Inclusion Now 54

Inclusion Now 54, Autumn 2019

ALLFIE’s departing Communications Officer reflects on this issue and on the current state of the movement for inclusive education.

David Towell and Gordon Porter look at how good schools are transforming culture, organisation and practice to ensure all students are present, participating and achieving.

SEND Advocate Lucy Bartley and two parents joined SEND Action and ALLFIE at the Royal Courts of Justice for the case: Disabled children v Secretary of State for Education and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Secondary school teacher and researcher Zahra Bei reflects on the intersection and construction of race and SEND.

How are the UN goals shaping inclusive education?

Following her travels in Finland and Canada, ALLFIE’s former Director, Tara Flood, sets out the changes required to create a fully inclusive education system.

For the last 18 months or so, I have been working for ALLFIE on a research project funded by Disability Research on Independent Living and Learning (DRILL) into the effectiveness of Accessibility Plans in secondary schools. My findings and reflections on the negative and potentially devastating impact of ineffective Accessibility Plans on Disabled children and their families are due to be published next year.

ALLFIE has been awarded a grant from the National Lottery under their Lived Experience Pilot programme to deliver an 18 month project titled ‘Being Seen: Being Heard’. ALLFIE’s Interim Director Michelle Daley introduces the project.

Disability History Month 2019 is nearly upon us. Our theme is Disability: Leadership, Culture and Resistance. We hope more and more schools, colleges, community groups and workplaces will learn about the transformation of thinking about being disabled, which heralded fundamental positive changes in disabled people’s lives in the 80s and 90s. Unfortunately, we have gone into reverse since 2000, with marketisation and austerity.

“My daughter, who is autistic, has been detained in an ATU under the Mental Health Act s(3). She wants to continue at her mainstream school whilst on section. Participating in mainstream education and retaining her friendships provides a structure of purposeful activities that would improve her wellbeing and reduce the need for her to be institutionalised. She complains she is bored and is still self-harming as no appropriate education is provided on the ATU. The Responsible Clinician feels she will continue to self-harm in this situation. How can I get her out of the ATU and attending school?”