Editorial: It's time to update special needs education

One of the reasons for such a wide-ranging critique is that the numberof children affected by the current special educational needs strategyis large. According to the most up-to-date government figures, around1.3m children are classed as having special educational needs. It's alsobecoming increasingly apparent that for many families the system is notworking. While government spending on special educational needs hasincreased from 2.8bn to 4.1bn in the last four years, thenumber of parents lodging complaints against their local authority withthe Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal has practicallydoubled, from 1,626 appeals in 1995 to 3,215 last year.

So why is the system failing? Much of the difficulty seems to stem fromthe mixed messages the Government is giving out to local authorities oninclusion. On the one hand you have Lord Adonis, the minister withresponsibility for special educational needs, telling the committee thatthe Government is "content" if the current "roughly static position inrespect of special schools" continues while 2004's Removing Barriers toAchievement strategy categorically stated that "the proportion ofchildren educated in special schools should fall over time".