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Special Educational Needs

: I was not aware of children being taught behind glass screens, but I am aware that the lifeblood of schools—referrals—is being stopped in order to justify the closure of the school within a short period. What is so special about a special school? A child with ASD may not want to be a member of society. They have a communication disorder, and if they are to embrace society as adults, they have to be formally taught communication skills by highly trained professionals and adult teachers. Such skills cannot be expected of a mainstream-school teacher who is also trying to deliver a national curriculum to non-SEN children. None of us wants to return to a society in which children are banished to residential schools, but the stark reality is that the policy of inclusion, which is leading to special school closures, is forcing parents to send their children away from home. If that headmaster in the north is right, and his school becomes a regional centre for the worst residential cases, we will be right back to the point at which Baroness Warnock came in 25 years ago. Special school closures also mean that we lose the pool from which language and speech therapists come to help and to support the children in mainstream. We are losing the centres of excellence and training. You may not know this, Mrs. Humble, but a teacher spends a maximum of half a day throughout their entire teacher training on special educational needs, and many spend only one hour. I am pro-inclusion. I am a parent who fought for my child to go to a mainstream school. I believe that children who are able to thrive in the mainstream should be there. There is no reason on this planet why any physically disabled child who is mentally able should not attend a mainstream school. In case the tone of my speech seems to be anti-inclusion, let me stress that I am a pro-inclusionist. What I am arguing is that children on the higher autistic continuum or with Asperger's syndrome are not suitable for the mainstream. Let me return to my point about teacher training. A teacher from Newcastle who spent his entire teaching career in special schools has suddenly found himself in a mainstream comprehensive school, because of the closure of his special school. He said to me:"““I only actually get to deal with the kids in my own form at any one time. It would be common sense to put the most difficult of these kids together in one unit and use the teachers like me who at least are experienced in special needs to help them. The head doesn't like that, and said it doesn't fit with the inclusion agenda. What it doesn't fit in with is the new zero tolerance in class disruption””" that the head is trying to introduce."““The majority of kids with special needs are disruptive as a result of their problems and they are being excluded and sent to pupil referral units. It seems to me that the head's way of dealing with the inclusion agenda is to exclude the kids because the majority of the teachers can't deal with them.””" Recent research by the Youth Justice Board found that 80 per cent. of young people in young offender institutions have SEN, and the majority of them were never even statemented. There is a frightening prospect that many of the SEN children of today will become the ASBOs of tomorrow. One of the Government's answers to some of the emerging problems has been the establishment of the parent partnership programme, which I welcome. I applaud it, inasmuch as it helps parents in mediation with schools and teachers, which is a service that they never previously had. However, the parent partnership code of practice clearly states that the programme is not allowed to advocate on behalf of the parent. It reports directly to the local education authority—its line manager is the head of the LEA. That must give rise to a conflict of interest in some areas of the country.