What if… we thought anew about how we support special educational needs and disability in schools?

The Warnock Report marked a pivotal change in the provision of education for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) - encouraging these children's inclusion in mainstream classes, and introducing the system of 'statementing' that set out a child's needs and entitlement to additional support. But much has changed in the intervening years - not least the increase in the number of children with SEND and the complexity of their needs, wider policies of parental choice and school accountability and, now, funding constraints on the availability of special school places and SEND support in mainstream classrooms. More recent years have also seen challenges to the bias towards inclusion. In this context we have brought together reflections from Baroness Warnock herself and a range of perspectives to take stock of the Warnock Committee's recommendations - their underlying principles, their implementation, and their relevance for the future. #IOEDebates