Special Education in Northern Ireland: a Short Overview

SPECIAL EDUCATION IN NORTHERN IRELAND: A SHORT OVERVIEW

J Hunter

Introduction

Currently, some 53,164 or 14% of the school-aged children and young people in Northern Ireland have special educational needs, which require additional support to access the curriculum and engage with learning. Of this number, some 10,084 are identified as requiring statutory statements of special educational needs including approximately 39.1% who are educated in mainstream schools and a further 17.5% in units attached to primary and post-primary schools. In this context, there are some 4,710 pupils educated in 49 special schools. In addition, there is a growing number of suspensions, (5,500) and a worrying level of persistent non-attendance, reaching 9,000 during 2003-4. With a further 1,000 pupils educated in alternative provision, the issue of inclusion and special educational needs is a significant issue.

Inspection reports and the Chief Inspector’s reports of 1999-2002 and 2002-2004 indicate that standards are rising in the special schools as these schools refine their systems to ensure more effective management, whole school planning, links with mainstream, information and communication technology and access to accreditation. By contrast, there remains a tail of low achievement (5.2%) by pupils leaving post-primary schools with limited or no qualifications. Two key deductions emerge; special education is an issue for all schools and a recurrent theme for government attention, more particularly in light of the legislative presumption of inclusion. Strategically, special education is a major issue and an evident challenge to the Department of Education and the five Education and library Boards which manage school provision.

This paper highlights the key issues facing N. Ireland and the actions underway to inform the development of a costed policy to promote the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools, and to ensure the future role of special schools in an inclusive context.

Emerging Strategy and Key Activities

In response to growing evidence highlighting special education as an area for improvement, the Department of Education has endorsed a review of special education,

“ to include a range of Education and Training Inspectorate reports/surveys, research projects, information gathering both at local and international levels, and a review of the use of resources in order to provide evidence to inform policy development and produce recommendations regarding future policy, strategy and provision to reflect the concept of inclusion” ( May 2003)

As a consequence, four key strategic and policy objectives have been identified, which aim to establish;

§  a costed policy for special education and inclusion;

§  a broader role for special schools;

§  a culture of inclusion in all schools;

§  a sufficiency of resource to match strategic planning and implementation.

A range of activities has taken place since 2003 to inform policy planning and to meet the objectives identified above. Each activity has, as a core focus, a clear emphasis on exploring the issue of inclusion and identifying important principles and exemplars of best practice, which can serve to support policy writing and provide practical guidance for schools. The key activities of the period[1] include:

§  A Review of Provision for pupils with statements of Special Educational Needs in Primary and Post-primary schools in N. Ireland;

§  The Future Role of Special Schools;

§  A Survey of Minority Groups: Travellers; School Aged Mothers/ A Review of Counselling support in schools;

§  A survey of special school leavers: transition to further education/training/employment;

§  A position paper on special educational needs in initial teacher education;

§  Improving inclusion in Pre-school Education: A Working Group approach

§  Research:

-  Parental Satisfaction with the Statementing Process

-  Tracking young people from Alternative Education Provision;

§  Report of the Task Group on Autism

§  Report of the Task Group on Dyslexia

§  Speech and Language Projects Evaluations;

§  Using technology ie Camera Mouse to encourage communication;

§  A survey of Challenging Behaviour in special schools;

§  A survey of Behaviour Support Teams in the five Education and Library Boards;

§  A Review of the five stages of the Code of Practice.

While it is not the intention of this presentation to detail the outcomes of all of the activities undertaken a few core themes emerge to indicate how best special education and inclusion can be addressed to ensure that the social and educational needs of pupils are met. These themes prioritise training, collaborative working, improving quality and matching resources as the key areas for development.

In strategic and business planning, the above themes underpin department thinking and strongly influence the process of decision-making and support. The various surveys provide evidence to assist the planning process.

I wish now to focus on two surveys, which strongly indicate how the policy for inclusion is informed.

Most Promising Practices in Mainstream Schools

The inclusion of pupils with statements of special educational needs in mainstream primary and post-primary schools was a undertaken to evaluate current practice and to make recommendations to promote a whole-school culture of including all pupils with special educational needs in the work and life of the school. The methodology included visits to 47 schools with some 125 schools surveyed by questionnaire. The focus of the visits was to evaluate the effectiveness of the programmes for children with statements of special educational needs, concentrating mainly on the quality of the education provided, the effectiveness of the teaching and learning strategies, and the teachers’ understanding of and response to each child’s particular problems. The survey also evaluated the physical arrangements to facilitate inclusion and the level of social\inclusion, including friendships, participation in extra-curricular activities and pastoral provision. The inspectors also took account of the schools guidelines and policies which supported inclusion and the range of in-service training which focused on raising the teachers’ skills and knowledge of particular needs, for example, autism, sensory impairment or dyslexia. The work of classroom assistants was also considered.

The findings of the survey indicate that the majority of the schools pay due attention to the statementing process. The schools plan well for, monitor and evaluate the level and quality of provision and make use of the curriculum and advisory service to enhance their knowledge and capacity to address the needs of pupils with learning difficulties. The evidence also shows that a minority of schools have not developed significantly their interest in, and commitment to promoting inclusion. In such instances, schools provide little guidance to classroom assistants, are worried about health and safety and accommodation and have not fulfilled their responsibility to included details of their special education provision within their school development planning. In the majority of schools the pupils’ education plans take good account of their individual needs and the pupils make good progress. The educational plans are best when focused on the assessed needs of the pupils and specific targets set. Both sectors required the same degree of hard work and team planning but given the complexities of the post-primary setting, inclusion was more difficult to achieve and maintain. A common factor to emerge was the important role of the Special Education Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO): the status and experience of the SENCO were significant factors affecting the overall experience of the pupils in securing their greater inclusion in a range of school activities. The evidence also indicated the need for schools to plan more purposefully to ensure the social inclusion of the pupils. In the best provision observed physical resources are in place and the key elements include:

·  Early intervention strategies;

·  Less bureaucracy;

·  SEN friendly ethos;

·  Parent involvement;

·  Improved access;

·  Inclusion policy and development programme;

·  Committed leadership;

·  Agreed standards to promote achievement.

Within the above settings, the role of the SENCO was well established and of a high status, good links were made with the Education and Library Boards’ advisory officers, and leadership at all levels actively encourages and supports teachers and classroom assistants to value inclusion as a challenge which has positive outcomes for all pupils.

The survey reveals the need for further development of:

·  partnerships among schools curriculum and advisory services and health professionals, between mainstream and special schools;

·  training to focus on inclusion at a whole school level;

·  the role of the SENCO;

·  the capacity of schools to monitor and evaluate their inclusion practices;

·  the use of information and communication technology to support learning, record and reporting systems.

The Future Role of the Special School

Following the completion of a questionnaire seeking the views of the special schools and the opportunities provided at the annual principals and vice principals conferences extensive information was available to the reporting inspector to enable a position paper to be written and prepared for consultation. The findings found:

·  a strategic shortfall: special education is a progressively major issues for both special and mainstream schools yet little strategic attention has been given to exploring the potential of special and mainstream schools;

·  an imbalance of resources and expertise across special and mainstream sectors;

·  variation in the criteria to access special educational provision;

·  limited transdisciplinary planning within and among education and library boards and health authorities and trusts;

·  a range of untapped skills: special schools have expertise, skills and knowledge which can assist mainstream schools to meet more effectively the needs of pupils with learning difficulties.

The evidence identified three distinct patterns:

·  a changing pattern in the profile of the special school pupil population;

·  areas of expertise and knowledge within the special schools;

·  a trend toward increased connectivity between special and mainstream schools.

A number of conclusions arise from the evidence to suggest that the department should introduce a strategic framework and policy directive for special education, which includes a mainstream support role for special schools. In this framework, special schools will provide for a range of needs based on a range of interventions which address, low support needs, commonly, and rarely occurring needs, and high support needs. In this model, special schools have a role in the assessment of pupils’ needs and the preparation of individual intervention plans, which of necessity contain an inclusion statement identifying the experiences and resources to support special education. In summary, the key challenges are:

·  the creation of a greater strategic and corporate view for special education and inclusion which defines the future role of special schools;

·  the development of a framework and mechanism within which special schools can improve their practices and develop their expertise tomeet the needs of pupils in mainstream schools;

·  the provision of commonality of funding to facilitate the fair distribution of resources;

·  the establishment of collaborative working arrangements with health and social services to enable the development of multi-disciplinary integrated service provision.

The development of the capacity of special schools to support mainstream schools within a continuum of provision is one step in the promotion of an effective system inclusive of all and committed to social and educational inclusion.

The Emerging Outcomes and Way Ahead

Four main areas are identified as key outcomes and important elements of policy planning for the future within an overall review of public administration. These relate to training, collaborative working, improving quality and matching resources. It is evident that much work is ahead. However, much has been achieved and the department is confident that policy will be developed to promote and secure a firm and robust system of provision as reflected in a commitment to maintaining a continuum of provision for a diversity of need. The way ahead for schools is to commit towards a guiding set of principles:

·  all children matter;

·  barriers to learning are identified;

·  positive action is taken to remove them;

·  a sense of community prevails.

In planning ahead the concept of the inclusion friendly school is actively promoted and the ingredients highlighted encompass the following aspects of best practice:

In the best inclusion practice the critical success factors include

üEarly intervention

üLess bureaucracy

üSEN friendly: partnership networks

üParent friendly

üImproved access

üInclusion policy /development programme

üLeadership

üstandards

In essence, it is the Department of Education’s intention to secure entitlement and support learning for all pupils,

“ there should be a continuum of support and services to match the continuum of special needs encountered in every school” UNESCO Salamanca Statement 1994.

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[1] Access to the reports can be found on the Department web-site: WWW.deni.gov.uk