Inclusion

A Statement of Intent

• What is the Context?
• What is Inclusive Education?
• What does the Council believe?
• What does the Council want?
• What does this mean in practice?
• What will the Council do to enable this?

What is the Context?

The Community Plan for Tameside identifies a challenge facing the people of the Borough at the beginning of the new millennium. It says:

"We need to strive to make Tameside a more inclusive community ... tackling both disadvantage and discrimination: and also make sure what we do is sustainable for future generations."

The experiences of children and young people at school in Tameside will help to lay the foundations for this inclusive society. The exciting task facing all involved in education - school staff and Governors, children and young people, parents and support workers, other professionals and the wider community - is to build upon the good practices which already exist and make sure that Tameside's schools are places where inclusive education flourishes.

The Council has committed itself to raising the achievements of all pupils in our schools. Meeting their needs in increasingly inclusive educational settings forms an essential part of this commitment and complements the Government's Programme of Action (November 1998), which encourages the development of more inclusive practices in all schools.

What is Inclusive Education?

To be included is to experience belonging.

Children and young people are included when they attend a mainstream setting and have full access to its social and academic life. They experience welcome, acceptance and real opportunities for friendships and positive relationships, as well as challenging learning experiences. Effective inclusion will be in evidence when young people are seen to be developing in line with the hopes and aspirations of their parents or carers, their educators and themselves.

In becoming more inclusive, schools will be meeting a greater diversity of needs. Some of these pupils will have special educational needs, but others - the gifted child, one for whom English is an additional language, the traveller for example - may experience different barriers to learning that are as significant as those for the child with a learning difficulty or disability. It is useful, therefore, to describe such pupils as having additional needs, and the challenge for inclusive schools is to meet the needs of all the children and young people they teach.

Inclusive education is different from integration. Some ordinary schools 'integrate' disabled or disaffected children and young people by bringing them into their premises. The pupil stays if s/he can benefit from what is already on offer; and the school in such a case may not expect to change to accommodate and support the diverse needs of the child or young person.

Inclusive education, in contrast, seeks to adapt cultures, structures and systems to meet needs, and fully involves the child or young person with additional needs in the process. Adaptations to the school curriculum, to buildings, to attitudes and values, to language, images and role models are some of the changes required if movement from integration to real inclusion is to be achieved. The expertise and experience of our special schools will be very important in leading this movement.

What does the Council believe?

• All children can learn successfully and the development of more inclusive practices will help raise standards in teaching, learning, progress and attainment by focusing attention on how best to meet the needs of all children.
• Including children with additional needs in their local schools is a major contributor to tackling discrimination. Inclusive education embraces the concept of equality of opportunity for all children.
• All children should be included as valued, respected and equal members of the learning community along with all other children of the same age. This means that, together, they should have the opportunity to access a common range of experiences.
• There should be an expectation of a continuously evolving range of provision across the Borough to meet the changing needs and expectations of parents, pupils, schools and society.
• It is essential to build upon the good practice in our special schools whilst continuing to maintain a range of specialist provision to preserve a choice for parents and children. This is particularly important for pupils with severe and complex needs.
• It is essential, nevertheless, to continue to reduce the number of children in special schools, who are separated from their local peers and local community.
• Continuing to develop the role of special schools will allow the refocusing of their expertise and resources into mainstream schools. This will provide additional support to mainstream school staff and, by the recognition of 'centres of excellence', enable schools to continue to develop effective inclusion practices for all children, especially those with additional needs.
• Change should be incremental and funded for success, guided by the evidence of best practice and research both within, and beyond, the Borough.

In practice, in Tameside this means that children with additional needs should be educated in the most inclusive environment that:

• Takes account of a parent's and pupil's expressed preference.
• Is compatible with meeting the needs of the pupil.
• Can be funded within reasonable constraints, ensuring good value for money.

What does the Council want?

• All pupils achieving the highest possible standards in learning and behaviour.
• Schools where all pupils experience belonging, and more children and young people attending their local school.
• Specialist provision, where necessary, to be co-located with a mainstream school.
• Schools which provide broad, balanced, challenging and relevant lessons and courses for all the pupils on their roll.
• A genuine dialogue and partnership with parents to ensure that they are consulted and feel confident that their children are receiving the best education possible.

To achieve this, schools will need to be supported through partnership working to be more effective both now and in the future, ensuring that they meet these new challenges with confidence and every expectation of success.

Sustainable 'capacity-building' through the delegation of more resources will be a crucial part of the process, and the direct management of more resources by schools will give them greater flexibility in making the best decisions about school-based provision. This will also enable the Council to meet Government requirements to reduce the amount of the education budget held centrally, ensuring the maximum funding possible reaches schools.

It is also recognised that individual schools are at different stages in their attitudes and approaches to more inclusive practices and this will be reflected in flexible implementation plans.

What does this mean in practice?

Over the next three years the Council expects that:

• Each school will incorporate an inclusion action plan within its overall school improvement plan, taking advantage of the Index For Inclusion resource.
• Increases in the budget paid directly to schools will enable them to meet the needs of a wider range of pupils than they do at the moment, without having to go through a lengthy and expensive process of formal assessment.
• The needs of more children and young people will be met without recourse to a Statement of special educational needs.
• The programme of school rebuilding and access improvement will mean that every child or young person who has a physical disability will be able to attend a school in their home area.
• There will be increasing clustering to share resources and expertise thus strengthening school partnerships.
• The training provided to all schools will help them to assist all children in learning more effectively by increasing their expertise in employing inclusive practices and in working together with other adults.
• The status and release time for every school's SENCo (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) will be enhanced and protected, with additional resources to achieve this made available by both the Council and the school.
• There will increasing use of dual registration of pupils with special educational needs to promote greater collaboration between mainstream and special schools.
• Every child should have an equal opportunity and right to attend a local mainstream early years setting with appropriate resources and support networks if that is the parents/carers preference.
• More children and young people whose needs can currently only be met by travelling to schools in other areas will be able to go to school within Tameside.

After seven years the Council expects that:

• Earlier developments will have become firmly embedded and will be of high quality.
• All schools will provide a welcoming environment which will embrace the diversity of children and young people who attend, and recognise the enrichment this provides to the whole school community.
• All schools will be accessible to people with physical disabilities.
• Every child or young person who learns at a slower rate than other children of the same age will be able to attend their local mainstream school if that is what they and their parents want.
• The lessons and courses taught in Tameside schools will match the individual needs of children and young people and enable them to be successful in school and contribute to the social and economic life of the Borough after they leave school.
• Some children whose needs are particularly severe and complex will still attend special provision, but only in very exceptional circumstances will they have to travel to schools outside Tameside.
• All special provision will be located on the same site as and linked with a mainstream school as the most cost-effective means of providing pupils with severe and complex difficulties with the opportunities to participate as fully as possible in mainstream educational and social activities.

What will the Council do to enable this?

• Ensure that every new school building is barrier-free.
• Continue to use resources in a planned way in liaison with schools to increase the number of schools in every town that are barrier-free.
• Put more of the resources intended to support pupils with general learning difficulties directly into school budgets so that school Governors and staff can decide how to spend them.
• Give school Governors and staff greater professional discretion to decide how to use resources identified for children and young people with other additional needs so they, too, can participate in the full life of the school.
• Ensure that these resources are used to promote high standards of educational achievement and behaviour in all children and young people.
• Continue to provide high-quality training, support and information networks for all school staff and Governors, both on general issues that affect all schools, and on specific needs for schools' particular situations.
• Work with schools to develop alternatives to the traditional school curriculum.
• Support and challenge schools to work in collaboration with pupils and their parents.
• Provide high quality action planning through the medium of Education and Cultural Services Education Development and Business Plans.

This Statement presents an exciting and challenging vision for the further development of inclusive practices in all aspects of the Borough's educational provision. The Council is committed to working in partnership with all involved and interested in education to make this declaration of intent a reality, and ongoing consultation will be a central feature of the planning, implementation and review processes.