Home > Teaching & Learning >SEN > Inclusion and SEN	Friday 12 March, 2010

Inclusion and Special Educational Needs (SEN)

Inclusion

The concept of Inclusion is often discussed as though it applies only to Special Educational Needs (SEN), but it has much wider scope. According to Booth and Ainscow (2000) Inclusion in education involves:

Valuing all students and staff equally.

Increasing the participation of students in, and reducing their exclusion from, the cultures, curricula and communities of local schools.

Restructuring the cultures, policies and practices in schools so that they respond to the diversity of students in the locality.

Reducing barriers to learning and participation for all students, not only those with impairments or those who are categorised as ‘having special educational needs’.

Learning from attempts to overcome barriers to the access and participation of particular students to make changes for the benefit of students more widely.

Viewing the difference between students as resources to support learning, rather than as problems to be overcome.

Acknowledging the right of students to an education in their locality.

Improving schools for staff as well as for students.

Emphasising the role of schools in building community and developing values, as well as in increasing achievement.

Fostering mutually sustaining relationships between schools and communities.

Recognising that inclusion in education is one aspect of inclusion in society.

You can find an account of their ideas and details of the publication from which that extract is taken at: http://inclusion.uwe.ac.uk/csie/index-overview.htm

For revised and updated editions of the Index for Inclusion see the list of recent publications on the CSIE website. The revised edition for schools was published in 2002 and a version designed for staff in early years and childcare settings appeared in 2006.

Special Educational Needs

Some pupils need additional help at school because they have learning difficulties or disabilities which significantly affect their access to the curriculum. They are described as having special educational needs (SEN).

The traditional way of thinking about SEN was to see it as an individual deviation from the norm. This individual has significant difficulties in learning compared to the majority of children of the same age. This view of SEN holds that it is best understood by looking at individual differences between children. There is an alternative and more recent approach which argues that SEN arise when inappropriate environmental demands are placed on an individual - demands which exceed their current capabilities.

When the focus is on individual differences, it is assumed that the cause of the difficulties lies within the child. There are biological or cognitive or behavioural factors within the child which prevent him or her from functioning or developing in the same way as most children do. The problem with this approach is that:

It is based on assumptions which do not hold up when they are examined closely, for example, the assumption that all children, including all children learning EAL, have had the same learning opportunities before they start school.

The social context and the educational environment can and do make a substantial difference to a child’s level of achievement, whether or not the child has learning difficulties.

If we focus exclusively on the individual and there is a problem in the school or the classroom, we will tend to ignore the context and thus fail to address the problem. For example, we might not appreciate that a school that is making no provision to teach EAL to a recently arrived pupil who needs it is extending the period when the pupil has problems accessing the curriculum.

When the focus is on environmental demands, it is assumed that children’s current attainments at school reflect their previous learning experiences. If they are taught appropriately, they will learn more successfully. Their problem arises because of a mismatch between their current skills and what the school curriculum requires of them. In the same way the responsibility for problems faced by people with disabilities can be placed on the environment rather than on the people themselves. In this view the key problem is not that wheelchair users have impaired mobility but rather that buildings are designed in ways that are inappropriate for them. The problem with this approach is that individual differences matter too, since different children will respond to teaching in different ways.

Both of those views of SEN are simplistic. A preferable view, which is now widely accepted, relies on an interactional analysis. This views the level of need as the result of a complex interaction between -

the child's strengths and weaknesses,

the level of support available, and

the appropriateness of the education being provided.

You will find a fuller account of these three positions on SEN in Chapter 3 of Frederickson and Cline (2009).

Legal Framework

The definition of SEN in UK law was changed radically in 1981 and has remained consistent since. Before that date the focus was on personal handicap and on disability of mind or body, effectively incorporating in law the “individual differences” concept of SEN. Since 1981, through various changes in education legislation, the law on SEN has stated that:

A child has special educational needs if he or she has a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.

A child has a learning difficulty if he or she:

(a) has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age
(b) has a disability which either prevents or hinders the child from making use of educational facilities of a kind provided for children of the same age in schools within the area of the local education authority
(c) is under five and falls within the definition at (a) or (b) above or would do if special educational provision was not made for the child.

Special educational provision means:

(a) for a child over two, educational provision which is additional to or otherwise different from, the educational provision made generally for children of the child's age in maintained schools, other than special schools in the area.
(b) for a child under two, educational provision of any kind.

[Education Act, 1996, Section 312]

For those concerned with children learning EAL a crucial paragraph of that section of the Act reads:

A child must not be regarded as having a learning difficulty solely because the language or form of language of the home is different from the language in which he or she is or will be taught.

Thus children learning EAL may have SEN, but that must not be assumed if the only reason for their learning difficulties is that they do not initially speak the language of the school.

What does all this mean in practice? The relevant Education Act requires the Government to issue an SEN Code of Practice in order to provide guidance on what is expected of all those involved.

An additional law affecting schools’ arrangements for children who may have SEN is the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA), which came into effect in September 2002. This Act requires schools to avoid discriminating against current and prospective disabled pupils. The two key duties that are placed on schools are that they should:

not treat disabled pupils less favourably than other pupils;

take reasonable steps to avoid putting disabled pupils at a substantial disadvantage.

The Act supports the provision of a mainstream school place for a child with SEN, if it is the parents’ wish that their child has a mainstream education - so long as it is appropriate for the child and compatible with the education of other children and with the efficient use of resources.

For the purposes of this Act a child has a disability if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day to day activities. It is considered that a child has long-term needs if these are severe enough to affect the child for a year or more. A child with a disability may have special educational needs if he or she has difficulty with his or her learning and/or if he or she needs equipment or support which are required to meet a pupil's specific educational needs and enable them to access the curriculum, which would normally be provided through a Statement of SEN. This might include a laptop computer or similar writing tool or an angled writing frame. A child may therefore have either a disability or special educational needs or both.

For more detailed information about the SENDA see:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/EducationAndTraining/DG_4001076

An alternative way of thinking: Additional Support Needs (ASN)

Special Educational Needs refers to children’s learning needs in school. As we have seen, in Britain, as in many other countries, SEN is legally defined and this legal definition is used to decide whether particular children are eligible for special educational services. It is increasingly common to use an umbrella term such as Additional educational needs to refer both to the needs of pupils with SEN and to the needs which may be experienced by pupils from particular social groups whose circumstances or background are different from most of the school population, such those who are learning EAL. The term Additional Educational Needs is used in the Common Assessment Framework which has been introduced for use across the range of Children’s Services in England. However, it is confusing to use two terms in parallel when the distinction between them is rather confusing. The situation in Scotland seems simpler and may indicate the direction that other countries take in the future. In the most recent Scottish legislation on the subject (the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004) the term that is used is “Additional Support Needs” (ASN). A Scottish Executive commentary explained:

“The definition of 'special educational needs' traditionally only applies to children and young people with particular types of learning needs. The new concept of 'additional support needs' refers to any child or young person who, for whatever reason, requires additional support for learning. Additional support needs can arise from any factor which causes a barrier to learning, whether that factor relates to social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, disability, or family and care circumstances. For instance, additional support may be required for a child or young person who is being bullied; has behavioural difficulties; has learning difficulties; is a parent; has a sensory or mobility impairment; is at risk; or is bereaved. There will be many other examples besides these. Some additional support needs will be long term while others will be short term. The effect they have will vary from child to child. In all cases though, it is how these factors impact on the individual child's learning that is important and this will determine the level of support required.”

(http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/06/19516/39190)

The list of those covered by the term was amplified in a speech by Gibson (2005):

“The Act introduces a new framework for supporting children and young people in their school education, and their families. This framework is based on the idea of additional support needs. This new term applies to children and young people who, for whatever reason, require additional support, long or short term, in order to help them make the most of their school education. Children and young people may require additional support for a variety of reasons and may include those who:
- have motor or sensory impairments

- are being bullied
- are particularly able or talented

- have experienced a bereavement
- are looked after

- have a learning difficulty
- are on the child protection register

- have English as an additional language
- are not attending school regularly

- have emotional or social difficulties
- are young carers

- are living with parents who are abusing substances

The above list is not exhaustive nor should it be assumed that inclusion in the list automatically implies that additional support will be necessary. The term, ‘special educational needs’, is no longer used.” (Gibson, 2005)

With this approach to children who need more than the school system provides for the majority of children, teachers need to identify the specific challenges that each child faces and develop specific responses to support the child to overcome those challenges. When that way of thinking about “ASN” is introduced in this country, the distinction between SEN and EAL will become less sensitive, and perhaps planning targeted support for all the children will become an easier task. In the meantime we must work within the legal and professional framework that we have. (For a fuller discussion see Frederickson and Cline, 2009, Chapter 3)

Author

Tony Cline

Last updated

3rd April 2009

References and Further Reading

Booth, T. and Ainscow. M. (2000). Index on Inclusion. Bristol: Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education.

Frederickson, N. and Cline, T. (2009). Special Educational Needs, Inclusion and Diversity: A Textbook. Second Edition (Chapters 3 - 4.) Buckingham: Open University Press.

Gibson, M. (2005). Opportunities and Challenges: Additional Support for Learning (Scotland) Act 2004. Paper delivered at a conference in Dublin by Mike Gibson, the Head of the Additional Support Needs Division in the Education Department of the Scottish Executive. Retrieved 23rd April 2009 from

Mike_Gibson_paper.doc