Education and Health policy for Special Needs Children
Education and health policy for Special needs children
A need for change
In response to an extremely high level of correspondence on the vexing subject of Special needs education and the expectations of parents concerning the lack of suitable education provision, the Assembly Member for the Llanelli constituency Catherine Thomas, organised a parents, carers, public sector providers meeting to discuss the subject. This meeting was convened in the spring of 2006, the Education and Children’s Services ministers along with the Head of education for the county of Carmarthenshire, present as guest speakers
The consensus of opinion from attendees in the audience was one of frustration in the way that lack of provision and resources in the area was responsible for the failure of the system to provide the basic need of Special Need education enshrined in the Education Acts. Conversely the guest speakers were only able to reiterate statements of policy that all efforts were being made to provide the necessary provisions.
The recent initiative from the National Autistic Society "Make School Make Sense" launched at the 2006 Eisteddfod in Swansea outlines the results of parents responses to the NAS consultation questionnaire and draws the same conclusions that the process of finding the right school of their choice for their children’s education was difficult and that the final outcome of placement was not necessarily the right option.
The NAS document goes on to suggest that the right approach in every school and the right training for every teacher was paramount to achieving the best education for every child.
A conference organized by Cerebra in 2005 highlighted a presentation from an Educationalist at Trinity College in Carmarthen which came to a similar conclusion that a failure to provide the appropriate resource for Special Needs Education was the result of an inadequate training for student teachers intending to enter SNE to understand even the basics of their special needs children as to why they were of "special need". The good news is that Trinity College in their 2007 programme will address this deficiency in their teacher training courses. On this basis a requirement for an all Wales programme is desirable, promoted at the highest level and not left to local authorities to decide teacher training content policy.
Cambridge academic John MacBeath co-authored a new report, The Costs of Inclusion, which said teachers and teaching assistants were often going "beyond the call of duty" to help children with special needs. The report, commissioned by the National Union of Teachers (NUT), cites cases where teachers were regularly called on to clean tracheotomy tubes and deal with incontinence and nappy-changing in the classroom.Forcing children with special needs into mainstream classrooms that lack adequate support is a "form of abuse", academics warned. Prof. MacBeath said: "Physically sitting in a classroom is not inclusion. Children can be excluded by sitting in a classroom that's not meeting their needs." The typical secondary school timetable - rushing from physics, to history and then to French, was for some children as bewildering as being "on another planet".He said: "You might call it a form of abuse, in a sense, that those children are in a situation that's totally inappropriate for them." One teacher was quoted in the report as saying: "It's more like nursing home than education."The report found that although primary schools were more successful than secondary schools in helping pupils cope in mainstream classrooms, teachers, parents and children felt the strain of inclusion. Another experienced teacher said: "I felt it was something I was failing in. I couldn't cope with it anymore." Many teachers supported the principle of the government's policy of "inclusion", where children with special needs were taught alongside other pupils in mainstream classrooms, the study found.However, schools often could not provide the facilities needed to cope with special needs pupils, the research by Cambridge academics, including Maurice Galton, found. Teachers without expert training were placed under enormous pressure, while children - especially those who suffered from anxiety or depression were left without help, the report said.Schools had to cope with pupils with severe mental health problems, including schizophrenia, self-harming and even attempted suicides.Prof. MacBeath and Prof. Galton said the report was not "anti- inclusion", a stance echoed by the NUT, traditionally the biggest advocate of inclusion of the education unions.The NUT general secretary, Steve Sinnott, today called for an audit of special needs across England as a crucial step to address "major areas of policy failure". He described the study as both "shocking and inspirational".Mr. Sinnott said: "The commitment of staff and parents to youngsters with special needs shines out. But many are being let down by inclusion on the cheap.""It is vital that the government conducts a root and branch independent review of inclusion policies and practice. It must put an end to the stress and strain experienced by teachers, support staff, parents and youngsters alike."All children are entitled to high-quality teaching and learning and high standards in every classroom."However schools minister Andrew Adonis said the government was putting "the needs of the child first".Lord Adonis said: "Children should be taught in mainstream schools where this is what their parents want and it is not incompatible with the efficient education of other children. "We also want pupils for whom this is not an option to benefit from high quality education and for strong links to be forged between special and mainstream schools so pupils can mix with their peers."David Willetts, the Conservatives' spokesman on education, said: "This report shows too many children with special needs are being forced into mainstream schools. The obsession with inclusion is unfair on children with special educational needs, unfair on the rest of the class and unfair on teachers. This report should lead the government to a radical rethink on its inclusion policy."
In 2004, the department for Education and Skills, commissioned a Mencap led pan-disability feasability study to propose a the setting up of a centre of early intervention .In March 2005 the study which can be viewed via www.earlyintervention.org.uk was presented to Westminster with the following proposals;
The National Centre for Early Intervention should be established to meet the needs of planners, parents, practitioners, professional associations, voluntary and statutory sectors, including health, education and social care, in order to improve access to effective early interventions for all young disabled children.
The National Centre for Early Intervention is commissioned and established in a way that recognises the inter-relationships of the key roles identified in this feasibility study.
A Development Board is established to set up the National Centre for Early Intervention. A hybrid model is proposed with a semi-independent Board of Trustees operating as a registered charity and company limited by guarantee.
The National Centre is developed with strong regional and local links in order to ensure that it is able to effectively discharge its functions and meet the objective of supporting local evidence-informed service commissioning and delivery.
In the future the National Centre for Early Intervention and the Early Support Programme are integrated so that coherent and robust support is offered to families, planners and practitioners.
The National Centre for Early Intervention is developed in a way that facilitates mutually beneficial partnerships with local and regional structures.
An international role is built into the workplan of the National Centre for Early Intervention and that it arranges a biennial international conference.
The National Centre for Early Intervention is established outside London, with a location and identity that is separate from other organisations but supported by formal affiliation partnerships with more than one university.
The government supports the strategic development of the National Centre for Early Intervention through five-year funding from 2005-2010 so as to enable the Centre to establish a reputation for excellence. During this period project funding will also be sought from corporate and charitable sectors. Thereafter from 2010 it is proposed that the government contribution should taper to 85% and future funding will be sought from a wider base.
In 2003 the National Assembly for Wales embarked on a consultative programme entitled Education and Lifelong Learning Committee, Policy Review of Special Education Needs, to date having produced two documents, Part 1 Early Identification and Intervention, Part 2 Statutory Assessment Framework (Statementing) and the third part Transition has now been put out for general consultation.
The conclusion reached by the Committee in Part 1 suggested "Many respondents including parents, young people education and health professionals felt that they were expending a significant amount of effort in supporting and developing children and young people with SNE. At the same time, others felt that children and young people were not receiving the support and provision that they are entitled to as set out in the SEN code of practise for Wales.
Direction provided by the SEN code of practise was generally welcomed but practical support was needed to realise the obligations of the code and meet children’s and young people’s needs. The general message from the consultation was one of a call for increased resources/ specialist personnel, coordination between agencies and clarification on responsibilities of various agencies involved"
Part 2 concludes " there was a strong support for a change in focus to channeling energies and resources to support the needs of the child, rather than embarking on the time consuming process of statements. Statements should be aimed at children with severe and complex needs but changes should only take place after wide-ranging consultation with parents and other stakeholders.
The lack of consistency across LEAs and the issues regarding Welsh Language provision, and provision for parents whole first language is neither Welsh nor English, emerged as areas of concern that need to be addressed by the Assembly Government."
The Assembly Government agrees in response to these documents issued by the committee, that the conclusions drawn be the basis for future strategy. However no timetable for implementation is in place.
Three years of work, at great expense has been committed, and there still remain the same shortcomings in the processes, without any commitment to implement change.
On the basis that no specific time influenced action plan is in place in Wales perhaps it is pertinent to consider the utilisation of the Mencap early intervention study to lead change in Wales. A strong argument on the basis of the above- presented evidence suggests that existing local government led policies of health and education for SNE individuals are failing due to resource constraints from National Government.
The optimum requirement is for diagnoses at the point of onset to action a care plan before primary school age, to enable the Education System to cater for those individuals which will inevitably require some form of specialist education in terms of extra resources.
In the cases of individuals having acquired a disability, easily recognised, immediately after birth, the statutory authorities have instant information to action the care plan. However in the cases where diagnoses are not available until after 18 months, even as late as 4 to 5 years of age with many individuals, the authorities are at a disadvantage in planning needs.
There is a basic requirement in terms of provision of Special Needs education, in that it is provided only with a Statement of Special Needs. This statement can only be formulated on the basis of a clinical diagnosis of a condition which allies to development delay or some form of learning, behavior or mobility problem. It is therefore paramount that these conditions be identified at the earliest opportunity to enable the statement to be formulated.
.
The need for coordinated effort between the established agencies of Health, Education and Social Services has been identified as a prime issue in terms of Early Intervention. The establishment of an umbrella organisation would address these issues.
However in the lack of such an umbrella organisation, there is no physical reason as to why Health and Education should not cooperate in advance of the establishment of a new organisation.
The ability of the Education Sector to plan the future needs of Special Education is based on the need to know the number of children with special needs in the system progressing toward education age. This information is available in the Health system and a mechanism should be in place to impart this knowledge between Health and Education.
The early recognition of a child likely to require special needs is fundamental to this issue. Identification of children posing a potential risk of development delay, behaviour and mobility problems should be considered at the earliest opportunity, and this, in the opinion of the author should be at preconception.
Much has been written on the risk posed to the unborn child, in terms of miscarriage at early stage of pregnancy, increased risk of premature delivery and resultant low birth weight, to onset of neurological disturbance from smoking and excessive alcohol intake. This potential risk also applies to mature parenthood, where increased maternal age increases risk of disturbance to the offspring.
Other causes of miscarriage, prematurity, and requirement for mechanical aids intervention during birth procedures, can be attributed to maternal viral and bacterial infections acquired during pregnancy, and all such abnormal incidences are capable of being recorded to provide the basis for an early risk assessment of future problems.
It is recognised that neurological disturbances resulting from pregnancy abnormalities are increased risk potential for outcomes of Attention Deficit Disorders, Learning difficulties, especially reading, Autism Spectrum Disorder and mobility problems.
The Mencap study suggests a form of charity based private funding organisation. On the basis that National Charities are often led and supervised and overseen by eminent highly qualified professionals with a variety of management, scientific and medical skills, should the education of special needs young people be handled by such an organisation rather than Local Government in the form of LEA’s.
Robin Burn
The Autism Centre
August 2006
A need for change
In response to an extremely high level of correspondence on the vexing subject of Special needs education and the expectations of parents concerning the lack of suitable education provision, the Assembly Member for the Llanelli constituency Catherine Thomas, organised a parents, carers, public sector providers meeting to discuss the subject. This meeting was convened in the spring of 2006, the Education and Children’s Services ministers along with the Head of education for the county of Carmarthenshire, present as guest speakers
The consensus of opinion from attendees in the audience was one of frustration in the way that lack of provision and resources in the area was responsible for the failure of the system to provide the basic need of Special Need education enshrined in the Education Acts. Conversely the guest speakers were only able to reiterate statements of policy that all efforts were being made to provide the necessary provisions.
The recent initiative from the National Autistic Society "Make School Make Sense" launched at the 2006 Eisteddfod in Swansea outlines the results of parents responses to the NAS consultation questionnaire and draws the same conclusions that the process of finding the right school of their choice for their children’s education was difficult and that the final outcome of placement was not necessarily the right option.
The NAS document goes on to suggest that the right approach in every school and the right training for every teacher was paramount to achieving the best education for every child.
A conference organized by Cerebra in 2005 highlighted a presentation from an Educationalist at Trinity College in Carmarthen which came to a similar conclusion that a failure to provide the appropriate resource for Special Needs Education was the result of an inadequate training for student teachers intending to enter SNE to understand even the basics of their special needs children as to why they were of "special need". The good news is that Trinity College in their 2007 programme will address this deficiency in their teacher training courses. On this basis a requirement for an all Wales programme is desirable, promoted at the highest level and not left to local authorities to decide teacher training content policy.
Cambridge academic John MacBeath co-authored a new report, The Costs of Inclusion, which said teachers and teaching assistants were often going "beyond the call of duty" to help children with special needs. The report, commissioned by the National Union of Teachers (NUT), cites cases where teachers were regularly called on to clean tracheotomy tubes and deal with incontinence and nappy-changing in the classroom.Forcing children with special needs into mainstream classrooms that lack adequate support is a "form of abuse", academics warned. Prof. MacBeath said: "Physically sitting in a classroom is not inclusion. Children can be excluded by sitting in a classroom that's not meeting their needs." The typical secondary school timetable - rushing from physics, to history and then to French, was for some children as bewildering as being "on another planet".He said: "You might call it a form of abuse, in a sense, that those children are in a situation that's totally inappropriate for them." One teacher was quoted in the report as saying: "It's more like nursing home than education."The report found that although primary schools were more successful than secondary schools in helping pupils cope in mainstream classrooms, teachers, parents and children felt the strain of inclusion. Another experienced teacher said: "I felt it was something I was failing in. I couldn't cope with it anymore." Many teachers supported the principle of the government's policy of "inclusion", where children with special needs were taught alongside other pupils in mainstream classrooms, the study found.However, schools often could not provide the facilities needed to cope with special needs pupils, the research by Cambridge academics, including Maurice Galton, found. Teachers without expert training were placed under enormous pressure, while children - especially those who suffered from anxiety or depression were left without help, the report said.Schools had to cope with pupils with severe mental health problems, including schizophrenia, self-harming and even attempted suicides.Prof. MacBeath and Prof. Galton said the report was not "anti- inclusion", a stance echoed by the NUT, traditionally the biggest advocate of inclusion of the education unions.The NUT general secretary, Steve Sinnott, today called for an audit of special needs across England as a crucial step to address "major areas of policy failure". He described the study as both "shocking and inspirational".Mr. Sinnott said: "The commitment of staff and parents to youngsters with special needs shines out. But many are being let down by inclusion on the cheap.""It is vital that the government conducts a root and branch independent review of inclusion policies and practice. It must put an end to the stress and strain experienced by teachers, support staff, parents and youngsters alike."All children are entitled to high-quality teaching and learning and high standards in every classroom."However schools minister Andrew Adonis said the government was putting "the needs of the child first".Lord Adonis said: "Children should be taught in mainstream schools where this is what their parents want and it is not incompatible with the efficient education of other children. "We also want pupils for whom this is not an option to benefit from high quality education and for strong links to be forged between special and mainstream schools so pupils can mix with their peers."David Willetts, the Conservatives' spokesman on education, said: "This report shows too many children with special needs are being forced into mainstream schools. The obsession with inclusion is unfair on children with special educational needs, unfair on the rest of the class and unfair on teachers. This report should lead the government to a radical rethink on its inclusion policy."
In 2004, the department for Education and Skills, commissioned a Mencap led pan-disability feasability study to propose a the setting up of a centre of early intervention .In March 2005 the study which can be viewed via www.earlyintervention.org.uk was presented to Westminster with the following proposals;
The National Centre for Early Intervention should be established to meet the needs of planners, parents, practitioners, professional associations, voluntary and statutory sectors, including health, education and social care, in order to improve access to effective early interventions for all young disabled children.
The National Centre for Early Intervention is commissioned and established in a way that recognises the inter-relationships of the key roles identified in this feasibility study.
A Development Board is established to set up the National Centre for Early Intervention. A hybrid model is proposed with a semi-independent Board of Trustees operating as a registered charity and company limited by guarantee.
The National Centre is developed with strong regional and local links in order to ensure that it is able to effectively discharge its functions and meet the objective of supporting local evidence-informed service commissioning and delivery.
In the future the National Centre for Early Intervention and the Early Support Programme are integrated so that coherent and robust support is offered to families, planners and practitioners.
The National Centre for Early Intervention is developed in a way that facilitates mutually beneficial partnerships with local and regional structures.
An international role is built into the workplan of the National Centre for Early Intervention and that it arranges a biennial international conference.
The National Centre for Early Intervention is established outside London, with a location and identity that is separate from other organisations but supported by formal affiliation partnerships with more than one university.
The government supports the strategic development of the National Centre for Early Intervention through five-year funding from 2005-2010 so as to enable the Centre to establish a reputation for excellence. During this period project funding will also be sought from corporate and charitable sectors. Thereafter from 2010 it is proposed that the government contribution should taper to 85% and future funding will be sought from a wider base.
In 2003 the National Assembly for Wales embarked on a consultative programme entitled Education and Lifelong Learning Committee, Policy Review of Special Education Needs, to date having produced two documents, Part 1 Early Identification and Intervention, Part 2 Statutory Assessment Framework (Statementing) and the third part Transition has now been put out for general consultation.
The conclusion reached by the Committee in Part 1 suggested "Many respondents including parents, young people education and health professionals felt that they were expending a significant amount of effort in supporting and developing children and young people with SNE. At the same time, others felt that children and young people were not receiving the support and provision that they are entitled to as set out in the SEN code of practise for Wales.
Direction provided by the SEN code of practise was generally welcomed but practical support was needed to realise the obligations of the code and meet children’s and young people’s needs. The general message from the consultation was one of a call for increased resources/ specialist personnel, coordination between agencies and clarification on responsibilities of various agencies involved"
Part 2 concludes " there was a strong support for a change in focus to channeling energies and resources to support the needs of the child, rather than embarking on the time consuming process of statements. Statements should be aimed at children with severe and complex needs but changes should only take place after wide-ranging consultation with parents and other stakeholders.
The lack of consistency across LEAs and the issues regarding Welsh Language provision, and provision for parents whole first language is neither Welsh nor English, emerged as areas of concern that need to be addressed by the Assembly Government."
The Assembly Government agrees in response to these documents issued by the committee, that the conclusions drawn be the basis for future strategy. However no timetable for implementation is in place.
Three years of work, at great expense has been committed, and there still remain the same shortcomings in the processes, without any commitment to implement change.
On the basis that no specific time influenced action plan is in place in Wales perhaps it is pertinent to consider the utilisation of the Mencap early intervention study to lead change in Wales. A strong argument on the basis of the above- presented evidence suggests that existing local government led policies of health and education for SNE individuals are failing due to resource constraints from National Government.
The optimum requirement is for diagnoses at the point of onset to action a care plan before primary school age, to enable the Education System to cater for those individuals which will inevitably require some form of specialist education in terms of extra resources.
In the cases of individuals having acquired a disability, easily recognised, immediately after birth, the statutory authorities have instant information to action the care plan. However in the cases where diagnoses are not available until after 18 months, even as late as 4 to 5 years of age with many individuals, the authorities are at a disadvantage in planning needs.
There is a basic requirement in terms of provision of Special Needs education, in that it is provided only with a Statement of Special Needs. This statement can only be formulated on the basis of a clinical diagnosis of a condition which allies to development delay or some form of learning, behavior or mobility problem. It is therefore paramount that these conditions be identified at the earliest opportunity to enable the statement to be formulated.
.
The need for coordinated effort between the established agencies of Health, Education and Social Services has been identified as a prime issue in terms of Early Intervention. The establishment of an umbrella organisation would address these issues.
However in the lack of such an umbrella organisation, there is no physical reason as to why Health and Education should not cooperate in advance of the establishment of a new organisation.
The ability of the Education Sector to plan the future needs of Special Education is based on the need to know the number of children with special needs in the system progressing toward education age. This information is available in the Health system and a mechanism should be in place to impart this knowledge between Health and Education.
The early recognition of a child likely to require special needs is fundamental to this issue. Identification of children posing a potential risk of development delay, behaviour and mobility problems should be considered at the earliest opportunity, and this, in the opinion of the author should be at preconception.
Much has been written on the risk posed to the unborn child, in terms of miscarriage at early stage of pregnancy, increased risk of premature delivery and resultant low birth weight, to onset of neurological disturbance from smoking and excessive alcohol intake. This potential risk also applies to mature parenthood, where increased maternal age increases risk of disturbance to the offspring.
Other causes of miscarriage, prematurity, and requirement for mechanical aids intervention during birth procedures, can be attributed to maternal viral and bacterial infections acquired during pregnancy, and all such abnormal incidences are capable of being recorded to provide the basis for an early risk assessment of future problems.
It is recognised that neurological disturbances resulting from pregnancy abnormalities are increased risk potential for outcomes of Attention Deficit Disorders, Learning difficulties, especially reading, Autism Spectrum Disorder and mobility problems.
The Mencap study suggests a form of charity based private funding organisation. On the basis that National Charities are often led and supervised and overseen by eminent highly qualified professionals with a variety of management, scientific and medical skills, should the education of special needs young people be handled by such an organisation rather than Local Government in the form of LEA’s.
Robin Burn
The Autism Centre
August 2006
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