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Education Act 2011
What Allfie has achieved
Current campaign work
What you can do
The Education Act covers a range of proposals including: School Admissions and Exclusions, School Workforce development, Qualifications regulator’s duties, career guidance and 16 plus provision.
The provisions in the Act include:
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The Independent Exclusions Review panel’s power to compel the school to review its decision to exclude a child. The Independent Exclusions Review panels replaced the Independent Exclusions Appeals Panels which had the power to reinstate the child if the school’s exclusion was not upheld.
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Children who are defined as disabled under the Equality Act 2010 will have the opportunity to appeal against a permanent exclusion on the grounds of disability discrimination. Unlike the Independent Review Panel, tribunals have the power to reinstate the child if the parents appeal is upheld.
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Change the schools admissions adjudicator’s role so they no longer have the power to directly amend the school’s admissions policy even if the parents / local authority’s appeal is upheld.
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Independent evaluation of parents experiences of using the Independent Exclusions panels for children with SEN and SEN and Disability Tribunals for disabled children who have been excluded from school.
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Abolition of the General Teaching Council for England
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OFQUAL, the qualifications regulator, will be required when setting qualification standards in the UK to take into account international standards for similar level of qualifications elsewhere.
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Schools to provide independent Careers Guidance for all school aged pupils
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Allow young people and their parents to use direct payments in leiu of education support and equipment services provided by education provider or local authority as part of the SEN pathfinders pilots.
What Allfie has achieved
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Cross Party support from MPs for ALLFIE amendments during Education Bill committee stage debates
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Relevant Schools Exclusions / Behaviour Guidance and regulations will now impose a duty upon school heads and governors to undertake multiagency assessments before considering excluding the child.
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Parents can ask for a SEN expert to be appointed to advise the panel on matters relating to the child’s SEN and exclusion.
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Many of the schools with teacher training status have been assessed by OFSTED as having outstanding SEN provision. ALLFIE will want further reassurance that this will include disability equality training and inclusive education practice within their teacher training courses and work placements.
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Secured debate on the benefits of direct payments in education for disabled young people in further education.
Current campaign work
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We are interested in knowing whether the child’s exclusion has not been upheld by the local review panel decision and what parents thought of the revised appeals process.
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To review the Direct Payments in Education guidance when published by the Department for Education.
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If possible to work with the SEN pathfinders that are piloting direct payments for SEN or Additional Learning Support in school or college.
What you can do
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Get in touch with ALLFIE if you are embarking on using direct payments in education as part of one of the SEN pathfinder pilots. We want to know about your experiences.
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Get in touch with ALLFIE if you are using the new exclusions review process in order to appeal against a school’s decision to exclude your child. We are interested in the whole process including the attendance of special education needs experts at the hearing on parents’ request.
Further information can be found in the following Allfie Briefings:ALLFIE Briefing No.19 August/September 2010 Allfie Briefing No. 24 March 2011 |
Image by Simone Aspis |
