DfEE Green Paper (22/10/1997)

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7 Working together

Government

1. The Government has a central responsibility for raising standards and promoting progress for all children, including those with SEN. We are responsible for the framework of national SEN policy within which schools and LEAs operate, and for monitoring its effectiveness. We also support schools and LEAs by:

communicating with them, through visits and contacts at many levels, and providing information: DfEE's Special Educational Needs Division is the main channel for communication;
identifying and disseminating good practice, for example:

by commissioning research on aspects of SEN or including an SEN dimension in other commissioned research;

through published guidance from the Standards and Effectiveness Unit, which is working towards establishing a database of best practice nationally;

through OFSTED inspection data and HMI surveys; and

by encouraging teacher groups, local and national organisations and schools to exchange information using the Internet;

collecting and publishing statistical information;
encouraging benchmarking; and
ensuring that co-ordination between Government Departments secures mutually-reinforcing policies towards children with SEN.

In carrying out these functions we will look to the National Advisory Group on SEN to advise on the development and implementation of policies to improve standards in education for children with SEN.

Research into and dissemination of information about good practice
2. Some ways of meeting children's special educational needs are demonstrably more effective than others. We will promote research designed to establish good practice, and disseminate the results. The areas to be covered might range from ways of meeting the needs of children with autism to working with learning support assistants in the classroom. Such research will supplement the information available in specialist journals and from voluntary bodies and LEAs.

3. It is however very difficult for busy teachers, LEA administrators and others to keep up with all this information, and to assess its relevance to their own circumstances. One way of disseminating reliable and objective information about good practice in SEN would be to establish a small national institute to sift evidence from other sources and target the conclusions to SENCOs, other specialist teachers, SEN governors and LEA administrators. Such an institute should principally be funded by subscription, from LEAs, schools and others, who felt access to a research digest of this type would help them to improve the effectiveness of their provision for SEN.

4. Whether or not such arrangements are established nationally, we shall continue to join in relevant international projects. In particular, we shall play a leading part in the new European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education. This has as its aim the dissemination of information, chiefly over the Internet, about special needs provision in 17 European countr ies. We welcome the initiative of the Danish authorities in establishing the Agency, and will ensure that its output is available to schools and others in this country.

QUESTION: What arrangements would help the speedy dissemination of useful information about good practice in SEN?

31/08/2000