Managing Special Educational Needs

A Practical Guide for Primary and Secondary Schools

Suanne Gibson, Sonia Blandford

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9781412903035, 9781412903028
• eBook ISBN: 9781446232156
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

?This is a most worthwhile book which contributes significantly to the general body of knowledge on managing pupils with special education needs. I found it interesting and informative. Schools cannot but benefit from the book?s scope, and from insights into the many and varied aspects on SEN provision? - REACH

`A particular strength of the book is the way in which individual chapters provided "self-contained" material which lends itself for use in school-based staff development activities. The book includes a lot of information that SENCOs, inclusion managers and members of school leadership teams should find useful? - SENCO Update

`The strongest point about this book is that it gives a good overview of the history of special educational needs policy in this country, including recent development on inclusion? - TES Extra Special Needs

?It is a very practical account and should be a handbook for any newly appointed SENCO... [while] for experienced SENCOs and organisations where inclusion is not an issue, this book is a reminder of good practice? - Special

Written from a practitioner?s perspective, this book shows schools how to effectively implement and manage an inclusive school environment. Drawing from their experience in a range of schools, the authors highlight the problems encountered by professionals in both primary and secondary school settings and offer practical solutions and advice.

The book offers guidance on: the role of the SENCO as a teacher and manager; government policy and legislation; self-evaluation, good practice and monitoring; how to relate SEN to school targets and development plans.

Primary and secondary school teachers, headteachers, student teachers, SENCOs, LEA Advisers and professionals involved in the management of Special Educational Needs in schools will find the practical support offered in this book invaluable.

1

Special Educational Needs

CHAPTER 1: KEY QUESTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED

• What are the origins of special educational needs (SEN)?
• How were pupils with SEN educated in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?
• Why and how did provision change?
• How have practices since the late nineteenth century influenced current provision?

Introduction

A framework for the management of inclusion and special educational needs (SEN) requires an understanding of context. This chapter provides an historic overview of the education of pupils deemed as having special educational needs in England and Wales from the late nineteenth century. This history focuses on government acts and committee reports that legislate and inform the development of a separate education for pupils with various disabilities and SEN. It also provides a critical insight into particular societal influences, connecting them to developments within the education system. Models of disability are considered which provide insights into how perceptions of, and provision for, disability had a significant bearing on the development of a separate education system for pupils with SEN.

This chapter will give practitioners a clearer knowledge and understanding of the concept and context of SEN in mainstream education from its origins as determined by the initial aims and objectives of its architects. Within this historical context, this chapter will:

• provide insight on how practitioners perceive and understand special educational needs
• consider how this subsequently impacts on practice
• consider the use of language, indicating how this reflects practitioners’ values and attitudes.

In order to understand these aims it is imperative the concept of SEN be addressed and its perception as an overused acronym in society and education understood. To trace its development, the chapter is divided into two sections:

• Section One:	The education of children with disabilities from 1870 until 1970
• Section Two:	The emergence of SEN

Tables 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 provide a summary of the provision for children with disabilities and SEN in the education system of England and Wales from 1870 to 2004 separated into three periods:

• Medical model of disability and segregation (1870–1970)
• Needs model of disability and integration (1971–1989)
• Social model of disability and inclusion (detailed in Chapter 2).

It must be understood that these three models of disability continue to exert an influence upon educational policies and practices in mainstream education in England and Wales. The authors believe that it is the social model that promotes practices of inclusion.

Table 1.1 Medical model of disability and segregation (1870–1970)

1870 Foster’s Elementary Education Act

Elementary education for all pupils 5–13.

1880 Education Act

Compulsory for all pupils to attend school with the exception of the ‘uneducable’.

1893 Elementary Education Act

Raised the school leaving age to 11.

1893 Elementary Education Blind and Deaf Children Act

Enabled the provision of special schools for blind and deaf children.

1899 Education Act

Set up special schools to run distinct from mainstream schools for the benefit of those pupils for whom withdrawal classes in mainstream were not deemed effective.

1913 Education Act

Raised the school leaving age to 14.

1921 Education Act

Five categories were devised for those children deemed having a ‘handicap’ and therefore ‘defective’. They were provided with a placement via the Health Authority. These categories were: blind, deaf, mentally defective, physically defective and epileptic. There was also reference made to the ‘imbecile’.

1944 Education Act

Leaving age rose from 15 to 16. Board of Education now a Ministry of Education co-ordinating all Local Education Authorities (LEAs). Ten categories of handicap identified. ‘Severely subnormal’ remained the responsibility of Health Authority.

1970 Education (Handicapped Children) Act

Concept of ‘uneducable’ removed. Severely subnormal pupils moved from Health Authority remit to education, i.e. junior occupational centres became special schools.

Table 1.2 Needs model of disability and integration (1971–1989)

1976 Education Act

Abolished selection by ability for secondary education.

1978 Warnock Report

Removed all categories of handicap and replaced them with a spectrum of SEN. Special education provision recommended beginning as early as possible. Greater parental involvement encouraged. A five-stage recognition and assessment of needs established.

1981 Education Act ‘Special Educational Needs’

Established Warnock’s recommendations. Categories of handicap abolished and placed onto new SEN five-stage spectrum of need.

1988 Education Reform Act (ERA)

National Curriculum established. All pupils including those in special schools entitled to access National Curriculum.

Table 1.3 Social model of disability and inclusion (detailed in Chapter 2)

1993 Education Act

Aimed to increase schools’ quality, diversity, autonomy and accountability and extend parental choice. Policy promoted the education of children with SEN in mainstream schools where and when possible. Class teachers responsible for SEN in early stages.

1994 Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs

The role of the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) made statutory; all schools have a SENCO whose job is to co-ordinate provision for pupils with SEN.

1995 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)

It became unlawful to discriminate against disabled persons in connection with employment, the provision of goods, facilities and services or the disposal or management of premises.

1997 Circular 10/97: Requirements for Courses of Initial Teacher Training

Qualified teacher status to include understanding how learning is affected by pupils’ physical, intellectual, emotional and social development.

1997 Green Paper: Excellence for All Children

Focused on increasing inclusion and emphasised collaborative practice between special and mainstream sectors.

1998 White Paper: Meeting Special Educational Needs: A Programme of Action

Following the setting up of the National Advisory Group on Special Educational Needs and nation-wide consultancy on the 1994 Code of Practice (CoP), this paper formed the basis from which a revised CoP emerged.

2001 The Code of Practice for Special Educational Needs

The revised CoP suggested the management role of SENCO be shared in a team. It also stated that parents and pupils be included in assessment and review stages.

2001 SEN and Disability Act (SENDA)

New duties extending the 1995 DDA to cover every aspect of education. The Act amended the DDA inserting a new Part IV to prevent discrimination against disabled people accessing education. The duties make it unlawful to discriminate against pupils on the basis of their disability in all aspects of school life.

2002 Special Educational Needs Report

This report highlighted that children were waiting too long to have needs assessed and many special schools were feeling uncertain as to their future role. It also noted that LEAs and Health Authorities varied in their levels of support available to families.

2003 Every Child Matters

The government strategy for multi-agency collaborative support for all pupils.

2004 Barriers to Inclusion

The government’s strategy for SEN containing a programme for sustained action reiterating the need for the whole school community including parents, guardians, pupils, the voluntary, health and social services working together in order to meet the needs of all pupils.

Section One: Education of children with disabilities (1870–1970)

Foster’s 1870 Act for compulsory elementary education established nation-wide compulsory elementary education for pupils aged 5–13, and was the first legislation to have an impact on children with a range of physical and mental disabilities. Depending on the severity of need, these children were normally institutionalised with the Health Department as their guardians. Interestingly, Arnold (1964) and Hurt (1988) commented on the complaints made by teachers following the 1870 Act; their major concern being that certain pupils were uneducable and in their view had no place in the education system.

In 1889 the government established the Egerton Committee, which was tasked with assessing the problem of uneducable pupils and establishing how widespread were such cases. There followed the 1893 Elementary Education Act, which provided for pupils with sensory difficulties, i.e. blind and deaf children.

The Sharpe Committee was set up in 1898 in response to increasing pressure made on government by teachers and the medical profession to make mandatory and effective provision for pupils with disabilities other than sensory difficulties. The most significant recommendation was the establishment of special schools for those pupils for whom withdrawal classes in mainstream schools were ineffective. The subsequent 1899 Education Act incorporated some of the committee’s recommendations, in particular that special schools should be set up to run distinct from mainstream schools. The authority for implementing the Act was left to local government, resulting in diversified change and development at the local level (Potts, 1982).

Hegarty (1987) noted that government policy regarding provision for the disabled learner became more focused when the 1913 Education Act for defective and epileptic children was introduced. This Act was an outcome of Royal Commission reports published in 1899 and 1908.

KEY QUESTIONS

• What practices did policy promote regarding the education of children with disability in the nineteenth century?
• In what ways do you consider that policy and practice toward the education of children with disability has changed?

The 1921 Education Act instituted five categories for those children deemed to have a handicap and therefore to be defective or unable to access a mainstream education. It also made reference to the imbecile, deemed to be uneducable. Uneducable children of compulsory school age remained under the guardianship of the Health Department accommodated in specialist hospitals or wards.

Following the 1921 Act, Burt and Schonell, whose theories were based upon that of eugenics and psychometrics, influenced policy makers in providing for pupils who had disabilities affecting learning potential (learning difficulties). Burt (1921, 1935) identified some 15 per cent of children as having learning difficulties thus placing them at a disadvantage in mainstream education. Schonell (1924) noted that 17 per cent of pupils were found within the ‘disadvantaged category’ or as having learning difficulties. Burt (1921) suggested there were three groups within the disadvantaged category: subnormal intelligence, mentally dull, and inferior intelligence. Schonell (1924) also identified three groups of disadvantaged children: dull, backward and retarded. Significantly Burt and Schonell concluded that the most effective method for educating such pupils was in a segregated environment. Specifically, Schonell advocated the use of special schools for the backward and retarded. For the dull group the use of small group withdrawal sessions was advised which, it was argued, would enable the pupi...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Glossary
• Prologue
• Preface
• 1 Special Educational Needs
• 2 Devolution and Inclusion
• 3 The School as a Community
• 4 From the Community to the Classroom
• 5 Leadership and Management
• 6 External Agencies and the School Community
• 7 A Policy for Practice
• 8 Professional Development in an Inclusive and Effective School
• Final word
• References
• Index