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The green paper on special educational needs and disability
- Author:
- GILLLIE Christine
- Publisher:
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons Library
- Publication year:
- 2011
- Pagination:
- 17p.
- Place of publication:
- London
This Standard Note outlines the current special educational needs (SEN) system in England, and highlights the main proposals in the Government’s green paper on special educational needs and disability. The Green Paper considers how to achieve: better educational outcomes and life chances for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities - from the early years through to the transition into adult life and employment; better early intervention to prevent problems later; and greater choice for parents in the schools their children attend and the support and services they receive, whether in a mainstream or special school setting. A selection of initial reaction to the green paper is provided. The note also includes information on the pathfinder programme to test key elements of the green paper’s proposals. The paper proposes: a new approach to identifying SEN through a single early years setting-based category and school-based category of SEN; a new single assessment process and Education, Health and Care Plan by 2014; local authorities and other services to set out a local offer of all services available; the option of a personal budget by 2014 for all families with children with a statement of SEN or a new Education, Health and Care Plan; strengthening parental choice of school, for either a mainstream or special school; and changing the assessment process to make it more independent.
Can transition meetings in school be done in a person-centred way?
- Authors:
- KAEHNE Axel, BEYER Stephen
- Journal article citation:
- Learning Disability Today, October 2011, pp.28-30.
- Publisher:
- Pavilion
- Place of publication:
- Hove
Transition from children’s to adults social services can be a time of upheaval for young people with learning disabilities. This article considers the quality of transition reviews and whether they can be done in a person-centred way. The study worked with a school in the northwest of England to examine the way in which they carry out transition review meetings, whether they meet the criteria of person-centred planning and, if so, how this ensures that everybody who should be involved in transition planning is effectively participating in the meeting. Records of transition meetings and transition plans for 43 pupils about to leave school were analysed. In addition, half of the families were contacted to find out their feelings about the meeting and the planning process. The findings indicated that the young people, their families, school and Connexions staff were consistently present at the meetings; however, social workers and staff from voluntary employment agencies only attended a minority of meetings. Only 44% of the meeting records and transition plans were ‘somewhat accessible’, while almost a third used highly technical language, effectively preventing the young person from understanding their own transition plans. The biggest problem was that many of the meetings did not discuss the whole range of needs of the young person or long-term planning. In particular, only 25% of transition plans outlined clear and actionable employment goals.
The impact of social policy on changes in professional practice within learning disability services: different standards for children and adults? A two-part examination: part 2. professional services under the coalition: the trends continue apace
- Authors:
- RACE David G., MALIN Nigel A.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 15(4), December 2011, pp.289-299.
- Publisher:
- Sage
- Place of publication:
- London
This is the second of 2 articles examining links between policy developments and changes in professional practice within learning disability services in England. The first article (ibid, 14(4), 2010, 315-328) concluded that there was a developing gap in professional inputs between children’s and adult services. This article looks at the effects of the first year of the Coalition government. It argues that its policies, especially the large-scale reduction in public expenditure, have exacerbated the trends identified earlier. There has been a reduction in the professional training and qualification for staff in the adult social care sector. For children, there has been a decline in support for inclusion of children in mainstream education and a rapid growth of academies, leading to fears of a move towards more independent specialist schools for children with learning disabilities. In addition, local authorities, though outwardly compliant, have variously interpreted their responsibilities under the personalisation agenda, in particular in relation to individual budgets, and this has resulted in assessments of need being based on ‘service hours’ rather than service quality and staff qualifications.
Young adults with intellectual disability recall their childhood
- Author:
- STARKE Mikaela
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 15(4), December 2011, pp.229-240.
- Publisher:
- Sage
- Place of publication:
- London
The aim of this article is to examine the experiences of young adults with intellectual disability with their childhood, with a particular focus on their relationships and interactions with their family members and on their informal and formal broader social networks. The study participants were 11 young adults aged 18-25 years who have grown up in homes where at least 1 parent had the same or a similar disability. Two face-to-face interviews were held with each of the participants. Two main themes emerged from the interviews. Firstly, a clear majority of the young adults had positive experiences of family life during their upbringing, as expressed especially through their memories of their grandparents. Secondly, the study participants all described experiences of being bullied and harassed outside the family context. The findings highlight the importance of the parents, the family, and informal networks in the upbringing of these children. The study also considers the consequences that the study participants’ negative experiences of peer contacts and their sense of exclusion might have for their prospects in later life.