EQUITY AND INCLUSION OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL'S WALLS

Abstract

Over the last 30 years, controversy has reigned over the rights of children with learning disabilities to be educated alongside their peers in a mainstream classroom. Whether this is called integration or inclusion has been another hotly debated discussion among professionals. There have been calls for the abolition of special schools. This paper does not look at the rights of children with learning disabilities to an education in an inclusive setting but the rights of adults with severe or profound learning disabilities to lifelong education and well-being. This paper does not seek for the abolition of special schools but for the extension of their use by their local communities. In 2014, a landmark report on the future of services for people with learning disabilities was launched by Sir Stephen Bubb for NHS England. This was in direct response to the Winterbourne scandal in 2011 and the ensuing years in between with the failure to move people out of inappropriate institutional care. Only by the use of already available community provision can we achieve a move from institution to community. There is no pot of money available to build necessary centres and facilities. The health service, social services and education as well as local councils need to work together to achieve a dramatic turnaround for local communities where everybody is treated equally. In tackling this challenge, we need people to grasp the true meaning of community delivery and the empowerment of people with severe or profound and multiple learning disabilities and their families. Reinders argues for a paradigm shift in our relation to people with profound and multiple disabilities and their parents (Reinders,). While I agree wholeheartedly with him I also believe there needs to be a paradigm shift in how we view and use special schools.