Recent legislation, Additional Educational Needs (AEN) and inclusion

Historical perspectives

There have been many pieces of legislation passed during the last century relating to disability within the United Kingdom and they do without doubt often reflect the attitudes and beliefs of the society of that era. In the past decade many pieces of legislation have been introduced building upon preceding Acts. It is for this reason that it is necessary to be aware of the chronology of these Acts and Reports so that one has a clear understanding of how legislation has evolved. However, it is not my intention to detail all the Acts and Reports passed, but only to focus on the significant recent ones.

First, it is important to remember that it was not until the Education (Mentally Handicapped Children) Act of 1970 that ALL children were made the responsibility of the local education authority (LEA). From the Education Act of 1944 until the Act of 1970, ‘handicapped’ children ‘had been the responsibility of the health service as children with a learning difficulty were considered to be impossible to educate’ (Tassoni, 2003). It was as a consequence of this 1970 Act that special schools began to be built, giving many children an opportunity to receive an education for the first time.

Eight years later in 1978, what was to become a very important and influential Report for the education of disabled children was published. This was the Warnock Report (DES, 1978), written by a committee that was chaired by Mary Warnock. It is this report that suggested introducing the title of ‘special educational need’ (SEN) to any child needing extra support. Other key proposals included recognizing the need for early diagnosis and pre-school support, the integration of children into mainstream schools wherever possible and the need for greater parent involvement. It was hoped that in this way children with relatively minor short-term needs would be helped alongside those with more complex long-term difficulties. Importantly it also wanted professionals to focus on children’s potential and the help they needed to achieve this, rather than on their disability or condition. In an attempt to prevent the labelling of children according to their medical condition the Warnock Report introduced the terms:

■ speech and language disorders;

■ visual disability and hearing disability;

■ emotional and behavior disorders;

■ learning difficulties; specific, mild, moderate and severe.

Many of these recommendations formed the basis for the Education Act of 1981, in which the responsibility for providing support for children with special educational needs was firmly placed with LEAs. It also introduced the ‘statementing’ process through which a child was given a legally binding statement of special educational needs, committing a LEA to providing specific resources for the child.