History shows individuals with SEND have experienced negative responses from society.
Since Ancient Greek and Roman mythology encouraged society to be God-like in beauty and perfection, people with disabilities have been viewed as helpless, a burden or joke (Reiser, 2006). The two dominant viewpoints in 20th Century England include needing assistance of a charity, or needing treatment from medical professionals; both perspectives encouraging society to view disability as helpless (Goodley and Runswick, 2011).
The human rights philosophy and social justice definition of inclusion suggests society can stop this type of discrimination through focussing on the education of all children without segregated schools (Avramidis and Norwich, 2002; Thomas and Loxley, 2007). However, previous discussions which confused inclusion with integration have meant that whilst several mainstream schools have improved the physical environment to enable children with certain types of SEND to access schools (Florian, 2010) the term inclusion has been used on
occasions where children with SEND were not necessarily included as part of the whole
3 school, but simply placed there (Avramidis and Norwich, 2002; Rodriguez and Garro-Gil, 2014).
1.2.1 Key Policies
A multitude of policies and legislation regarding the education of children with SEND can be traced back over the last 40 years when the 1978 Warnock report followed by the 1981 Education Act called for regular schools to make changes to be more accessible for children with different SEND (Hodkinson, 2010; Florian, 2010). The Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994, p. viii) declared “every child has a fundamental right to education” and “those with special educational needs must have access to regular schools which should accommodate them within a child-centred pedagogy capable of meeting these needs”. Therefore, all individuals with WS have the right to education in mainstream schools, where their needs should be met. Following this, the global ‘Education for All’ movement developed the notion of inclusivity, but it can be criticised for its focus on differences such as race or gender rather than disability. There is an absence of statistics on children with SEND, highlighted by Miles and Singal (2010) which suggests this group were still being excluded or underrepresented.
In 2005, Mary Warnock rejected the way inclusion appeared to be working since her 1978 Report, “if this means that all but those with the most severe disabilities will be in mainstream schools, (it) is not working” (2005:32). Warnock (2005) refined her idea of inclusion, which emphasised all children learning in the most suitable places for them. This created a dilemma of where a child would learn best, rather than educating all children in the same place.
Ultimately, parents are responsible for choosing where their child learns best, but
professionals and schools must help inform them to make this decision. What do parents of children with WS think about the different types of schools available?
Further policies such as The Equality Act 2010 attempted to combat issues of equality and human rights (Florian, 2010) by focussing on employment rights and a clearer definition of disability which seemed to emphasise inclusivity in society alongside the push in education.
More recently, the introduction of the new SEND Code of Practice in 2014 emphasised schools’ need for guidance in implementing inclusive education (DfE, 2015). It seems that inclusion can be a difficult term to define and use, as many policies have highlighted; it can change between places, people and contexts. Consequently, it is the practitioners’ decision on which definition to use (Hodkinson, 2012; Miles and Singal, 2010) which suggests it is also
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the parents’ decision to define inclusion and what they desire from inclusive education.
Unfortunately, the wide variances in definition indicate that in practice there can be many challenges to effective inclusion (Mackenzie, 2011).
1.2.2 Practice
Even though there was a move towards the placement of children with varying SEND into their local mainstream schools, there is evidence to suggest schools were abusing the term
‘capable of meeting these needs’ to reject some children from their provision (Barnes and Mercer, 2004). Although this may be due to children’s’ needs being better met in a different school, some research suggests it is linked to schools’ league tables in which children with SEND were thought to negatively impact the school’s overall score (Salisbury and Riddell, 2000; Broomhead, 2013). This was challenged by Farrell, Dyson, Polat, Hutcheson and Gallannaugh (2007) who contradict this statement.
Educating children with complex needs puts increasing pressure onto staff (Lacey, 2001).
Children with WS can have various health, care and challenging behaviour problems, which require specific staff training and role adaptation (Lacey, 2001; Abbot et al, 2011). Carpenter, Egerton, Brooks, Cockbill, Fotheringham, and Rawson, (2011) encourage schools to meet the needs of children with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD), as advances in medical care have seen an increase in their survival (Cooper, Melville, and Morrison, 2004).
This has changed the population of special schools, which may affect how parents perceive these schools.
Researchers suggest inclusion of children with SEND may result in them being excluded from some classes or activities, with reduced access to a qualified teacher’s input (Hodkinson, 2012; Radford, Bosanquet, Webster and Blatchford, 2015). However, it could be argued that working 1:1 outside the main class may enable delivery of appropriate therapies and
intervention, during the provision of the same curriculum content as the child’s peers (Radford et al, 2015; Tynan, 2016).
A further challenge highlighted by Sellgren (2016) is the funding and budget for equipping mainstream schools with the resources needed for inclusion. A recent news report suggested studies found 82% of mainstream schools in England did not have sufficient funding and
5 budget to provide for pupils with SEND (Sellgren, 2016). How aware of this are parents of children with WS, and would this influence their choice of school?