CYP Now - Opinion: Admitting children is not including them

Two important reports about secondary education were published this month. But while all eyes were on Mike Tomlinson's report, which recommended the biggest shake-up of qualifications in a generation, barely any attention was given to an investigation by Ofsted into the state of provision for children with special educational needs.

Yet Ofsted's report raised some very serious questions about the education experience of children with special educational needs, who now number one in six secondary school pupils. It was a stark reminder of just how far we still have to go to make inclusive education a reality.

In recent years there have been increased efforts to embed the concept of inclusion into school practice, by viewing it as not only about where children are educated, but also about how they are educated.

Progress has been made on the former. Three-fifths of children with statements of special educational need, and the vast majority of all children with them, are currently placed in mainstream schools.

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