Our Children to Pay for "Inclusive" Society in Northern Ireland

(If you are a parent of a child with special educational need (SEN) in Northern Ireland, and you haven't read the document linked above, then you are about to be truly shocked. In the meantime, please don't just take my word for it, before you read this, get your own hard copy of this document, including the response booklets by contacting the Department of Education (phone: 02891 279762) or email them for a copy (seninclusion@deni.gov.uk) and read how your child's educational future will continue to be deliberately compromised.

If you are a parent or someone who cares about someone who has autism, and that person has educational need over and above other children, this is the time to act. Even if you have never done anything before, please do it now. Catriona Ruane, (Katrina Rooney)Minister for Education and her co-conspirators very nicely decided to launch the consultation 'Every School A Good School: The Way Forward for Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Inclusion' in August when you you are on holiday. You have until the end of October this year to make your responses.

While you are at it you might like to look at this proposal: http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1092-dla-and-aa-fight-back-begins which is Labour's attempt to restrict DLA. Do you fancy asking your social worker for your child's DLA money? Read the link and sign the petition. Oops forgot, the petition is closed until Mr Brown returns from holiday in September!! How convenient. Here is the response to this paper by Carer's UK: http://www.carersuk.org/Newsandcampaigns/Parliamentary/Responsestogovernment/Careandsupportconsultation.pdf



You might also be interested in this, the 'Report to the Secretary of State on the Review of Elective Home Education in England' by Graham Badman. Here is a link to the report: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/downloadableDocs/PDF%20FINAL%20HOME%20ED.pdf and here is another link to the report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8095864.stm. If you are unhappy with the present education for your child, please be aware that in England home education is under immense pressure and threat. Your right to home educate your child may soon be thwarted if Northern Ireland picks up where Graham Badman (how appropos) leaves off. Not only are your children's rights to a good education being compromised, your rights as a parent are being rescinded as well.
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The simplest summary I can make of this consultative document is that it is an attempt to once again change the goal posts regarding special education, in the hope that no one is looking. It's an attempt to dazzle us with hope of intentional positive change without addressing existing and past failures. I now possess over 20 consultative papers (not including this one) regarding special education and education revision in general since 2001. I am sure there are more.
The system offered to our children has been in ruins for some time. This consultation document attests to that. If we were in good shape, such changes would not be needed. The School Boards are drowning in a sea of unmet need. Along comes Catriona with the great (old) idea of changing everything to cover up past mistakes. 'Emperor's new clothes' comes to mind.

Changing everything will prevent the nasty habit of past failures being thrown in one's face. Make it all new and shiny, right Catriona? I remember in my student days, I bought a bed from a thrift shop. It looked brand new. I realised later, that the bed simply had a new cover put on it - I was sleeping on someone else's dirt for almost a year.

You are leaving soon anyway Catriona, so you can blame the new incumbent when this plan fails, particularly if that person is a member of a unionist party.

In the meantime, children like my own will lose teeth and have limbs broken during your political football game. Catriona wants to build 'inclusivity' in Northern Ireland. It started with the Irish language. In order to bolster that particular argument, Catriona has decided to build her inclusive society off the back of our children's difficulties. That's where the money is coming from anyway. 'Special need' will now include the temporary and presumed need of children whose first language is not English, Newcomers, Traveller Children, children in care, children facing domestic upheaval, looked after children and of course many of our own children, and more. Where a child who has lost a relative may suffer temporary psychological pain, Catriona wishes to place that child on an 'at risk' register and throw money around.

Funny, but when my own child was not able to grip a pencil due to his limbic system not being connected up properly, together with all the rest that was causing him to focus elsewhere than on a teacher's commands, both his teacher and his occupational therapist said 'he was not trying hard enough'. How scientific, an approach oozing with compassion and understanding! No money was available, not even enough to pay for a special pencil grip made of rubber that cost 49 pence.

Funny but when I attended endless annual reviews and IEP meetings the teachers and 'experts' all said they were doing the very best for my son and that the problem lay with him and his 'severe learning disability'. As is so common, my son and his autism were blamed, in fact overnight my son went from having a diagnosis of ASD to having 'severe learning difficulties'. It was interesting how speech therapists diagnosed this for him, the same speech therapists who had never worked with him. Doling out labels makes these people feel better though, it lets them off the hook for having to actually do anything. The premise is always that THEY are doing the very best - it's always the child who lets THEM down.

You can look at this video clip (if you dare) and the accompanying article about how teachers said 'things were going well' for this 14 year old boy with autism - truly shocking - http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/local/nature_coast/autism_abuse_lawsuit_081309

As per usual, he was blamed, it was never the lack of resources or training/experience on behalf of teachers and 'professionals'.

Now it seems, according to this consultation that re-naming my child's difficulties will make the boo boo all better. The band-aid in this case is the magical expertise that will appear once the new terminology in this report is applied.

This consultation intends to lump together my child's difficulties together with children who might be suffering temporary educational setbacks due to psychological trauma or cultural conformity differences. What is insidious about the matter is how parent may well be pitted against parent in future fights for services and support. Can you envision my child getting a classroom assistant in the same class that a child who needs a wheelchair ramp can't get one? Catriona is going to pit us against each other and God help the schools and our children who will be in the middle.

Just like the Middletown Centre for Autism fiasco (remember that one?) the Department of Education for some reason thinks Northern Ireland is ahead of its time that it can magically fast forward to enlightenment from a place of complete 'backwardness' regarding meeting my child's educational needs. Into the mix, they think (hope) that an illusion of liberalism can come out of it, 'look at us, we value all minorities and communities. OK, we still force immigrants, including children and babies, from their homes in the dead of night by howling mobs of rabid racists but nobody is perfect right? It's more important to 'look' like we are doing something, than actually do it. Right Catriona? Children with disabilities here are kind of like immigrants, (segregated, misunderstood, maligned) so we might as well lump em all together. Right? It's appalling in the extreme.

I thought the idea of Middletown and the millions wasted on it, was to provide expertise to struggling teachers, a place where teachers could send their 'hard nuts' to get 're-programmed' and compliant enough to re-enter the school system. (if you can't teach em, brainwash em). The very fact that an idea like 'Middletown existed at all, implied that teachers were struggling. Talk to any teacher in any classroom and if they are honest they will tell you how much they struggle with special education.

Now it appears, that teachers don't need a 'Middletown', that they were quite capable of teaching our children all along, that they will be able to do it on their own. Where this magical experience and knowledge is going to come from in only three years is beyond me. Not one teacher I have met to date, had even an inkling of how to teach my son, nor any teacher I have met so far been able to step out of his/herself enough to truly 'click' with my child much less motivate him to shine. (he does and continues to do that all on his own)

Previously, I would have labelled Catriona Ruane witlessly ignorant and a mindless talking head/mouthpiece for Sinn Fein. Now, I think she and her party are just plain wicked, intent on messing up as many lives of children as she and they possibly can. Sinn Fein, who, for decades, have highlighted the abuse of power and the little guy's 'rights' in this statelet are backing this woman who wants to stomp on the rights of vulnerable and innocent children. It's time to bring the bin lids out again. I don't know if its a case of the abused carrying out learned behaviour or if a great experiment is being carried out on our children. Either way Catriona needs to examine the essence of her own humanity on this one. I seem to remember a story about her sending her own children across the border to be educated despite her living in the North. If the story is true, she obviously is aware of what parents must do to find decent schools for their children.

Apart from Sinn Fein, the other political parties here are no better and complicit in their silence and lack of action towards improving the educational system for children like my own. As for the the so-called Northern Ireland Autism Charity (Autism Ulster/AutismNI/PAPA/ACT et al) I simply don't have the time right now to tackle their deafening silence on this issue. The front page of their useless website still reads 'April is Autism Awareness month'. Yoo hoo, it's August now!.

Needless to say when your funding depends on cozying up to the statutory sector, what do you expect them to do? The 24 staff of Autism Ulster/AutismNI/PAPA/ACT et al could well be rubbing their hands in glee at the increased opportunity for 'training' should the document become policy. The potential for future funding of this charity will hopefully negate the need for this silliness: http://www.northcoastni.com/whats-on/2271/sarah-travers-meets-fergie-the-tractor/ . At least the money raised from that venture seems to be going to the Mid Ulster AutismUlster/AutismNI/PAPA/ACT et al Branch and not to AutismUlster/AutismNI/PAPA/ACT et al Headquarters. Both AutismUlster/AutismNI et al and the National Autistic Society are so called 'stakeholders' to this consultation report. I await seeing their responses. The consultation document, if accepted, will be a veritable goldmine for some and I can see why some organisations want to 'stake' their claim on our children and the money their numerous labels will bring.


I have stalled long enough.... it's just very difficult to comprehend the immensity of this consultative document and the potential peril it will mean for so many children.

Ruane and the other individuals who cooked up this report want to take money specifically earmarked for children with SEN and play semantics with it. This consultation intends to water down and re-classify SEN giving it a new name (Additional Educational Need - AEN). This new classification doesn't sound so bad until you discover that 'additional' means children with medical diagnostic labels as well as the children I mentioned above.

There is a very worrying connection being made in this report between children who may have suffered emotional trauma, parental abuse and our children. I don't like the idea of having my child's educational needs combined with the needs of children who may have been removed from their parents or who are somehow at risk. I also wonder what the Travelling Community think about having their children labelled with 'additional need' children. Personally, I think the Travelling Community know very well how unsatisfactory the school system is for their children and how un-accommodating it has been for them. They and I have a lot in common. If the Travelling Community were indigenous just to Northern Ireland, I doubt very much that any attempt would be made to 'include' them, they are being used in this report as a political pawn, part of the 'inclusivity' ticket that Sinn Fein loves so much. I expect they are looking for votes from the newly 'included' communities seeing as their 'own' aren't voting for them anymore.

Anyway, that's just for starters. It gets worse...

The legal document currently known as a Statement of Special Educational Need will be beyond the reach of 99 percent of children. They won't be getting them - ever. Children will not receive educational psychologist reports (no bad thing there mind you, because they are already useless jargon loaded pieces of toilet paper) no speech therapy, (also hard to come by and generally useless - what exactly do speech therapists do anyway?) no occupational therapy (presently almost non - existent and very few are trained in sensory integration - you have to go to England to get this) no free transport, (you won't need this because your child will be going to your local mainstream school) and more.

If your child has needs that simply cannot be met by a school your child might (if you are prepared to fight) receive the new 'Co-ordinated Support Plan (CSP) This document will replace the Statement. Your child will have no immediate right to a CSP, however, and your child might receive one only after exhausting all your child's school has to offer (providing your child is not already one of the over 25 percent who have SEN and who are excluded from school.)

Whilst you wrangle with lawyers and tribunals to get your child the useless CSP, your child's needs will remain unmet (not so different from now really). Once you get the CSP, you will still fight for the Board to uphold the law and provide to your child (just like now). Plenty of children with current Statements are not in school. The Board has no idea how many and don't want to know.

So, really there is not much difference here, except for the fact that your child's legal rights will be virtually eliminated by the reduction of Statements. You will have to engage with schools who will involuntarily be forced to tout themselves as 'experts'(see : Every School a Good School http://www.behaviour4learning.ac.uk/attachments/6bc4342c-2016-461f-9a8b-555a0d67809f.pdf . It will be you against the Headmaster or Headmistress. If you are the 'schmoozing' type, it might be an idea to start courting your child's school leaders and get on their right side.

Schools that previously may have absorbed your child's special need budget into their new carpet and office furniture budget can now turn around to you the parent and say 'sue me'. But wait, you can't because if this document becomes policy, you will have no legal right to do so. Special education budgets will be given directly to schools. Yes, the document outlines stringent tracking procedures for the money but you and I know what really goes on where money is concerned. For two years my son's school promised they would purchase a touch screen computer and computer programs to help him in his reading. It never materialised. What they did with that money I do not know. His classroom aide was split between 2 other children despite having a Statement that provided him the assistance of a full-time aide. You and I know as parents what the real deal is. See if you don't, you soon will.

The Ministry doesn't wish to change the law regarding Statements - that would be fraught with much difficulty. They just want to ensure that it will be very unlikely for your child to ever receive any legal recourse to services or support. The premise is that schools will be 'good' schools and that teachers will be 'good' teachers. If we wish it, it will come true?


Think I am kidding? Here is an excerpt from the document....."Only when a sub-group within each Multi-disciplinary Group (MG) ...is satisfied that the school has exhausted its own resources and can demonstrate that planned support programmes have not been successful, would the statutory assessment process (which may or many not result in the provision of a CSP) for a small number of children with SEN then commence." (page 44)

"We propose to change the current focus and dependence on external support to strengthened and improved provision within schools. The schools will be responsible for the vast majority of their children's diverse needs within a funding allocation....Initial diagnostic testing, if needed will be carried out at school level. The school will be expected to draw up a PLP (Personal Learning Plan) [no more IEP's]...which will form a comprehensive record of any diagnostic testing, interventions commenced and the progress expected and achieved within a period of time.

It will be important that schools should not assume that an increase in a child's level of need, or time within a school, necessarily calls for increased level of resource (for example classroom assistance or peripatetic teacher)...the employment of more appropriate teaching strategies is often as effective or even more effective in ensuring that a child achieves the agreed outcomes and level of progress." (pages 42-43)

The school boards are washing their hands of their responsibility for special education and laying it firmly at the feet of already overworked and ill-equipped mainstream school teachers. Considering there is still no certification required by teaching students regarding special education, I am at a loss to understand how teachers now or even in the next few years will achieve this super hero status of all things to all people. Further with administration and other paperwork duties, I do not know how teachers will ever get the time to teach our children. Extensive training plans will have to be undertaken by teachers, and much stronger relationships between schools will have to be formed. When will teachers ever get the time?

Nowhere in this document is there any mention of the fact that children like mine cannot cope in a class of 28-30 children and that no amount of teacher training will overcome my child's heightened sensitivities. No amount of teacher training will change the belief systems of teachers who think my child is just being 'naughty'. Will they really understand that he just cannot cope with 27 other screaming children, flourescent lights, smells, walls/floors and tables strewn with visuals? My child couldn't give a toss about league tables and P Scales. Teachers do though - how will my child fit into the current teaching construct?

This report suggests that label driven services will be a thing of the past. I totally welcome that! However, the report also suggests that our reliance on the medical model and labels will magically evaporate within a 3 year phasing in period. This is too quick, children will suffer. There is a presumption that Northern Ireland will somehow be ready to shuffle off label driven objectification of persons with 'disabilities'. The very fact 'disability' is still widely used says it all. My child has so many abilities but not once have they ever been 'professionally' referred to. It's never been about what he can do, but what he 'can't'.

For many children, holding it together all day at school means losing it at home where they feel safe to 'let go' of their stress and frustration. Parents then get blamed and have behavioural plans slapped on them by teachers who don't want to admit that their schools are not working for our children.

I personally would never want to be in a room all day with 30 other people. Further, the age at which children start school here is way too young. Some children are in day care virtually from birth, nursery from 2 years and 10 months and primary school from age 4. It has been proven that kids do better who start school later. No one is listening to that here in Northern Ireland. Children must go to school so their parents can ensure the economic system keeps on churning (case in point Income Support ending when children are aged 7). If I was to go to work, my child's babysitter would probably be making more than me. It's ok for her to babysit and take care of children, but it's not ok for me to take care of my own child? This is the mindset and much of what should change. I digress.


There can be no inclusion in Northern Ireland until special schools are a thing of the past. This document appears to be pushing for that. Currently, the belief system of teachers and many parents, however, is that children with special educational needs should be ostracised from their peers and placed in special schools where their own children can't be 'influenced' by children who are 'different'. I believe this is completely and utterly wrong, ultimately damaging and from a human rights perspective, wholly inequitable. I also know it's quite prevalent in this society.

God forbid that my child disrupts the cutting and pasting of Ronan whose mummy has her sights set on Cambridge. Who knows the untold damage that could be done if Ronan or Nigel's playtime is interrupted unnecessarily. Ronan and Nigel's mummys' concerns are currently written into the Code of Practice. Their children always come first. Don't believe me, then read your own copy and you will find that if a teacher deems your child is disruptive to the rest of the class, he can be removed. The disruptive behaviour I see in children my child's age is quite intense at times, they get up to stuff he would never dream of. Their cheekiness, loudness and lack of respect is something I have never witnessed in my own child. Still, if my child knocks over a chair or humms loudly or pours water over someone's crayon drawing, he may be excluded. It's not the behaviour that is being excluded though is it. It's the label.

This consultation document is basically suggesting that all children attend mainstream schools. I agree with that in principle. There are countries where this is the norm and though fraught with its own problems, is no worse than what we have here, minus the segregation, the 'hiding away'.

The entire responsibility to usher in inclusivity is being laid, however, at the feet of teachers, overstretched teachers who themselves are of the mindset and have been instrumental in sustaining the 'special school' dogma by labelling particular children in their class as 'behaviourally challenged', unruly to other children, etc. So now, these same teachers, with very little training (let's face it, autism training in Northern Ireland is a complete and utter joke!) unending paperwork and classes of 28 and more to teach, will now be expected to magically replace speech therapist, educational psychologist , occupational therapist, classroom assistant and more, and develop a whole new belief system overnight?

The consultation document suggests a 3 year phasing in period. The optimism of whoever made this suggestion is admirable, but completely out of touch with reality.

The document suggests your child will go to the local mainstream school. I couldn't be happier with that suggestion, I am a fervent supporter of full inclusion. What I won't be supporting, however, is the resentment that will ensue from teachers who were pushed too quickly, without satisfactory re-training, and who simply cannot cope, who will very likely blame our children and their parents for their heightened stress levels.

I also wonder what reception my child will receive from the other children in the class who may never have met a child with different abilities - how will they react? Will bullying increase? What are the belief systems of those children about children like my own? It's one thing to take the right to a mainstream placement, it's quite another having to deal with fear and ignorance of other children, and possibly even their parents.

It's very sad that there are more than a few parents who don't want their children in the company of 'window lickers' and 'spastics'. I apologise for the use of those words but they are still bandied about in Northern Ireland on a very regular basis by young and not so young children just like the "N" word that was used on the night that Romanian families had to flee their homes. It's one thing hoping that a parochial and ignorant subset of society will accept those with differences, it's another expecting that mentality won't be 'catchy'.

We cannot have inclusion in Northern Ireland whilst special schools remain full. At least 25 percent of parents already know from bitter experience, however, that their children cannot cope in oversized busy classrooms with 1/2 of a classroom assistant and very little general understanding of their child's need. For mainstream to work for children like my own, class size must be reduced. I don't see this happening and in fact the opposite has happened with many schools merging together or closing down altogether.

Teachers who are already overstretched, will have to re-train on and off-site in order to make your and my child's experience at their school worthwhile. Whilst they are updating their woefully inadequate skills, you and I will have very little legal recourse to 'encourage' these teachers to do so.

Unfortunately, all the training in the world will not make up for lack of intent, desire or will by teachers to include our children in their mainstream classrooms. I can imagine the teachers who are reading this document saying to themselves, 'how are we going to cope?' That is a very good question.

The bigger and more important question is how do I protect my child from suffering damage? (to be continued)



"In the first place, God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made School Boards."-- Mark Twain