such an enormous loophole in the system was intentional.

    Finally, our response pointed out that a response time of only nine weeks seems astonishingly short for a consultation of this magnitude: 13 separate documents, a total of 239 pages, proposing major changes to the education system. We understand that this concern has been echoed by many others.

    Earlier today, 10 December, it emerged that the Independent Parental Special Education Advice (IPSEA), after submitting its response to the consultation detailing why the draft Code of Practice is not fit for purpose, has called for a moratorium on this legislation. CSIE has registered its support for this call. IPSEA chief executive, Jane McConnell, said “Political enthusiasm for making a change must not be allowed to drive bad legislation forward”.

    CSIE response to the Department for Education’s consultation on the draft Code of Practice (doc)

  • April, 2013

    CSIE contribution to review of public sector equality duty

    CSIE has responded to the Home Office review of the public sector equality duty (PSED). This said that, in our experience, the PSED is not fully understood or implemented in schools. At a time when hate crime is reported to be increasing, the PSED should not be withdrawn but plans to support its implementation should be put in place as a matter of urgency. We added that the benefits of eliminating discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity and fostering good relations by far outweigh any financial costs in the process. For more information please see our news report of 19 April 2013.

  • October, 2012

    CSIE responds to the Education Select Committee’s call for evidence on the government’s proposed reform of provision for children and young people categorised as having special educational needs.

    The Education Select Committee is currently conducting pre-legislative scrutiny and has invited written submissions of evidence to be received by noon on Thursday 11 October.

    In its response, CSIE has recommended that two sub-clauses are removed from the draft legislation, as they seem inconsistent with current policy, legislation and social values. CSIE has also suggested that the phrase “special educational needs” is no longer used in forthcoming legislation, as the term is ill-defined, unclear and potentially harmful to the young people to whom the label is attributed.

    The Select Committee is expected to publish a report of its findings in December 2012.

    CSIE’s response to the Education Committee’s call for evidence.

  • April, 2012

    A matter of choice

    The Labour Party has sought the views of parents, young people and education practitioners on how to improve educational outcomes for disabled children and young people and those categorised as having special educational needs, in order to inform policies in the run-up to the next general election.

    CSIE has submitted a brief summary of key issues to bring to the attention of the review panel and has scheduled a meeting to discuss these in more detail with Sharon Hodgson, Shadow Education Minister, who is chairing the review panel.

    Labour Party special educational needs policy review – CSIE submission (doc, 35 Kb)

  • November, 2011

    CSIE a signatory in joint response

    CSIE is a signatory in the joint response submitted by the ROCK (Rights of the Child UK) coalition to the Commission on a Bill of Rights’ discussion paper “Do we need a UK Bill of Rights?” The response takes the position that we do, in addition to the existing Human Rights Act. It suggests that we need a Bill of Rights “that brings meaning and force to internationally agreed human rights” and further supports children’s rights.

    ROCK response to Bill of Rights discussion paper (pdf, 166 Kb)

  • June, 2011

    CSIE response to the Department for Education’s Green Paper

    CSIE has responded to the Department for Education’s Green Paper Support and aspiration: a new approach to special educational needs and disability. In its response, CSIE disputed the government’s unsubstantiated claim that there has been a bias towards inclusion and argued that government proposals suggest an underlying bias towards segregation. CSIE pointed out that the government’s commitment to parental choice confirms that parents “will be able to express a preference” but offers no assurances that this preference will be met. To the contrary, the Green Paper proposes a number of conditions that will have to be met, which effectively allow the status quo to remain unchallenged. For parents who might have been heartened by the promise of real choice, this can only add insult to injury.

    In its response CSIE further argued that support for children does not necessarily improve by strengthening assessment and identification processes; made the case for funding to be targeted at services provided instead of being allocated according to perceived need of individual pupils; and commented on proposed changes to the Code of Practice and initial teacher education. CSIE expressed strong reservations at the suggestion that special schools could be granted academy status and warned on the likelihood of this backfiring on local authorities’ ability to ensure that appropriate provision is made available for all learners. CSIE suggested how the Local Offer can support the government’s commitment to offering a real choice to all parents. Finally, CSIE expressed significant concern at the way the Green Paper seems disconnected from the Education Bill, currently before Parliament, as well as the Equality Act 2010 and the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child and on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, both of which the UK has ratified.

    Department for Education’s Green Paper – Response from CSIE (Word, 272 Kb)

  • November, 2010

    CSIE response to the Government Equalities Office consultation on the public sector Equality Duty

    The Government Equalities Office (GEO) sought feedback from individuals and organisations on proposed draft regulations containing the specific duties through which public bodies will meet the general Equality Duty, an important part of the Equality Act 2010 which is due to come into force in April 2011. In its response, CSIE welcomed the proposed emphasis on equality objectives but expressed great concern at the suggestion that public bodies with less than150 employees should not have to report on equality in their workforce. This would affect most schools and could serve to weaken equalities legislation, instead of simplifying and strengthening the law as the Equality Act set out to do. CSIE applauded the suggestion that citizens should be empowered to hold public bodies to account, but stressed that this should be as well as, not instead of, public bodies’ accountability to government departments. CSIE also suggested that, if government departments are no longer required to propose national priorities for their sector and public bodies are invited to select their own priorities, awareness-raising opportunities should be made available on a range of equality issues, so that long-standing misconceptions and prejudice can be seriously addressed. People at risk of discrimination should not have the responsibility for change left solely in their own hands. CSIE conveyed its concern on a range of other issues, such as: proposals to remove the reporting duties with regard to disability equality; the seemingly retrogressive removal of recommendations laid out in the Macpherson report with regard to racial equality; and the lack of any minimum requirements for objectives.

    The public sector Equality Duty – Consultation response from CSIE (Word, 104 Kb)

  • October, 2010

    CSIE response to the Department for Education’s Call For Views

    CSIE has responded to the government’s Call For Views on the forthcoming Green Paper (Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities). In its response, CSIE has urged the government to simplify legislation so that the system is clearer for parents, schools and other providers, as recommended in the recent Ofsted report. CSIE also suggested that this should provide an opportunity to move away from the term “special educational needs” and, instead, adopt terminology which is consistent with the social model of disability. CSIE argued that, if the promise of parental choice is to be meaningful for all parents, the capacity of mainstream schools to provide for the full diversity of learners has to be improved. Our response also suggested that, as part of far-reaching reforms envisaged, funding models that support processes, rather than individuals, should be developed, so that funds can be directed towards supporting young people’s education, instead of lengthy and bureaucratic processes of assessment and/or litigation. Stronger accountability procedures were suggested as a means of evaluating how resources are used and the impact these are having on the learning and development of all children and young people. Finally, CSIE offered a range of examples of good practice and urged the Department for Education to offer strategic leadership in developing more inclusive provision for all in mainstream schools, so that the government’s promise of parental choice can be meaningful for all parents.

    CSIE response to Call For Views (Word, 134 Kb)

  • October, 2010

    CSIE contribution to the inquiry into the role of Ofsted

    The Select Committee on Education called upon organisations and professionals to submit their views on what the purpose of inspections should be, the impact of the inspection process on improvement and the performance of Ofsted in carrying out its work. In its response, CSIE stressed that Ofsted should: retain its independence from the Department for Education; expand its remit to hear the views of all who live in the area of the service inspected; ensure that fundamental values upon which judgements are based are shared and understood in the same way by all inspectors; report on providers’ compliance with the single equality duty, when this comes into force, and continue to regard the judgment on equality and diversity as potentially limiting the judgment on the overall effectiveness of the provision; and hold providers to account when statutory duties are not complied with.

    CSIE submission to Select Committee on Education, on the role of Ofsted

  • September, 2010

    CSIE contribution to the inquiry into behaviour and discipline in schools

    The Education Select Committee asked how to support and reinforce positive behaviour in schools and wanted to find out more about the nature and level of challenging behaviour by pupils, the impact of such behaviour and how schools managed behaviour and discipline. They were also keen to know how special educational needs can best be recognised in schools’ policies on behaviour and discipline. CSIE stated that every child has a right to mainstream education within their local school – including those said to have special educational needs or those who have emotional or behavioural difficulties, so long as this did not interfere with the education of other children. Schools are inherently failing to uphold the principle of the best interest of the child (as stipulated in the Children Act, 1989 and The UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, 1989 and other pieces of legislation) when they temporarily or permanently exclude students on the grounds of behaviour or special educational needs. CSIE argued that educational provision needs to be re-organised and its delivery changed so that students are not temporarily or permanently excluded after highlighting the damage that such exclusions cause. CSIE recommends that schools work towards reducing and then eliminating all exclusions through support and interventions in teaching and learning arrangements. Schools may support and reinforce positive behaviour by valuing all members of their community equally and through treating every person in the school community as simultaneously a learner and a teacher. Rather than speaking of special educational needs and singling out individual children as misbehaving CSIE recommends that schools identify what barriers exist to all young people’s learning. In this way schools may ensure that provision is suitable for all learners. CSIE recommends that schools engage with their students in this work and involve young people in systems of peer support, mediation and conciliation.

    CSIE submission to Select Committee on Education, on behaviour and discipline in schools

  • September, 2010

    The extent of sex discrimination in access to compulsory education in the UK – CSIE response to consultation for the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities

    CSIE believes that hidden discrimination in access to compulsory education is an issue in the UK. We take access to compulsory education to mean inclusive provision for children of all genders, at all levels of their school life. This includes children and young people who may challenge ‘conventional’ ideas of gender (including children who may identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, genderqueer, gender questioning, gender variant and transsexual, as well as supposedly masculine girls and supposedly feminine boys). We believe that these groups of young people suffer not only direct discrimination and abuse within school but also indirect discrimination through being invisibilised. CSIE recognises that enforcing equalities legislation can prove challenging and recognise that many young people themselves, as well as some teachers, have deeply entrenched ideas of acceptable behaviour and aspirations that differ depending on gender identity. CSIE suggests that schools speak about gender broadly, and in depth, at all levels of school life in order that young people may become what could be called ‘gender aware,’ and thus capable of recognising, responding to and preventing gender based discrimination in all of its forms (for example, biphobia, homophobia, transphobia, sexism and misogyny). We believe that sex discrimination legislation needs to be understood more broadly as concerning the rights of people of all genders and see the consistent reduction of anti-sex discrimination initiatives into male/female binaries as failing to protect young people who may identify their gender in different ways. Until this wider remit is fully grasped sex-discrimination legislation is ostensibly unfit for purpose. We are delighted that the 2010 Single Equality Act, for the first time, offers legal protection to students who identify as transsexual but are keen that this narrow definition is also broadened.

    Consultation Document – Response from CSIE (Word, 34 Kb)

  • September, 2010

    Summary of Education Select Committee, Inquiry into behaviour and discipline in schools

    The Education Select Committee asked how to support and reinforce positive behaviour in schools and wanted to find out more about the nature and level of challenging behaviour by pupils, the impact of such behaviour and how schools managed behaviour and discipline. They were also keen to know how special educational needs can best be recognised in schools’ policies on behaviour and discipline. CSIE stated that every child has a right to mainstream education within their local school – including those said to have special educational needs or those who have emotional or behavioural difficulties, so long as this did not interfere with the education of other children. Schools are inherently failing to uphold the principle of the best interest of the child (as stipulated in the Children Act, 1989 and The UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, 1989 and other pieces of legislation) when they temporarily or permanently exclude students on the grounds of behaviour or special educational needs. CSIE argued that educational provision needs to be re-organised and its delivery changed so that students are not temporarily or permanently excluded after highlighting the damage that such exclusions cause. CSIE recommends that schools work towards reducing and then eliminating all exclusions through support and interventions in teaching and learning arrangements. Schools may support and reinforce positive behaviour by valuing all members of their community equally and through treating every person in the school community as simultaneously a learner and a teacher. Rather than speaking of special educational needs and singling out individual children as misbehaving CSIE recommends that schools identify what barriers exist to all young people’s learning. In this way schools may ensure that provision is suitable for all learners. CSIE recommends that schools engage with their students in this work and involve young people in systems of peer support, mediation and conciliation.

    Consultation Document – Response from CSIE (Word, 46 Kb)

     

  • March, 2010

    CSIE response to the Ofsted consultation on its Draft Single Equality Scheme

    In its response, CSIE welcomed the goals that Ofsted has set itself around equality objectives. We added, however, that it is important to ensure that concrete data on life outcomes (social and economic) should be available to inspectors and used to inform their evaluation of schools and colleges; that with respect to outcomes there should be a fully detailed breakdown of categories within each equality strand (e.g. within “BME” or within “disabled”); that structures should be in place to prevent the emergence of a hierarchy of equalities in which one strand is more important than another; that children and young people with high level support needs (for example those said to have profound and multiple learning difficulties), mental health problems, NEETs etc. are not exempted from the equality duty to remove barriers (“all means all”); and that structures are in place to ensure that these are the shared perceptions and explicitly articulated values of all within the organisation.

    SES Consultation Document – Response from CSIE (Word, 552 Kb)

    SES Consultation Document – Additional (question. 6) (Word, 26 Kb)

  • January, 2010

    CSIE response to Salt Review (Independent Review of Teacher Supply for Pupils with Severe, Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties)

    The crisis in teacher supply and training for children identified with SLD and PMLD is part of a larger crisis in the system, namely the poor life outcomes that are inseparable from the continuing existence of segregated schools. Present practices in teacher training and pupil assessment for this group are not related to the general aims of government policy on inclusion and equality for adults.

    Children identified with SLD and PMLD are a part of ordinary life, and should therefore be a normal part of their local mainstream school, not the object of a separate pathology. The proposal to develop SLD schools as leaders in training is vitiated by the medical model on which segregation is based; these schools are not well positioned to help young people to have ordinary lives. “Best practice” in SLD and PMLD requires that teacher training be based, not on assessment relating to conventional attainment targets which these very children are (by definition) unlikely to reach, but on person-centred planning, i.e. on enabling children and their families to identify the things that are important to them. The particular expertise then required is that which is most relevant to helping them achieve those things.

    The need for expert teachers in sufficient numbers, identified in the call for the Review, does not exist in isolation from the need for a strategy to develop expertise right across the workforce. Experience gathered from thirty years of inclusive schooling has demonstrated that SEN training is not a necessary qualification for good teaching, and that the best teachers of children in mainstream settings are those who are the best teachers overall. To help children and their families achieve the “ordinary lives” that are the aim of cross-governmental policy for adults, teacher supply and training should be re-modelled on the basis of person-centred assessments and plans, in mainstream settings.

    Salt Review – Response from CSIE 

  • March, 2009

    CSIE responds to the report of the Secretary of State at the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) on progress towards disability equality across the children’s and education sectors

    CSIE’s response approves the Secretary of State’s adoption of a social model of disability but criticises his report’s studied avoidance of any mention of inclusive schools. It notes that in respect of inclusive education the Department is not yet meeting the requirements of its own Equality Impact Assessment, which calls for the removal of barriers between disabled and non-disabled people.

    CSIE’s response to the DCSF regarding progress towards disability equality across the children’s and education sectors 

  • March, 2008

    CSIE submits briefing to the UN Committee reviewing UK implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

    CSIE has submitted a short report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Pre-Sessional Working Group, as part of the process of review of UK implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In its report, CSIE concentrates on educational provision for disabled children and:

    • reminds the Committee that the issue of segregated provision was not mentioned in its concluding observations of 1995 and 2002
    • describes the current UK context, highlighting deficits and inconsistencies in educational provision for disabled learners
    • points out the repeated commitment to inclusive education as a matter of basic human right in international instruments
    • concludes that the current legal and policy frameworks are inadequate
    • suggests that a thorough restructuring of mainstream provision and review of legislation are long overdue

    Briefing for the Committee on the Rights of the Child Pre-sessional Working Group, March 2008

  • September, 2005

    CSIE submits evidence to the UK Parliament’s Inquiry into Special Educational Needs

    CSIE has submitted its evidence to Parliament’s Education and Skills Select Committee’s Inquiry into Special Educational Needs. The evidence covers:

    • inclusive education as a pressing human rights concern
    • statistical evidence of variations between LEAs in effecting inclusive education and of poor overall progress towards inclusion
    • positive developments in inclusive education
    • the damage caused by segregating pupils into ‘special’ schools
    • children and young people’s views supporting inclusive education
    • problems with the concept and definition of ‘special educational needs’

    CSIE memorandum submitted to the Select Committee on Education and Skills

  • February, 2004

    CSIE sends comments to the Joint Parliamentary Committee considering the Draft Disability Discrimination Bill

    While the Centre welcomes the important moves in the Draft Disability Discrimination Bill towards basic rights for disabled people which will enhance their life opportunities, it regrets that the discrimination inherent in separate special schooling for disabled pupils and perpetuated by them is not covered by the draft bill.

    CSIE comments to the Joint Committee on the Draft Disability Discrimination Bill