Briefing on the Education and Skills Bill - New Sanctions
- No New Rights
The Government has described the recently published Education
and Skills Bill as the 'biggest reform to education, training and skills
in a generation'.
One of the proposed changes to current education law is raising the
education and training leaving age from 16years to 18years by 2015 which
will mean that young people will have to remain in full time education,
training or a combination of the two until they are 18yrs. Other proposals
include strengthening the provision and support available to young people
and adults to meet the ambition set out in the Leitch Review of achieving
'world class' skills by 2020. The Leitch Review of Skills, published
in December 2006, recommended that radical action needed to be taken
to stop the sharp decline in the number of low skilled jobs from the
present 3.2 million to 600,000 by 2020.
The Bill also includes the transfer of the Connexxions service to Local
Authorities and there will be a new requirement on Local Authorities
to promote young people's participation and to support them to find
appropriate education and training opportunities.
Key aspects of the Bill include:
Raising the education or training participation age to 17 years by 2013
and to 18 years by 2015 - ensuring that every young person is in some
form of recognised education or training until they are 18. This will
involve placing a duty on young people and their parents to participate.
Despite what the Government says about no young person being forced
to stay at school, failure to participate could result in a fine or
legal action.
Adult skills - giving adults better access to basic and intermediate
skills. The Learning and Skills Council will have a duty to ensure the
proper provision of free courses for basic literacy and numeracy programmes
and courses leading to a first full level 2 qualification. It also means
that 19-25 year olds who are undertaking their first full level 3 qualification
do not have to pay tuition fees. However with a stronger emphasis on
education and training opportunities that lead to employment outcomes
there is a danger that these courses will only be open to young people
who need little in the way of additional learning support or flexibility
of course time table and curriculum.
The Bill also gives the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority additional
powers, to enable it to recognise and accredit a wider range of awarding
bodies, thereby reducing bureaucracy and increasing the transparency
of the accreditation process.
Information, Advice and Guidance - local authorities will be required
to have regard to the new Quality Standards for Information, Advice
and Guidance. There will also be a duty on schools to provide impartial
careers education to help pupils to make the most appropriate future
learning and career choices.
Planning and funding of 16-19 provision to transfer to to local authorities
(subject to consultation and legislation). This also includes funding
for Connexxions Services
New role for Employers - provision of Apprenticeships and other work-related
learning. There will be no requirement if they employ a 16 or 17 year
old for less than 20 hours a week, or provide accredited training; otherwise,
they will need to ensure that a young person is in learning or will
be required to provide or arrange accredited training, or release them
from work for the equivalent of one day a week to train elsewhere (with
no requirement to pay them for that time). There will be support for
employers to accredit good quality training schemes and a brokerage
service to help the choice of appropriate training
Transport - changes in the Bill mean that local authorities will have
to ensure that when they provide transport to schools they not only
take into account distance, but also time. This has been in response
to complaints that many young people have to take very long bus rides
when the journey could be done much quicker by train.
Independent schools will no longer have to consult the Secretary of
State on minor changes, nor will they have to apply separately to be
an approved special school. Independent schools will now be overseen
by Ofsted rather than directly by the Secretary of State.
Extension of an existing power for governing bodies of maintained schools
in England to exclude students to receive provision to improve their
behaviour; This is a deeply worrying clause and can only result on schools
increasing the numbers of exclusions of young people with 'behaviour'
labels. We believe it is no coincidence that within the Government's
new Children's Plan there are proposals for new 'studio' schools, being
new smaller schools but, says very little about who will attend or why.
These new plans to increase segregated education provision fly in the
face of the Government's commitment to inclusion which it recently renewed
by signing up to the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The Government believes that raising the education/training age participation
age will potentially benefit the economy by around £2.4bn per
year group. It is the Government's hope that by 2015 every young person
will be in some form of education or training until the age of 18 and
there will be a range of free training beyond that.
Whilst the Alliance for Inclusive Education welcomes the opportunity
the Bill creates to look at the education and training requirements
of young people, we are concerned that the changes needed to improve
the experiences of education for disabled young people has not been
given a high enough priority. For example, there is nothing in the Bill
that supports the need for any new provision to be inclusive or education
and training provision that promotes equality.
We are concerned that the sole focus is on getting into paid employment
which, for a number of reasons, may not be appropriate for some disabled
young people who may require more time and different support to achieve
a broader range of outcomes. These outcomes may include paid work but
may also involve contributing to their local community in different
ways.
The Bill's proposals do not to get to the heart of the current education
system which fails so many of our young disabled people, in fact the
Bill could be very easily seen as a cynical move to addressing the large
numbers of disabled young people who are not in education, employment
or training, rather than genuinely wanting to support disabled young
people to learn new skills.
Disabled people aged 16-18 are twice as likely as non-disabled peers
to be not in education, employment or training. By 26, disabled young
people are far more likely than their peers to feel that there is nothing
they can do to change their lives.
Also with such a heavy focus on employment and employability those disabled
young people who do not easily 'fit' within the proposed 'work focused'
education and training system, will be forced out of mainstream courses
where eligibility is based on ability to achieve existing academic qualifications
within the same time frame. For this group of disabled young people
the future is very likely to continue to be focused on a merry-go-round
of 'life skills' courses which by their very nature reinforce much of
the disempowering messages that disabled young people hear about themselves.
Many disabled young people, particularly young people with learning
difficulties or differences, and those segregated into special schools,
have had a negative experience of what the current education system
can offer them so without the Bill giving more enforceable rights to
'person-centred' and inclusive support across all aspects of post 16
learning. It is difficult to see how the low aspirations for disabled
young people fostered in special school settings will be tackled after
16 if the young person is forced to remain in the same disempowering
environment.
Although the Alliance supports the Government's desire to for young
people in England and Wales to achieve 'world class' skills by 2020,
we are deeply concerned by the narrow 'work-focused' definition of 'world
class'. The Alliance believes achieving 'world class' skills should
mean that ALL young people will have the right to develop existing skills
and learn new skills and for those achievements to be recognised as
having equal value. 'World class' skills should enable disabled young
people to seek out opportunities to contribute to their communities
and to have equality of life chances alongside their non disabled peers.
However, to really accomplish this the Government will
need to radically rethink the way in which young people have their educational
outcomes tested or accredited. Currently testing and assessment systems
are all set to a non disabled standard which has meant that many disabled
young people, particularly those with learning differences, have been
denied the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and learning in a
way that is equally valued. This has resulted in these young people
being thrown on the 'NEET' scrapheap.
The Alliance is calling for the Government to include
in its 'biggest reform for a generation', a strengthening of the right
to an education that is inclusive of ALL young people. This must include
person-centred support for learning. This also means education and learning
institutions, as well as qualifications and awards bodies, addressing
their existing disablist practices in a much more pro active way so
that disabled young people feel they will be welcomed by education providers
and can be sure that they will genuinely benefit from the proposed 2
extra years of compulsory education or training .
The Alliance will be working with other organisations
to make the following changes to the Education & Skills Bill:
Remove the possibility of sanctions for non participation
Recognition that support should also be made available to those young
people who have not reached a Level 1 qualification
Guaranteed support for disabled young people accessing inclusive post
16 education and training
A right for young people to have access to accessible information about
what their options are for post 16 education and training
A duty on schools, colleges and other education and training institutions
to removing the barriers to learning for disabled learners
Please contact Tara Flood at the Alliance for Inclusive
Education if you want to be part of the campaign. We are very keen to
hear from disabled young people who have stories about their experiences
of education and training course after they have left school. Tara can
be contacted on tel: 020 7735 5277 or email: tara.flood@allfie.org.uk
Tory SEN Report Press Release
Tory SEN report takes education for disabled children back to the
dark ages
The Conservative Party have, once again, deliberately
ignored the voices of disabled people and many parents in the writing
of their 'Commission on Special Needs in Education' 2nd Report - those
disabled people and parents who have experienced, firsthand, an inclusive
education. Instead the report has listened to the same voices as used
in the first report - voices that have a vested interest in keeping
the 'special is best' myth alive. These are the voices that have whipped
up by the moral panic about special school closures - a moral panic
fuelled by the Conservatives.
The report also chooses to ignore the many good practice
examples where disabled children with SEN labels are being included
in their local mainstream schools. We assume this is because it does
not support David Cameron's desire to turn the educational clock back
30 years to a time when the vast majority of disabled children were
banished to the wastelands of special education.
It is fundamentally untrue that inclusion is a 'failed
ideology'. The Alliance has many fantastic examples of schools who have
embraced inclusion which has benefited both disabled and non-disabled
children. Such examples can also be found in the Government's "Implementing
the Disability Discrimination Act in Schools and Early Years Settings"
resource pack.
Tara Flood, Director at the Alliance said:
"This report demonstrates flawed thinking at every
level and a total lack of understanding as to the lifelong damage done
by segregated education. The Conservative solution to what the report
describes as the 'grevious damage' done by inclusion, is to return to
the time when disabled children were segregated from society but, evidence
now shows that the lifelong impact of segregating disabled children
into the special education system leads to poor educational outcomes,
low self esteem and low aspirations for the future as compared with
their non-disabled peers."
Tara Flood, Director of Alliance for Inclusive Education
Further reading:
"Snapshots of Possibility", shining examples of inclusive
education.
Published by the Alliance for Inclusive Education
New disability convention signals a global
commitment to inclusive education for ALL disabled people
Joint Press Release from Alliance for Inclusive Education, Centre
for Studies on Inclusive Education, Disability Equality in Education
and Parents for Inclusion 30th March 2007
A dawning of a new era of inclusion for disabled people
arrives today, because the UK Government will be signing the new United
Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The UK Inclusion movement which includes the Alliance
for Inclusive Education, Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education,
Disability Equality in Education and Parents for Inclusion are delighted
that the UK Government will be one of the first member states to sign
up to the new Convention. We warmly welcome the UK Government signing
the Disability Convention. This will significantly help the Government
in a gradual transition from segregated 'special' schooling to fully
resourced and well supported inclusion in mainstream education'.
The Convention, which is the first human rights treaty
of the 21st century, promotes respect for the inherent dignity of all
disabled people and safeguards all disabled people's human rights and
fundamental freedoms. The educational rights of disabled children and
young people are directly addressed in Article 24, which stipulates
an inclusive education system at primary, secondary and tertiary level.
In particular, Article 24 specifies that States Parties shall ensure
"an inclusive education system at all levels", that "persons
with disabilities receive the support required, within the general education
system, to facilitate their effective education", and that essential
staff training "shall incorporate disability awareness and the
use of appropriate augmentative and alternative modes, means and formats
of communication, educational techniques and materials to support persons
with disabilities."
The organisations also welcomed the call by Vernor Muñoz
Villalobos, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, for UN
Member States to increase efforts to ensure that all children, regardless
of differences, learn together. The four bodies said it supported the
vision of inclusive education for all which would mean capacity building
the mainstream system to provide for ALL and phasing out of segregated
'special' schooling. Mr. Munoz Villalobos told the Human Rights Council
in Geneva last week that educational systems should stop seeing disabled
children as problems, but rather as an opportunity to enrich schools.
Obstacles to inclusive education, he noted, include limited resources
and the lack of genuine political will.
Members of the UK Inclusion Movement who were involved
in the Ad Hoc Committee negotiations in New York, have issued this joint
statement urging the UK Government to begin developing an implementation
strategy so that this ground breaking, global opportunity becomes a
reality for the 600 million disabled people across the world.
Allfie, CSIE, DEE and PI urge the Government to:
Acknowledge that disabled people continue to face barriers
in their participation as equal members of society.
Acknowledge the importance of accessibility to education in ensuring
disabled people can fully enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Acknowledge that segregated provision can lead to profound social disadvantage
for disabled people.
Reaffirm a strong commitment to inclusive education for all children
and young people.
Take measures, including legislative measures, to promote inclusive
education
engage in constructive dialogue with the disabled community, acknowledging
the diversity of disabled people by consulting widely.
Establish a mechanism for a co-ordinated, thorough and far-reaching
review and restructure of current provision, so as to render all mainstream
schools capable of adequately providing for all children and young people.
Establish and support a nationwide professional development initiative
which will enable all school staff to access training aimed at disability
awareness as well as practical skills and resources for inclusive education.
Adoption of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Press Release from UK Inclusion Movement on Adoption
of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by General
Assembly 13th December 2006
The adoption today of the Convention on the 'Rights
of Persons with Disabilities' by the United Nations General Assembly
marks an historic day for improving the human rights of 650million disabled
people around the world.
The Inclusion Movement in the United Kingdom is particularly
enthusiastic that the Convention contains a clear commitment to inclusive
education for all disabled children and young people ( Article 24- Education).
The process of making this Convention fully involved
disabled people and their allies and reached broad agreement on implementing
inclusive education for all.
The arrival of this new convention-the first in the
C21st-confirm the imperative for change to reduce unnecessary segregation
of disabled pupils in the school system.
The Inclusion Movement in the UK is now keen to work
with the Government to implement this new human rights convention.
Stop.
Alliance for Inclusive Education - contact Tara Flood
020 7735 5277
Centre for Studies in Inclusive Education - contact Mark Vaughan 0117
328 4007
Disability Equality in Education - contact Richard Rieser 020 7359 2855
Parents for Inclusion - contact Jo Cameron 020 7735 7735
UN Convention
Briefing for the 8th Session of the
Ad Hoc Committee
August 14 - 25 2006 New York
The Alliance for Inclusive Education is a UK-based national
network lead by disabled people and supported by allies that include,
parents, educators, Head Teachers. The Alliance has campaigned successfully,
over the last 15 years, to remove the legal conditions which have served
to limit the rights of children with Special Educational Needs to secure
a supported mainstream placement. We have also been very influential
in bringing education into the remit of the UK Disability Discrimination
Act, strengthening the right of disabled young people to protection
from discrimination within the education system.
The Alliance for Inclusive Education has welcomed the
commitment from the United Nations General Assembly to the protection
of disabled children's and adult's human rights. And that there is now
a global appreciation that existing human rights instruments are not
offering disabled children and adults adequate protections from abuses
of those rights.
We hope that the elaboration of a UN Convention protecting
the rights and dignity of ALL disabled persons will offer us the same
rights and protections currently available to others.
Only with such a body can the Convention be properly
monitored and implemented, thereby upholding the commitment of governments
to promoting the rights of persons with disabilities.
Existing treaty bodies do not have sufficient expertise
on disability rights and because 'disability' or 'disabled persons'
are only mentioned specifically in the UN Convention on the Rights of
the Child (and even then only in relation to health), our rights are
often ignored in states parties' reports to monitoring bodies. In fact,
in an analysis of concluding observations of all human rights treaty
bodies it was revealed that there is, at best, minimal attention afforded
to the rights of disabled people.
As a UK based national campaigning network for the right
of ALL disabled children to an inclusive education, the Alliance for
Inclusive Education, is particularly concerned to ensure that the proposed
Convention gives us additional legal power to lobby our own Government
to create the necessary changes in the UK education system that will
support the inclusion of ALL children in mainstream schools and will
therefore make segregated schooling a thing of the past.
It is therefore important that Article 24 on Education
is sufficiently progressive in its language on inclusion as to mean
that segregated schooling must no longer a reality for any disabled
child, where ever they live in the world. The calls from some states
parties for 'choice' of provision suggests an unwillingness to see beyond
existing educational practices and desire to set in stone (by way of
this Convention text) language that reflects the current situation and
not disabled peoples aspirations for an inclusive future for ALL.
The Alliance therefore supports the amendments to Article
24 submitted by the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education, and those
of the IDC, to ensure that all support measures available to disabled
learners are "consistent with the goal of full inclusion".
Tara Flood, the Director of the Alliance will be attending
the 8th Session to support and strengthen the voices for inclusion.
|
