With ChristinaWelsh. Senior Polict Officer, Natspec There’s a growing focus on what inclusion is and, very recently, on education and career options for young people. But there is still a …
with Philippa Stobbs OBE Pens down! And breathe. The chaos of the SEND consultation period is over. Unless, of course, the judicial review that’s still pending orders it to be …
By Matt Walker, National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) We’ve covered the newly-renamed “Inclusion Bases”— previously known as resourced provision or SEN Units—quite a few times. They make up a …
The Government keeps insisting it wants a “national conversation” on SEND, but the way it’s structuring that conversation tells a very different story. In today’s guest post, Dr Kieron Smith …
Another day, another announcement. No sooner has the government’s 90% SEND debt write-off lifted the funding Sword of Damocles off councils, than more school plans are announced. This video by …
Alice Reeves, parent It’s clear the Government is trying to push more children, particularly neurodivergent ones, away from specialist settings to mainstream schools or units, where thousands have already been …
By Emma Hollis, CEO, National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT) While the £3 billion for more mainstream SEND places may sound encouraging, one of the flies in the ointment, …
A new report, Double Disadvantage, shows children with special educational needs (SEN) from low-income families are “facing major inequalities in access to support”. While this is obviously deeply unfair, it …
Guest article by Dr Jill Pluquailec, Gill O’Connor, and Emma Sadler, Sheffield Hallam University SNJ Intro: When the SEND Review was announced in 2022, we knew better than to trust …
By Matt Keer and Dr Sharon Smith Before we get into today’s post, over the weekend it was announced that Schools/SEND Minister, Catherine McKinnell has resigned. Her replacement is Georgia …
With Nicola Brookes, SENCO, SEND parent It’s probably a fair bet that, if you have a child with SEND, you’ve felt, at least once, like “that parent”. The one that …
by Tracy Gillett, Director of Education, Condover College Today is the final article in our series looking at the best of Post-16 SEND education innovation, featuring winners of the Natspec …
SNJ Intro: Given the large and growing number of children with mental health needs, what’s missing in many schools is nurture. Nurture groups in school can be lifelines for children …
Guest post by Dr Craig Johnston, Senior Lecturer-Criminology, University of the West of England (UWE) Bristol SNJ Intro: We’ve featured alternative provision and its different types quite a few times …
Richard Rieser OBE is a renowned disability and inclusion expert. He is also the founder of Disability History Month. Here, he traces the recent history of inclusive education, how it …
By Dr Vasilis Strogilos, Associate Professor, University of Southampton SNJ Intro: The “direction of travel” for SEND from the Labour government seems to be expanding the use of resourced provision …
with Cristín O’Brien, Senior Policy Advisor of The Difference A new report has found a “crisis of lost learning” sweeping across schools in England. The Difference Education charity says children …
With Lisa McDonald, Head of SEND Education, Participation and Skills, SEND, Plymouth City Council Late last year, we ran a two-part article on “Ordinarily Available Provision” (OAP) from SEND expert, …
My work in Alternative Provision has spanned 20 years and in that time, the landscape has changed significantly. Reading the newly-updated Department for Education Guidance on Alternative Provision (AP) felt …
And Amanda Wright, Head of Whole School SEND The notion of inclusion is increasingly emphasised in current educational ideology as schools and colleges search for effective approaches that will enable …
