The increasing numbers visiting this website must mean that you are copying it to those you think will be interested to read it – many more since I introduced this Blog – so warmest thanks. Mind you I still sense that there are some in the media who are reluctant to eat their own words, and academia is still very reluctant to engage in cannibalism.
Never mind, they will have to. I am encouraged to blog more frequently than I intended, and I am continuing to sharpen my needles.
This is the moment for me to invite you to scroll back to the beginning and see what it all adds up to.
I have accepted – others may not – Lady Warnock’s current view on Inclusion. I draw it from the public record that I include in Notes & Quotes:
A change of policy?
Extracts from House of Commons Education and Skills Committee – Third Report March 2007
A confused message
65. It is widely presumed that the Government has a policy of inclusion or an inclusion agenda. Indeed, Baroness Warnock in her recent article-which many described as a u-turn in her position on inclusion -concluded that “possibly the most disastrous legacy of the 1978 report, was the concept of inclusion.” She argued in the article that inclusion could be taken “too far” and that this was resulting in the closure of special schools to the detriment of children with SEN. (my underlining)
Given that Lady Warnock was one of the policy’s guiding spirits, this change of view will not have been made lightly.
I do not however accept the next paragraph in that report as an accurate statement:
66. The Government has, in written and oral evidence to this Committee, repeatedly stated that “it is not Government policy to close special schools” and that “Government plays no role in relation to local authority [...] decisions to close schools.”
The Department for Education and Skills has used the services of OFSTED in their inspections of Local Education Authorities to drive that policy. OFSTED’s job, put very simply, has been and still is to make sure that the steam-roller is in good working order, and it then awards badges excellence to those LEAs that meet their targets for reducing the number of children with statements and increasing the number of children with special needs in mainstream schools… but not otherwise.
That is not to say that there are not also those who working for LEAs that share the missionary zeal of their political masters, and thrive on it. But if you happen to get caught under the steam-roller that is another matter. That is what Death of a Nightingale is all about.
This policy has led to the closure of 100 special schools in the last ten years as the number of pupils in special schools has gone down and they became less and less able to provide the National Curriculum.
Act One Scene 2
David Harding is the Director of Education, Gerry Thompson Special Needs Co-ordinator.
DAVID HARDING It’ll actually run itself down, as we admit fewer kids to it. Some redundancies will be unavoidable and they won’t be able to deliver the national curriculum.
GERRY THOMPSON The bird’s already beginning to look a bit sick. Their roll came down last year by nine pupils.
From earlier in the same scene:
DAVID HARDING You’re dead right, but our political masters say that we have to consult. They just don’t realise how wasteful of time this is when parents take the offer seriously. Not just hours, days and days, nights and fucking nights. That’s how long it took three people to go through their written objections. And then we had to respond to them all.
JAMES HARRINGTON That’s one of the things that the Department is worried about.We just don’t want it to catch on. This is the second time it’s happened. It’s getting to be a habit, and one we can do without. We’ve now taken the Minister out of the firing line here and set up School Organisation Committees to deal with school closures and take the flak.
DAVID HARDING That was a clever move, a gesture to local democracy but making it much easier for us to deal with.
I share Lady Warnock’s view. It was right for more children with special needs to be included in mainstream schools, but others are being seriously “wronged” there. That must be what she means. They are being bullied. They are being denied the continuity of specialist education by dedicated and trained teachers and carers and the time that they were able to give.
This is not something that time and money will cure. Time will never be there. Money has already been provided in some abundance, not least with a new army of classroom assistants. However dedicated and caring, they can never be the same as fully trained teachers.
I think that the following dialogue between James Harrington, the mandarin and David Harding the Director of Education is only too accurate:
Act one Scene 2
DAVID HARDING Between these four walls I don’t think Inclusion is going to be a cheap option.
JAMES HARRINGTON Well leading accountants advised us that we could make some real savings simply by reducing the number of Statements LEAs have to write for children with special needs. Get that down by a third, reduce special school places by the same, and then hey presto you don’t need all those special schools. And writing Statements is a real headache. We’ll have to keep some schools for kids with profound difficulties or very complex behavioural problems, but most can go.
DAVID HARDING Hm. Accountants. Some are just calculating machines on legs. They play with figures and talk about outcomes. They leave us to deal with people and try to meet their needs. They’re just not street wise. They manage us when we should be managing them. The savings won’t be there if we do our job. Mark my words.
JAMES HARRINGTON You may well be right, especially to begin with. The Treasury has agreed to cough up millions to adapt mainstream schools and we will obviously have to commit ourselves to training. We are currently trying to work out the actual cost now. It’s not easy though. There’s a major study just started.
DAVID HARDING Good luck to it. I look forward to seeing the results. I just hope you haven’t provided them.
JAMES HARRINGTON You’re a cynic. Anyway, just you keep your doubts to yourself. Money is where money needs to be is my motto. We can’t go back now.
With one hundred special schools closed, that is now where we have to start. Eileen Winterton, chair of governors, says in the play: “you can’t turn the clock back. Those people shouldn’t be looking for an old clock. They should be looking for a new compass.”
Where should this new compass point? Not back where it came from; not to asserting Equality, treating all children with special needs as the same as each other or the same as everyone else; but with fair play trying to meet their individual needs, giving them the best chance that they have to be included in society as adults.
That, I suggest, should be the guiding principle. I will give you one more based on the old adage that castor oil doesn’t cure bunions. Civil servants cannot cure them either. They are, put very simply, the wrong people to decide which schools children with special needs should attend, and I include here educational psychologists employed by local authorities with a political agenda.
Act One Scene 1
Terry is a pupil, Margaret Williamson, head teacher and Judith Fawzi a parent.
TERRY I’ve got Crohn’s. It’s not very nice, but the physio’s help here whenever I need it. It’s great. The stupid local authority said there was nothing wrong with me.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Don’t say stupid, Terry. But it is what happens when an official of the Council decides these things. There really should be a multi-disciplinary team making these decisions. The Council doesn’t want the medical people in on the actual decision taking at all. They actually don’t want them to say anything at all to parents. They think it’ll cost them money.
JUDITH FAWZI Well you know I am a nurse. Nurses are not allowed to suggest a suitable school to parents. Would you believe that?
MARGARET WILLIAMSON I would. Health and Education are two separate worlds. We’ve got NHS people here, but they are, and they aren’t, part of our team.
JUDITH FAWZI Yes and those local authority officials don’t really know anything about either of these worlds, if you ask me. They should remember that the very first thing a parent asks when their child is born is whether it’s okay. They should remember that.
I will tell you here one other lesson I learnt the hard way in the economic crisis of the early 1970′s. I was making heavy weather of my retail business. One of my suppliers said to me “You need a manager.” I replied that I was the manager. To that he said:”No, you are not. You are the owner.” I found a manager who was street wise, and knew the world I was trading in much better than I did. The business then took off, and ultimately became a Plc. The moral of the story is this. Local Authorities “own” the responsibility for special educational needs, but they should not themselves try to manage it. They simply need to find the people who can, and provide the framework and the funds to enable them to do the job
I will give you one more relevant quotation from Death of a Nightingale:
The Prologue
This is another reason why well-intentioned plans have failed. Compassion can never be part of the job description of civil servants. Even empathy may be too much to ask. Central government is too remote, and local government is too parsimonious. Neither is best structured to deal with something that would better be handled by authorities that are regional and accountable. Airports are managed in this way. Just how sensitive is the system today to individual needs that are far more numerous and varied than most people realise? Does it even begin to think in terms of a holistic approach to learning difficulties? I pose these questions.
So all you people out there who are behaving like termites, defending your nests, use your human brain, and move on.
Make a start by putting Death of a Nightingale on your bookshelf … and reading it. It is good brain fodder.