World of Inclusion – World of Inclusion Ltd response to United Kingdom response to list of issues and report to UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Committee for forthcoming scrutiny on 23rd and 24th August 2017.
World of Inclusion Ltd response to United Kingdom response to list of issues and report to UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Committee for forthcoming scrutiny on 23rd and 24th August 2017.
1.	World of Inclusion Ltd is a not for profit consultancy based in the United Kingdom with the aim of supporting the development of an inclusive system for disabled children and young people in the UK and around the world. We operate from a social model perspective and are run by disabled people. We provide research, training, resources and advice on developing an inclusive education system. Our CEO Richard Rieser represented the UK Disabled People’s Movement at the Ad Hoc Committee that drew up the Convention and played a leading role in framing Article 24. More recently, World of Inclusion Ltd made presentations to the 2 drafts of CRPD General Comment No 4 on Article 24 and made an oral presentation at the General Day of Discussion.
2.	We are of the view that the UK and in particular the English education system has gone into reverse on pursuing the goal of Inclusive Education for disabled children and students since 2006 and more specifically since the election of the Coalition Government in 2010 and the Conservative Government in 2015.
3.	Article 8 Awareness Raising as it should impact on Schools and colleges.
The Revised National Curriculum 2013 Citizenship was a good chance to raise awareness in English Schools, but the Secretary of State chose not to explicitly mention disabled people of disability rights . The only mention relevant is that ‘pupils should be taught about human rights and international law’. Neither does the citizenship curriculum (1)make any reference to the Equalities Act 2010 and the Public Sector Duty on all publicly funded schools to promote equality for those with protected characteristics. Schools represent more than half the public bodies this duty applies to.
•	Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
•	Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
•	Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
•	Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics.
4.	There is little evidence that schools are in any regular or systematic way promoting disability equality for disabled students and children or complying with Article 8 2b “b) Fostering at all levels of the education system, including in all children from an early age, an attitude of respect for the rights of persons with disabilities;” In is response to the list of issues the UK Government’s only reference is to state that “resources are available to raise disability awareness” (para. 39).
5.	No requirement is explicitly placed on schools by the state party, neither is it mentioned anywhere in the revised National Curriculum and nor does the English Schools Inspection agency OFSTED ask to see or record any evidence in this area. See OFSTED Common Inspection Framework(3) . Unlike earlier Statutory guidance that explicitly mentioned bullying this has now been removed in the interests of streamlining. This is most unfortunate.
7.	The negative impact of this approach is that bullying of disabled children and young people is at a higher level in English schools than for other minority groups. This as research has shown has a life-long negative impact on life chances and mental health ,(5 & 6) .
9.	The UK Government has been financially supporting the Anti-Bullying Alliance to develop work in schools to challenge disabilist bullying and name calling . However its lack of a robust approach to bullying in schools and colleges is likely to be a breach of its duties under Article 15.
10.	The UK Government reservation allowing education outside their local community and to have a choice of mainstream and special schools, is in light of General Comment No 4 no longer a viable option for the UK Governments interpretation of Article 24.(UK Gove response to issues 103) Furthermore it is leading to many human rights abuses.
11.	In paragraph 230 of the UK Government report it is stated ‘Disabled people in the UK have the right to education on an equal basis with non-disabled people’. Changes in the Law for England enacted in the 2014 Children and Families Act have encouraged new barriers for schools, especially Academies who are their own admission authorities, to refuse to admit disabled children to mainstream schools. Section 33 states “the local authority must secure that the plan provides for the child or young person to be educated in a maintained nursery school, mainstream school or mainstream post-16 institution, unless that is incompatible with— (a) the wishes of the child’s parent or the young person, or (b) the provision of efficient education for others”. The law is ambiguous and this is leading to increasing numbers of mainstream schools refusing to admit children on the basis ‘that they cannot meet need’.
(1) This section applies where a child with special educational needs is being educated in a maintained nursery school or a mainstream school.
(2) Those concerned with making special educational provision for the child must secure that the child engages in the activities of the school together with children who do not have special educational needs, subject to subsection (3).
13.	These extra caveats and increasing pressure on mainstream schools to improve normative test results is leading to an unprecedented growth is special school numbers in England as more mainstream schools are refusing to admit disabled children. The population of maintained special schools has gone from 87,010 in 2007 to 105,365 in 2016 (9) . In addition to this increase in the use of segregated education. Add to this the number of children with an SEN statement or a new Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) in independent schools has risen over the same period from 7,760 to 13,500. This is a definite trend away from mainstream in terms of placement.
14.	Recently a report into the way children and young people with high learning level learning needs (including those on the autistic spectrum) have shown there is no room for complacency and a significant number of young people are a being placed in Assessment and Treatment Units hundreds of miles from home out of touch with their families with no access to education. This degrading and inhuman treatment is a direct result of the failure of our mainstream school system to accommodate them.(10) A further report on education directly is now overdue.
16.	These statistics are divided into permanent exclusion and fixed term exclusion. There is a high disproportionate number of disabled children and young people excluded in both categories. It needs to be remembered that schools in England spend an extra £600O P.A. for those on school support and those with an EHC Plan or Statement access Higher needs funding above this amount. Yet schools do not in the main appear able to make the reasonable accommodations such as anger management, peer support, buddies and behaviour support to keep these students in school and allow them to thrive. So primary age pupils in mainstream with school support are 18.6 times more likely to be excluded on a fixed term than a pupil without SEN and 33x more if they have an EHCPlan or Statement. With teenage behaviour the level of exclusion goes up for the whole cohort, but secondary mainstream students with SEN support are 4.13x more likely to be excluded than those with no SEN and those with an EHC Plan or statement are 4.13 times as likely to be excluded fixed term in 2015/2016 in English schools.
17.	This does not fit the picture the UK Government give in their response to the list of issues (10).Despite there being an equality duty on schools to promote disability equality in all they do (Equality Act 2010),there are many instances of schools failing in these duties. We notice very little emphasis in the SEND Code of Practice or in Government initiatives to develop this increasing capacity. In fact in recent years, a large increase in numbers of parents seeking special schools in would suggest a reduction in capacity to meet the needs of disabled children.
Interpretative Declaration when they adopted the UNCRPD in 2009.
•	National standards for school-based initial teacher training mentors.
21.	The main problem is that the SEND reforms are not a leading part of the Government’s education changes. Its policies all militate against the inclusion of children and young people and those with special educational needs. These include the push for more selection with grammar schools; setting up more free schools, especially special schools; the reduction in real funding and reorganisation of funding to one national formula; the introduction of a new knowledge based, narrower curriculum; more testing of our children; the abolition of national curriculum levels and the loss of parental control through the replacement of governors with proprietors of academy chains.
23.	This means that before knowing about an individual, they have to adjust their policies, provision, criteria and practices to not put disabled people at a substantial disadvantage and take steps to meet the likely needs of disabled learners. Governing bodies or the proprietor are under this duty. Policies, criteria, provision and practices need to take account of the need to make reasonable adjustments. For example, for admissions, exclusions, sports activities, school activities and trips, lunch time/after school activities and access to learning, should have been regularly reviewed and adjusted so as not to place disabled people at substantial detriment. The school is also under a duty to not discriminate directly, indirectly or on the basis of issues arising from disability, and to eliminate bullying and harassment. Disabled children and young people experience the highest level of bullying and harassment in our schools. The Anti Bullying Alliance focuses on this, but unless school staff and students take ownership of zero bullying, not much will change. He Government does not provide clear advice, training or guidance on these duties so they are largely acknowledged in their default.
24.	The UK Government states in para. 110 of their response to the list of issues that young people without an EHC Plan must be educated in mainstream schools in most circumstances. This presumption of inclusion is being weakened by the setting up of 69 new free special schools and academies that are segregated schools and have the right to admit students without an EHC Plan if their parents agree. This not a right that other parents have for maintained special schools-some 1250 in England. It also means that disabled students admitted under these arrangements will not have the right to annual review and scrutiny.
25.	In para. 113 of their response the UK Government state that Disability Awareness is available to teachers. As a leading training provider of Disability Equality and Inclusion Training for school staffs, World of Inclusion find that schools and their leaders no longer prioritise this type of training. This compares to our previous organisation Disability Equality in Education, which between 2000 and 2008, provided highly evaluated training to 150,000 teachers and other educational professionals. Independent evaluations by Oxford Brookes University demonstrated that this training changes attitudes and practices for 60% of participants. The training was based on a Social model approach in line with the UNCRPD, which the Government says is subscribes to, but there is little evidence of this in the Department for Education edicts, SEND Code of Practice or legislation. Until such training is reintroduced it is unlikely that the vast majority of schools will take seriously their responsibilities on disability equality or inclusion.
26.	If there are breaches in the current Equality Act or presumption of inclusion it is left to individual parents or the affected young person to apply to the SEN Disability Tribunal for redress. There is no statutory body that oversees schools on implementation such as school inspectors – OFSTED should.
(b)further such plans at such times as may be prescribed.
28.	The problem with this legislation is that there is no separate funding stream to schools from Government to implement this plan, it is not monitored and there is no end date when all schools have to meet access standards. Only new schools and refurbished schools have to meet access standard. There is also no end date for when schools have to be accessible. Lack of physical access is regularly used as an excuse to keep disabled students out of the school. This appears to be a breach of Article 9 Accessibility and the right to temporary adjustments until the necessary structural changes have been made.