Including Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in Learning and Life

Perfectly timed, this book enables the contributors and the readers to reflect on both the journey and current state of education for children with SEND. Informative, challenging, heart-warming and heart-breaking, this is a diverse anthology for parents and educators alike. I particularly enjoyed the nuanced personal tales, the essential rage, and complete commitment to a vision where all children have their needs met unconditionally. The interview with Baroness Warnock herself provides a reflective insight to one of the seminal pieces of educational parliamentary work of our time.

Keziah Featherstone, Head of School, Q3 Academy Tipton, UK

This book identifies significant challenges that must be overcome to ensure every child with SEND is served well by the English education system. It puts forward a pragmatic and clear case outlining how the situation might be improved, exploring areas including accountability and inclusion, teacher training and supply, the availability of school places, and attitudes toward children with SEND. This book is essential reading for professionals, parents and policymakers interested in practical ideas to improve the educational experience for children with SEND.

Anne Heavey, National Director, Whole School SEND, UK

This is a powerful and important publication in which Rob Webster has brought together a diverse range of some of the most important voices in education today. This book provides us with a chastening reminder of the days when the state wrote children off as ‘mentally defective’ and sent them to schools for the ‘educationally sub-normal’. We have come a long way since those dark days, but the real power of this book is that it makes it clear how far we still have to go.

Jarlath O'Brien, Director for Schools, The Eden Academy, UK

This book is a call to arms and deserves attention. It builds on the educational and moral rationale, and picks up on the strong economic case for inclusion too. Rob Webster has brought a new lens to the inclusion debate, helping us all to think forward, rather than backwards.

Margaret Mulholland, Director of Development and Research, Swiss Cottage School, Development and Research Centre, UK

This book is ideal for those working in initial teacher education, whether student teachers, tutors or mentors. It will help readers gain great insights into the past, present and potential future of the complex policy environment for SEND, and the very real practical implications arising from this for pupils, teachers and parents. Importantly, it also offers practical advice and sensible ways forward.

Professor Samantha Twiselton OBE, Director of Sheffield Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam University, UK