Supporters of inclusion believe it's the most natural way of giving every child an equal start. Many teachers, however, feel under-supported and believe children with emotional and behavioural difficulties, in particular, can disrupt the education of other pupils. Greater levels of support and resourcing are needed for inclusion to work. And many parents of children with special educational needs are outraged at what they see as the erosion of special schools.
The Government's commitment, in its mini-manifesto on education before the general election, to a national audit of special school provision seemed a sensible response. It would, the Government said, produce information that would allow provision to be sensibly matched to need. So the admission last week by children's minister Beverley Hughes that the audit will be narrow in scope - covering only a few types of particularly complex but low-incidence needs - is very disappointing (see News, p9). It will not cover all special schools nor many of the types of needs that mainstream schools are now routinely seen as being capable of catering for.
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