As a previous secretary of state for education, parents rightly believethat Kelly must bear some of the responsibility for a specialeducational needs (SEN) system that, in the words of the Education andSkills Select Committee, is "demonstrably no longer fit for purpose"(Children Now, 12-18 July 2006). And it's a system, which according tothe testimony of many parents, fails a sizeable proportion of the 1.5million children in England who have such needs.
This failure is often compounded because not only do families regularlystruggle to get a statement of needs for their children but, as thefeature on p18 reveals, these children are also far more likely to beexcluded from both primary and secondary schools for challengingbehaviour. This means that, firstly, families struggle to get theirchildren appropriate school places, then they have a fight on theirhands to keep them in school.
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