SEN: The truth about inclusion
31 January 2008
In a new national report “SEN: The truth about inclusion,” Charlotte Leslie looked at the human cost of the Government’s determination to reduce the number of children with special educational needs (SEN) educated in special schools.
The report, which gained national coverage in The Observer and the Daily Telegraph, revealed that children with more severe SEN in mainstream schools without statements were twice as likely to be truants as any other SEN children. Shockingly, a fifth are persistent truants.
Charlotte said, “This Government is determined to reduce statementing, and to send children with SEN to mainstream schools. They call this ‘inclusion’. But inclusion must be judged not by which building a child is educated in, but by the standard of education and life they receive. On that measure, the Government has failed. I will continue to work for children with SEN to be genuinely included in society, by getting the education they need and deserve.”
The report, which gained national coverage in The Observer and the Daily Telegraph, revealed that children with more severe SEN in mainstream schools without statements were twice as likely to be truants as any other SEN children. Shockingly, a fifth are persistent truants.
Charlotte said, “This Government is determined to reduce statementing, and to send children with SEN to mainstream schools. They call this ‘inclusion’. But inclusion must be judged not by which building a child is educated in, but by the standard of education and life they receive. On that measure, the Government has failed. I will continue to work for children with SEN to be genuinely included in society, by getting the education they need and deserve.”