ALLFIE gives Article 24 evidence to UN

In March we gave evidence to the UN in Geneva with the Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance, presenting our Shadow Report which documents how UK government policies since 2010 have moved backwards against nearly every article of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, including Article 24: Right to Inclusive Education.

The CRPD Committee asked a number of questions about education and disabled children and young people in response to ALLFIE’s presentation. Our presentation set out the many breaches of Article 24 since ratification in 2009, including announcements of new funding for special and segregated provision, the disproportionate numbers of disabled children and young people with SEN being excluded from school, funding cuts to local SEN support services and the impact of these on disabled children, young people and their families, and of course the government plan to significantly increase levels of selection in schools.

The CRPD Committee have used this evidence to help it produce a “list of issues” on which it needs further information from the UK government. That list has now been published and will provide the scrutiny framework when the UK government attends the CRPD Committee in August.

The issues the UK government has been asked to comment on include:

• When and how they will withdraw their reservation to Article 24
• Progress in the UK on inclusive education
• What is being done to inform parents of disabled children’s right to inclusive education, and its benefits
• What is being done to make sure cuts to Disabled Students’ Allowance do not affect disabled young people’s access to education, particularly those from low income households.
• What is being done to train teachers in inclusion.

ALLFIE has reviewed the list of issues and we’re pleased that our concerns about the backward movement on Article 24 rights have been included in the document.

The full List of Issues is online here.

Tara Flood