Tory: Special needs audit a ‘let down’
The Conservatives have reacted angrily to the news that the forthcoming audit of special needs will only concentrate on the most severely handicapped children.
During the general election campaign the Labour Party promised an audit of special needs and schools provision to compare it across the country.
Its manifesto said there would be a “national audit of special school provision to give better comparative information to local authorities, headteachers and school governors as they plan future special needs provision to meet their local needs”.
It has now been confirmed that the audit will only cover the most severe needs, including severe behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, autism, multi sensory impairments, severe visual or hearing impairments and profound or multiple learning difficulties.
Impairments such as mild to moderate dyslexia are unlikely to be covered.
Shadow Education Secretary David Cameron said the audit was a disappointment: “The Government audit of special schools is a letdown that makes no sense.
“It should be looking at the full range of special schools rather than just dealing with the most severely disabled.
“It is the schools looking after children with moderate learning difficulties that are being closed.”
Special needs has leapt up the political agenda recently, with the Conservatives calling for a halt to the closure of special schools until a full audit had been completed.
They argue that the policy of integrating children with special needs into mainstream education is flawed and failing to help vulnerable children.
Its campaign was given a boost when Baroness Warnock, one of the original founders of the SEN system, said a radical rethink was required.
She said it had become a “confusion of which children are the casualties”, adding: “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”.
However, junior Schools Minister Lord Adonis hit back at the criticism, pointing out that there has been “major new investment” in special needs schools under the current government. Labour has also previously insisted that it is for LEAs, in conjunction with parents’ wishes, to determine special needs provision.
