SEN founder calls for rethink
Baroness Warnock, one of the original thinkers behind the formation of the special educational needs inclusion system, has urged a radical rethink of the system.
She said that the special educational needs (SEN) system has become a source of “confusion of which children are the casualties”.
Baroness Warnock is best known for her work in laying the foundations for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, but she is also the person behind the SEN system.
It advocates teaching children with learning difficulties in mainstream schools but in a pamphlet published today, Baroness Warnock claims the system is failing children.
And she urges the Government to carry out a “radical review” of the education system, looking into the overall benefits and problems of the inclusive approach.
“Governments must come to recognise that, even if inclusion is an ideal for society in general, it may not always be an ideal for school,” she said.
Instead, Baroness Warnock proposes a system of special schools that could look after pupils with a range of problems, including autistic children, but would remain small institutions so that pupils receive the direct attention they need.
Yesterday Shadow Education Secretary David Cameron argued for an end to special school closures until further evidence of the effectiveness of inclusion has been revealed.
However, junior Schools Minister Lord Adonis has hit back at the criticism, pointing out that there has been “major new investment” in special schools under the current government.
