DfEE Green Paper (22/10/1997) - Inclusion within mainstream schools

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4 Increasing inclusion

Inclusion within mainstream schools

5. There is no reason why children with similar needs in different parts of the country should not have similar opportunities to attend mainstream schools. Yet at present there is wide variation in the percentage of children in each LEA who are educated in special schools, ranging from under 0.5% in some areas to over 2% in others. Across the country as a whole, some 98,000 pupils are educated in maintained or non-maintained special schools, a number which has been virtually constant throughout the 1990s.

6. Different factors bear on the scope for inclusion for those with different types of SEN. For some with physical disabilities, improved access to and within school buildings may be the fundamental first step. New technology can help improve access to the curriculum and limit pupils' communication difficulties. Many pupils with mild or moderate learning difficulties or sensory impairments and some with severe and complex needs are, with appropriate learning support, already thriving in mainstream school settings, and enriching the whole school community.

Case study Inclusion in Manchester
Manchester LEA believes that, where appropriate, children with physical difficulties and severe learning difficulties should be educated in mainstream schools. Under Manchester's Barrier Free Partnership two secondary schools and a network of feeder primary schools have received capital support to help them become completely accessible to pupils with physical disabilities. Schools' own efforts are supplemented by support teams (teachers and learning assistants) who help individual pupils or groups with physical difficulties and severe learning difficulties.

Newall Green High School is one of the schools benefiting from Manchester's inclusion policy. It offers additionally resourced provision for children with physical difficulties and severe learning difficulties in the south of the city. The school has been barrier free since September last year. Ramps, lifts and new equipment, such as height adjustable work areas, have been installed. The support team has helped pupils gain access to the curriculum, and is working with the children so that, in due course, they will be able to carry on without support. The school's recent OFSTED report noted that all pupils with SEN are fully integrated into the life and work of the school.

7. There are many practical steps which we could take to promote greater inclusion in mainstream schools for pupils with SEN. We could:

require LEAs to prepare and submit plans for taking inclusion forward, perhaps within the framework of their Education Development Plans;
suggest that in the first instance priority should be given to securing inclusion for younger children or those with particular forms of SEN, perhaps those with physical disabilities, sensory impairments or with moderate learning difficulties. We could change the law so that LEAs would have to secure a mainstream school placement for such pupils where this accorded with their parents' wishes. This would not mean that parents would have unconstrained choice. But it would mean that the LEA had to en sure that an accessible mainstream school was available;
require all children to be registered on the roll of a mainstream school, supported as appropriate by specialist provision (which for some children might mean placement in a special school, at least for part of their school career);
direct increased levels of capital support to extend the existing Schools Access Initiative. Support totalling £4 million a year is currently available for schemes to improve physical access to mainstream schools and access to the curriculum within such schools. We plan to increase significantly the scale of this Initiative from 1998;
target specific grant towards measures which would enhance mainstream schools' ability to include pupils with SEN. Grants could be earmarked for disability awareness training and SEN-specific training of teachers and others in mainstream schools. Or we could provide pump-priming support to LEAs which commit themselves to greater levels of inclusion, to assist with transitional costs of running both mainstream and special school provision;
seek ways of celebrating the success of those schools which improve their ability to provide for a wide range of special needs. For example, we could set standards for schools in improving their ability to provide for a wide range of special needs and encourage all schools to achieve these. We could develop a "kite mark" for schools which reached the standards;
give some priority for capital support where possible to planned school reorganisations which would enhance SEN provision in mainstream schools, or facilitate the co-location of special and mainstream schools, in preference to reorganisations which would increase separate special school places.

In parallel with such action, a new Ministerial Task Force will review existing legislation in order to implement our manifesto commitment to people with disabilities. This will include the treatment of education within the Disability Discrimination Act.

8. We do not underestimate the difficulties of any of this. We are asking a lot of schools, and not only in relation to SEN, over the next few years. Some parents may fear their children will lose out if teachers focus their attention on pupils with SEN. We acknowledge the need to develop an ethos of positive approaches to children with disabilities. We need to find ways of helping LEAs to shift resources from separate provision towards support for inclusion. As resources become available, it will be necessary to identify priorities for action. In some cases, pilot schemes may be the way forward. In the meantime we shall work with LEAs and schools with relevant experience, to consider the necessary conditions for promoting inclusion more widely. We shall also fund research to assess the relative costs, benefits and practical implications of educating children in mainstream and special schools. Increasing levels of inclusion for SEN pupils will be a continuing process; as technology, skills and confidence develop, so will the scope for inclusion.

QUESTION: What priority measures should we take to include more pupils with special educational needs within mainstream schools?

31/08/2000