Inclusion Now 69 | Summer 2024

Welcome to the latest edition of Inclusion Now magazine, inclusive education news including the Children and Families Act: Ten Years On, the exploitation of Young Disabled people in internships, Mount Stuart Primary School visit, abuse in segregated educational settings, SENCos development, and more.

'Lived experiences of Black/Global Majority Disabled pupils in education' report cover © ALLFIE 2024/Pen Mendonca The images by Pen Mendonca are designed in the style of Kente cloth, which originated in West Africa. The cover is divided into six equal sections: 1. “The Intersection of Race and Disability” with a series of step-like symbols. 2. “Address Trauma from Separation” shows four small illustrations of Black/Global Majority People experiencing trauma through being separated. 3. “Choice and Control - Fund DPOs - Advocacy for EHCPs” shows two people creating a plan, a bag of money, a person thinking and a task list. 4. “Diversify Workforce, Diversify Curriculum” shows a person reading against a rainbow world map, 3 Black/Global majority Disabled people. 5. “Cross Movement Campaigns, Educational Justice and Data” shows different people doing different activities, i.e. reading a screen, speaking, childcare with love, hugging, playing the guitar. 6. “Collaborations between movements, disability justice – racial justice” shows a hand holding a protest banner with a wheelchair symbol, next to two hands doing sign language and a head showing a brain.

Welcome to the 69th edition of Inclusion Now magazine. Text and audio versions are in the articles below, or you can read it in magazine format on Issuu.

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Inclusion Now is produced in collaboration with ALLFIE, World of Inclusion and Inclusive Solutions

Listen to the audio version

You can listen online below, or if you want to download the audio files, right click each article and choose “Save Link As”.

Editorial

By Richard Rieser, World of Inclusion

The Children and Families Act 2014 Ten Years On

Is Government Working Against the Presumption of Mainstream Education?
By Edmore Masendeke, ALLFIE’s Policy and Research Lead

Mount Stuart Primary School: “Inclusive education is an entitlement”

ALLFIE’s Yewande Akintelu-Ominiyi (Our Voice Project Youth Officer), and Michelle Daley (Director), interview Helen Borley, Headteacher at Mount Stuart Primary School.

The Exploitation of Young Disabled People Transitioning from Education to Work

ALLFIEs Our Voice, a collective of Young Disabled people, calls out deep rooted discrimination in apprenticeship and internship programmes, including a shocking disparity in pay between Young Disabled people and their non-disabled counterparts, and systemic barriers which cause unequal opportunities transitioning from education to work.

Masking abuse as restraints and behaviour management in Segregated Education Settings

By Iyiola Olafimihan, ALLFIE’s Campaigns and Justice Lead

ALLFIE Research: Experiences of Black/Global Majority Disabled Pupils & Families in Education

By ALLFIE’s Michelle Daley (Director) and Navin Kikabhai (Chairperson)

The future of professional development for SENCos: Will it equip them for strategic leadership?

By Hazel Richards; Senior Lecturer at Birmingham City University, Stephanie Brewster; Senior Lecturer at University of Wolverhampton, Helen Knowler; Associate Professor, University College London, and Elizabeth Done; Senior Lecturer, University of Plymouth, explain their hopes and fears for the forthcoming mandatory National Professional Qualification (NPQ) for SENCos.

Another educational scandal: Cruelty in the classroom, a BBC Panorama investigation

By Navin Kikabhai, ALLFIE Chairperson, and Yewande Akintelu- Omoniyi, ALLFIE Our Voice Youth Officer

Legal Question

This Legal Question was posed by Kathryn Fielding, Development Officer from Goalball UK and answered by Sarah Woosey, Simpson Millar Solicitors

Supported by

ALLFIE’s campaign for Inclusive Education as a human right is backed by funders and donors who reject the systemic segregation of Disabled people from society.