Memorandum submitted by Centre for Studies
on Inclusive Education
1. Current UK law says that children said
to have special educational needs should be educated in mainstream
schools, so long as this does not conflict with parental wishes
or effect the efficient education of other children (section 316
of the Education Act 1996, as amended by the Special Educational
Needs and Disability Act 2001). It is therefore up to schools
to ensure that all children's needs are met. This also includes
those children and young people said to have emotional or behavioural
difficulties.
2. School are inherently failing to uphold
the principle of the best interest of the child (as stipulated
in the Children Act, 1989 and The United Nations Convention of
the Rights of the Child, 1989) when they temporarily or permanently
exclude students on the grounds of behaviour or special educational
needs.
3. When the Special Educational Needs and
Disability Act (SENDA 2001) was introduced, the Department for
Education and Skills published guidance for schools on the new
framework for inclusion of children with special educational needs
into mainstream schools. The guidance confirmed that the general
duty is to educate all children in mainstream schools and clearly
explained: "The starting point is always that children who
have statements will receive mainstream education" (DfES,
2001).
4. Equally, following the proposals for
the reform of children's services in Every Child Matters,
the DfES published a key document setting out the Government's
vision for offering children said to have special educational
needs opportunities to succeed: Removing Barriers to Achievement:
the Government's Strategy for SEN (DfES, 2004). A commitment
to inclusive education for all children and young people in mainstream
schools was clearly articulated: "All teachers should expect
to teach children with special educational needs (SEN) and all
schools should play their part in educating children from their
local community, whatever their background or ability."
5. Legal enforcement of segregation on the
grounds of disability (including special educational needs), learning
difficulty or emotional need is against international human rights
agreements, including the UNESCO Salamanca Statement and Framework
for Action (1994), the UN Standard Rules on the Equalisation of
Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (1993) and the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).
6. The importance of mainstream, permanent
provision for all is not yet widely understood. Temporary or permanently
excluding students is deeply problematic. Educational provision
needs to be re-organised and its delivery changed. Children and
young people who spend their school years separated from their
brothers, sisters, friends and potential friends from their local
community, often end up living their adult life at the margins
of society. If children and young people are all to live in a
society together, they all need to go to school together. There
is, therefore, a strong argument for developing provision for
everyone in ordinary local schools.
7. Schools may support and reinforce positive
behaviour by valuing all members of their community equally irrespective
of appearance, perceived ability, nationality or other differentiating
features. This includes staff, students, parents/carers, governors
and the members of the wider local community. By treating every
person in the school community as simultaneously a learner and
a teacher the skills and experiences of all students can be drawn
upon. This in turn impacts on young people's motivation and ability
to learn.
8. Schools should ensure that their provision
is inclusive. Inclusion involves widening participation for all
students and reducing exclusion.
9. There is nothing that happens in special
schools or Pupil Referral Units that cannot, and should not, take
place in mainstream schools.
10. Excluding children and young people from
mainstream provision on the basis of their behaviour can have
disastrous effects in both the short and longer term. Richard
Rieser of Disability Equality in Education explains: "Many
young people leave with no qualifications, a label which devalues
them, a circle of friends who feel as hopeless as each other,
a loss of confidence and self-esteem and often a rejection of
society's values as they feel they have been rejected from society."
(Speaking at the CSIE Day Conferences "An inclusive approach
to difficult behaviour", 25 November 1998 and 1 March 1999).
11. Segregation is morally problematic.
One head teacher outlines this view cogently: "I was sitting
there getting inspected, and that was really the first time I
started to have my beliefs challenged. It was in a really rough
area, disused flats all the way around the school and very disruptive
pupils, and on the second day I excluded a child for violent behaviour,
because that's what an advisor does, so I sent him out for five
days. And I remember distinctly—it was one of those moments
when your life begins to change—I'd sent this boy out and
I was standing at the window and I saw him… and he was riding
his bike between a white van and one of these flats and he was
running the heroin wraps for local dealers. And it just struck
me. Because I know this van belonged to a dealer, and it was one
of those moments when I felt I can't do that, I can't possibly
morally do that. I've excluded him to a world where he can't possibly
survive. So I took him back in and I created systems, I paid for
full time teaching assistant support for him. And I'd done the
same with a girl the same year. She had bizarre behaviour. But
when I excluded her I'd excluded her to a serial abuser who lived
in the same house. So I stopped excluding after that." (James
Kilsner, November 2001, in interview for ongoing CSIE enquiry,
Working with the Index for Inclusion).
12. Disciplinary exclusion may be prevented
if students are adequately supported. Changes may need to be made
to teaching and learning activities.
13. Schools should minimise all forms of
disciplinary exclusions including temporary suspensions and permanent
expulsions.
14. Schools should have understandable,
constructive plans for re-introducing students who have been temporarily
excluded.
15. Clear records must be kept of all exclusions.
These should be available to Governors who should be kept informed
about what is happening.
16. Schools might like to engage with the
Index for Inclusion: developing learning and participation
in schools (Booth & Ainscow, 2002) (see, http://www.csie.org.uk/publications/inclusion-index-explained.shtml)
to help them identify gaps in their provision through a self-review
of the school's cultures, policies and practices. The Index
draws upon what schools are already doing but helps makes individual
school cultures more inclusive through building a sense of community,
establishing inclusive values, developing schools that are fit
for all learners, supporting and valuing diversity, orchestrating
learning and mobilising resources. Although not specifically designed
to have a focus on the inclusion of children and young people
said to have special educational needs or emotional or behavioural
difficulties, the indicators and questions listed in the Index
can be of considerable help to schools wanting to develop
more inclusive provision for all.
17. Rather than speaking of special educational
needs and singling out individual children and young people it
is more conducive to think about what barriers exist to all
young people's learning. In this way schools may ensure that
provision is suitable for all learners.
18. Schools should not remove learners on
the basis that their behaviour is disruptive due to a fear that
they are likely to achieve little academically. Educational policy
should not simply be collapsed into economic policy, nor should
issues of "social inclusion" be simply conflated with
economic efficiency or productivity.
19. It is important to remember that promoting
disability equality is a whole school approach and not a matter
for a particular class, teacher or teaching assistant. Inclusive
provision is more likely to be successful if fully supported and
led by the senior leadership team. In this way it is most likely
to be embraced by the whole school.
20. Schools should engage with programmes
of peer support (such as Circle of Friends, see http://www.inclusive-solutions.com/circlesoffriends.asp),
including peer mediation, use other children and young people
as mentors, and engage in initiatives such as the Social and Emotional
Aspects of Learning (SEAL) in order to teach all children and
young people emotional intelligence and life-skills.
21. Students should be encouraged to be
responsible for their own behaviour and encouraged to help resolve
conflicts and disputes amongst their peers.
22. All members of the school community
including staff, students, parents/carers and governors should
share a view of what constitutes bullying. All members of a school
community should be familiar with each of the forms of bullying
specifically covered in anti-bullying guidance. Policies on unacceptable
behaviour and their consequences need to be known by everyone.
23. The aim of increasing the learning and
participation of students should be seen as the primary aim of
all pastoral and behavioural support staff. Other staff members
need to recognise and value its importance.
24. Strategies deployed to help with the
behaviour of individual or groups of students should always be
linked to improvements in teaching for all students.
25. Behaviour support should address barriers
to learning and participation in school policies, cultures and
practices.
26. Lesson planning should reflect on and
attempt to minimise barriers to learning and participation for
all students.
27. Teachers should examine ways to reduce
the need for individual support for students. Teaching assistants
should not be used to effectively teach individual students.
28. All teachers and teaching assistants
should be offered chances to learn how to reduce the alienation
and disruption of students. An attitude of mutual learning should
be fostered.
29. The school should avoid activities that
may lower the self-esteem of students in recognition that there
is a link between low self-worth, alienation, disruption and exclusion.
30. Schools must ensure that behavioural
and pastoral support policies address the well-being of students
who are discreetly distressed.
31. The school must avoid creating disaffection
amongst certain groups of students, such as the bottom tier of
streamed classes.
32. The school should address feelings of
depreciation as, and when, they occur.
33. The knowledge of parents/carers should
be used to further the learning of all members of the school community
and may also be used to help reducing alienation and disruption.
34. The school should address the origins
of alienation or problematic behaviour amongst certain groups
of students and link this to wider society—for example the
relationship between popular culture and certain portrayals of
masculinity and femininity might be linked to ideas of violence
and eating disorders.
35. Problems should be dealt with as they
arise. The way in which problems are dealt with need to be tailored
to the individual circumstances.
36. Schools need to ensure that response
to "bad" behaviour are guided by principles of education
and rehabilitation.
37. Schools should ensure that details of
student's past that may include "bad" behaviour remain
confidential upon starting at their new school. Teachers should
treat such students in the same equitable way that they would
all others, irrespective of what the student has done.
38. Barriers to attendance should be explored
within the cultures, policies and practices of the school as well
as in children and young people's attitudes and homes.
39. Unauthorised leave of absence is not
a reason for disciplinary exclusion.
40. An equitable response needs to be pursued
for all unauthorised absences irrespective of the gender or background
of a student.
41. Schools should recognise the relationship
between unauthorised leave of absence, bullying and the lack of
supportive friendships.
42. Schools should encourage and support
the return to school and contribution of students who have been
away for a long time, whatever the reason.
43. Appropriate systems for reporting absence
need to be embedded. This includes opportunities for staff to
discover why students may truant and is sufficiently detailed
so that absences from specific lessons may be tracked. Where this
occurs staff should ask students about their relationship with
the relevant teacher.
44. Schools should have a co-ordinated strategy
for students who are being seen by other agencies such as Child
and Adolescent Mental Health or Social Services.
45. Reasonable adjustments need to be made
for certain students in regards to Behaviour and Discipline policies
in recognition that the Disability Discrimination Act allows for
such adjustments. These include for students suffering from mental
ill health or experiencing emotional or behavioural difficulties.
46. The hearing of students should be checked,
and where necessary Speech and Language Therapy (SALT assessments
should be carried out prior to labelling as student as having
behavioural issues.
September 2010
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