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Government minister for care services Ivan Lewis MP has pledged to look into claims that children with severe disabilities are slipping off the national schools ICT agenda. The issue had been raised at a special meeting at the House of Lords packed with around 90 special needs educators and hosted by Liberal Democrat education spokesperson in the Lords, Baroness Joan Walmsley.
Early government support for the obvious potential of ICT initiatives for children with special needs some 20 years ago had created the bedrock of expertise across the country, explained Martin Littler (below), who ran the original NorthWest Semerc and is now managing director of Inclusive Technology. But he warned of a steep decline: "One by one the initiatives were withdrawn but we have coasted on. Today it seems to me the brakes have been applied and we are about to go into reverse.”
Special needs and ICT veteran Martin Littler
“Expertise in this field has disappeared from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), then from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and, last year, we even looked like losing the Inclusion Team at Becta, a team we looked to for leadership and our voice in Government." The last reference was to the dispersal of Becta's special needs experts across its new structure. The organisation has denied that it has lost its special needs focus, explaining that it was concerned that its separate departments had become "silos" that failed to interact and communicate. The special needs community, however, remains largely unconvinced.
"In the last few years special education seems to have been systematically omitted from every Government education initiative that involves ICT," added Martin Littler. "In the latest evaluation of Curriculum Online, for instance, secondary schools are mentioned 173 times, primary schools 168 times, and special schools not once. The New Opportunities Fund provided ICT training for every teacher, but the needs of special school teachers were initially omitted entirely. And by March 2008, we are told, every child must have access to a Learning Platform. As nothing currently available has any relevance to children with severe and complex special needs, what will be available for them? I have asked this question of both the DfES and Becta. Neither was able to tell me. ‘Every child’ just does not include these learners.
"Nowhere is the lack of priority more damaging than in the help we provide to children with communication difficulties. Having no speech is one of the biggest barriers a child can face; barring their path to learning, making independent choices, or living life to the full.“
A somewhat defensive Ivan Lewis responded to the general rather than the particular, saying that the Government’s policies for inclusion and personalisation had been supported by massive investment. The new emphasis on putting children and their families first was the way forward, he said, quoting a mother who told him, “I am the expert about my son – so why do I have to shout to be heard by the system?” However, he conceded: “The Government has to be humble and say we have a long way to go.”
Martin Littler’s other observations included:
- the withdrawal of government funding for the two ACE Centres which advise on communications aids for children which saved “a measly £340,000”;
- the ending of the £5 million-a-year Communication Aids Programme (CAP) to provide communications aids on permanent loan to children, leaving nothing in its place;
- a House of Lords Ruling which means that if a local authority is short of funds it can sidestep its duty to provide speech aids.
He concluded: “It is clear to me that children with severe and complex special needs, including children without speech, have just disappeared from the Government’s agenda. I would like to see them back on that agenda.”
While there was little opportunity to take contributions from other attendees it was clear from the mood and follow-up conversations that Martin Littler’s campaign has wide support. For example, while Laura Ashton, who teaches at Marjorie McClure school in Chislehurst, says she appreciated that the government had improved technology in special schools, she questioned the decision to not find a replacement for CAP.
She quoted the example of a boy who was provided with a “Tell Us” speech aid under the scheme. “It might last another year,” she said, “but we know this device isn’t going to last much longer, And where will that leave this pupil? The local authority is no richer than it was when it refused him, and now he is used to having his voice. And what’s going to happen to the other people who have had such wonderful devices that have changed their lives? My pupil talks about how he can now talk to people he doesn’t know, and how he loves his machine, and he likes to tell people about that.”
Baroness Walmsley urged people who could not make their contributions to the meeting to make them to Martin Littler by email so that he could share them with the three party representatives at the event – Ivan Lewis MP, Baroness Walmsley (Social Democrat) and Baroness Trish Morris (Conservative).
Guest appearance by Bob the Builder
A lighter side of the event was created by a guest appearance by Bob the Builder who picked up a first cheque for £10,000 for Manchester’s New Children’s Hospital Appeal from Inclusive. It had been raised from sales of Inclusive’s SwitchIt! Bob the Builder software, and the company hopes to generate a further £40,000,
The BBC and pre-school children’s entertainment producers and Bob the Builder rights owners HIT Entertainment support the fundraising. The program allows fun activities featuring the popular characters like Bob and Wendy, Scruffty and Spud, Farmer Pickles and Bird, and can be used by all children, even those with severe physical difficulties. It can be used with keyboard, mouse, interactive whiteboard or plasma screen, touch-monitor, single-switch or two-switch scanning, or an IntelliKeys keyboard.