OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND

Now that Spring is promised

And a tsunami expected

Thanks to Norman Perrin for again drawing attention to the promised forthcoming tsunami about to overwhelm 'special educational needs', through the words of Special Needs Jungle –

We all know individuals in SEN departments have often been gits in the past. Hideous, scheming, uncaring, colluding, anti-parent and so it seemed, anti-children too. Quite possibly many employees are still carrying on as if a tsunami of change isn’t about to sweep them out of their office-standard swivel chairs.

But change is a-coming and if your SEN department is to get with the programme (because of course, it has no option) then those within who cannot change their ways may find themselves moved elsewhere or out altogether. They MUST work with parents and families in the new system. It’s going to be the law.

http://www.specialneedsjungle.com/sen-statementing-questions-answered/

You'd better believe it

If you have any involvement with Conductive Education for children and young people in England, as service-user or service provider (yes, the latter includes conductors) then presumably you are already struggling to get your head around this and take part actively in the forthcoming changes.

There will be nowhere to hide. Conductive Education stands close to the edge, on a low shoreline, and there are no hills to climb.

Of course, you might say, there have been mega-radical revision of 'special educational needs' before – not least being the one that introduced the wretched notion of 'special educational needs' into law in the first place – but to a large degree the same people just continued doing much the same things to the much same children and families. Nothing substantial changes, just the rhetoric. On the basis of precedent, you might feel that much the same will happen this time round.

An ominous sign is that 'special educational needs' and much that it brought with it, have remained unquestioned. Ultimately, how can good law and good administrative practice be developed on such a shaky philosophical foundation?

One is promised fundamental change. In 2013-14 new factors in favour of this include ever-tightening centralisation and micro-management of the system, and ever-increasing financial straights. Two or three years should be enough to tell how things are turning out for everyone – and specifically whether this will prove a liberation for English CE, or the final straw.

http://www.specialneedsjungle.com/sen-statementing-questions-answered/