The Children and Families Act was widely reported to have broad cross-party support as it made its journey through Parliament. Somewhat surprising (and disappointing, if I read it correctly) then to see a major principle of the Act potentially undermined in Labour's pre-manifesto.
The following comes from a recent weekly briefing prepared for Action Cerebral Palsy by the Whitehouse Consultancy, just before the Party confrence. The issue included the following:
Labour publishes pre-manifesto
The Labour Party has published (but not yet publicly launched) its pre-manifesto document. The document is the result of three years of dialogue with stakeholders and the public and was agreed upon by the Party’s National Policy Forum, Chaired by Angela Eagle MP.
Commitments on education policy relevant to Action Cerebral Palsy include:
- Restoring early intervention at the heart of Labour’s educational approach, including ensuring it is properly funded.
- Favouring inclusion in mainstream education for children with disabilities and special educational needs, and reinstating individual education plans to ensure disabled learners receive individualised support.
- Ensuring all teachers in state funded schools have, or are working towards, Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), as well as enhancing professional development provisions.
- Giving local authorities the powers to appoint Directors of School Standards to review school standards and performance.
The pre-manifesto will serve as the basis for Labour’s final General Election Manifesto and will be discussed during the Labour Party Conference next week.
The policy item in red strikes me as a major overturning of a fundamental key provision of the Children and Families Act 2014 (and therefore of the Act itself), to give priority to parents’ wishes in the choice of schooling for the education of their child.
It seems to me no more nor no less than a return to the previous presumption in favour of inclusion.
One complication is that compared with 2010, when a presumption in favour of "inclusion in mainstream education" was tantamount to a presumption in favour of local authority run schools, now, with over 50% (see note below) of secondary schools being independent academies (and 10% of primaries) such a manifesto commitment would seem less deliverable. The Act also made possible the exercise of parent choice of non-maintained special schools, with which the Special Academies have much in common, more than either do with special schools still maintained by local authorities.
There has been a seismic shift in the structure and management of schooling in England that has totally altered what previously was known as "mainstream education", which would seem to make a presumption in favour of "inclusion in mainstream education" no longer practicable, not to say at least partially meaningless.
One wonders how the debate went at the Party Conference.
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Note from The Governor
- 63% of all secondary schools are now open or in the academy or free school pipeline
- 13% of all primary schools are now open or in the academy or free school pipeline
From the same source, there are said to be 89 special academies.