Special Educational Needs in the Early Years

A Guide to Inclusive Practice

Penny Borkett

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781529737615
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

This book unpacks the vital elements of SEN in the Early Years through the lens of inclusion. Using a comprehensive blend of theory, policy and practice it:

-Covers the development of legislation and policy relating to SEND
- Includes a wide-range of recommended readings
- Encourages reflection to aid independent study
- Provides case studies linking theory to practice Written in an accessible style, this book empowers you to not only understand the impact of policy on practice, but to question it.

1 Legislation and policy in relation to special needs

This chapter will focus on some of the many legal aspects of SEND and how policies support the work that is done in settings when children are thought to or do have SEND.

By the end of this chapter you will:

• understand why legislation and policy are a fundamental part of education practice
• be aware of how policy relating to special needs was first introduced and how it developed both internationally and nationally during the 20th century
• consider how policy has changed during the early years of the 21st century and the implications of this for families and children with SEND.

This chapter will begin by considering why legislation and policy are so important in education, and will continue to discuss the evolving purpose of policy and why it has changed during particular periods of history. Armstrong suggested in 2002 that the planning of policy making can sometimes seem ‘fragmented’ (p. 446), with various political parties wanting different outcomes. Further discussion will offer the view that in the main, policy may relate to power and, in the case of this book, power over children who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Beland et al. state:

Throughout the last couple of decades, academics have increasingly emphasized the importance of political ideas in understanding processes of change and stability in politics. (2016: 315)

The second part of the chapter will go on to examine how education policies were established and orchestrated to meet the needs of children with SEND during the 20th century. It will take a journey through the structure of some international and national policies and will focus on the historic reasoning around the formation of these. The groundbreaking work of Mary Warnock will be introduced, discussing how she and her committee instigated some of the first steps into inclusion as we know it.

The final section of the chapter will discuss how policy has changed more recently in the beginning of the 21st century. It will introduce the purpose of the Special Educational Needs (SEN) Code of Practice introduced in 2001, and the changes this has gone through more recently in the redrafting of the 2014 Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice.

The purpose of policy

Firstly, it is worth considering why policies are needed to support practice. Levin (1997) suggests that policies guide and shape practice – the evolving nature of the early years curriculum is an example of this. As new governments are elected, changes are often made to existing priorities depending on the political bias of the government in power.

Policies can introduce new actions needed because of changes in society – an example of this was the need to rewrite the SEN Code of Practice which was first introduced in 2001 by the then New Labour government (Department for Education and Skills [DFES], 2001b). Carpenter (2005) postulates that during this time politically the United Kingdom was ‘ripe for the development of a nationally cohesive approach’ to children with SEN (p. 176), particularly on reflection of figures suggested by the Office of National Statistics that one in five children had some kind of special educational need (Melzer et al., 2000). Levin (1997) makes the suggestion that when policies are written they usually:

• bring together of a group of people – these may be a government department, a local authority, or an individual setting
• relate to a course of action – in this case actions around children with SEND
• are specific to a way of dealing with particular issues.

Reflection

Consider some of the policies that you use in your everyday work or that you are aware of.

• Do they discuss particular groups of children?
• Do they relate to particular actions that may need to be taken in certain circumstances?
• Do they suggest particular ways of doing things or actions that need to be taken in practice?

Political views of education

At this point it is useful to consider what the current educational priorities are for particular governments. Current policies favoured by the Conservative government relate to free schools which are funded by the state but run by parents, teachers, or other outside organisations. They support the academies, which were introduced in 2010 by the then Conservative and Liberal Democratic Coalition government. They also believe in a ‘target driven’ education process which relates to standards rather than the process of education, placing emphasis on literacy and numeracy (Dickens, 2017).

In contrast, the Labour Party would like to see children in school being looked after from 8.00am until 6.00pm to support parents who are working. They would increase spending on education in line with inflation and cap class sizes to 30.

The Liberal Democrat Party see education as a life-long pursuit that enables ‘self-fulfilment’ (2017: 1) and an enrichment of people’s lives. They would like to restructure schools according to the needs of communities and to give greater support for schools in areas of disadvantage.

Interestingly, when the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition government led by David Cameron and Nick Clegg was in power, they introduced the pupil premium for children who may be vulnerable or have particular needs and require extra support with education (Wilkinson, 2015: 18). This remains today despite the fact that the Coalition government is no longer in power. The Liberal Democrats also believe that schools within communities should share resources – this might suggest that staff from special schools could be involved in training around inclusion with mainstream schools (Avramidis et al., 2000).

Levels of policy making

Policy in relation to children with SEN often comes in three tiers:

• International/European recommendations, guidelines or statements – these could include the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (UNICEF, 1989) and the Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994)
• National policies, which include the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (DFES, 2001) and the Children and Families Act 2014
• Local policies – these may be drawn up by local authorities which are then adopted by all settings in an area. They also relate to individual policies that you may have in your setting.

Baldock et al. (2013) suggest that policies usually originate from people in charge, such as international organisations, governments and local authorities. Rix et al. (2013) postulate that there are many legislative and international agreements that have been drawn up across the world that have transformed mainstream education and special provision.

Through the process and many phases of policy development they go out to consultation, and you may well have contributed to one of these discussions. Recently it has become popular for such discussions to be available through social media platforms, thereby opening up the discussion more widely to parents and practitioners (Sunstein, 2017). This is a positive step because it gives people who may never have considered having a say about government policy to make their views known.

Reflection

• Why is it important that policies should be open to consultation?
• Have you ever responded to a consultation relating to a particular policy, and why did you feel it important to do so?
• Do you feel that it is your place to respond to consultations relating to Early Years or SEND provision?

Personal note 1.1

During the 2000s I was working as a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) in a Sure Start centre. In the area there was a high proportion of children with SEND. One of the first things that I had to do was write policies relating to the way that families and children were supported through activities offered in the centre. During this time I was also studying for an MA in Inclusive Education. Although I had experience of working in a special school, I believed vehemently that very young children with special needs should be offered an inclusive education in a mainstream setting.

However one of the activities that the local authority ran was a playgroup for children with SEND which went on within the vicinity of the centre. The plan was for staff from the centre to take over and run the playgroup. I did not see this as ‘inclusive’ education. I had many discussions with Portage workers, educational psychologists, physiotherapists, health visitors and parents alike. Gradually I realised that although these children were being segregated during their time at the playgroup, these sessions did prepare the children for activities and ways of learning that would support their later educational experience in mainstream school.

Consider

• What are your own personal views about this case study – do you view the situation as being inclusive and if so, why?
• Is it acceptable for children with SEND to be involved in similar groups?
• How does your setting help to support children with SEND who may be preparing to go into mainstream education?

Having focused on the role of policy and the impact it has on certain areas of practice, discussion will move on to explain how policy established the role of schools in the 20th century.

Education in the 20th century

The 1870 Education Act was established by the Liberal government in order to build more schools and to move away from the reliance of them being established by religious organisations. Around the same time the National Education League began to campaign for free compulsory, non-religious education for all children. The philanthropists involved in setting up schools believed that education was vital to the country as it would enable children to move into manufacturing at the end of their time in school.

In 1918 the Education Act:

• raised the school-leaving age from 12 to 15
• widened the provision of nursery schools and special education
• transferred funding for schools from local authorities to central government
• introduced more professionalism in the workforce by allowing teachers salaries and pensions (www.parliament.uk).

It also became compulsory for children with disabilities to attend school. In the period from 1921 to 1950, so-called ‘institutions’ were introduced for those with visual or hearing impairments, physical disabilities, breathing difficulties and epilepsy. The view during this time was that it was important that children with disabilities should be educated away from their homes and in residential schools, with a very small number being educated in mainstream settings. Some of these special schools were funded through charities such as the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB). Tomlinson suggests that:

education systems do not develop spontaneously or in an evolutionary manner. They develop because it is in the interest of particular groups in society that they should develop in specific ways. (1982: 43)

This might suggest that such philanthropists and charities may have wanted to promote their own interests by providing education for those who were seen as being ‘vulnerable’. This goes along with the view of Armstrong that reflects a ‘humanitarian’ account of the gr...