Tackling social exclusion and disability harassment

Mon,27 May 2013
News

The role of education in tackling social exclusion and disability harassment

All-Party Parliamentary Disability Group

Wednesday 24 April 2013 16:00 – 17:00

Wilson Room, Portcullis House

A joint meeting with the APPGs on Deafness, Down Syndrome and Learning Disability. The event was supported by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)

Notes

Purpose: to discuss a key recommendation from the EHRC’s recent disability-related harassment inquiry, related to the education of young disabled people and children with special educational needs.

In chair: Rt Hon Anne McGuire MP, co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Disability Group.

Speakers:

Edward Timpson MP, Children and Families Minister (16.00-16.35)

Chris Holmes MBE, Equality and Human Rights Commissioner

Tara Flood, Chief Executive Alliance for Inclusive Education

*Zoe Hallam, Trailblazers ambassador, was unable to attend due to illness. Her speech is in the appendix.

Key Issues:

  • the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s work on disability-harassment inquiry highlights the need for research into the impact of segregated education on the social isolation of disabled children and young people
  • the Children and Families Bill must ensure that disabled children and young people can access the support they need to thrive in education; but there is a concern about the absence of a rights-based approach
  • the presumption is for disabled children and children with Special Educational Needs to attend mainstream education, and legislation, guidance and training needs to support this

What the speakers said:

Edward Timpson MP, Children and Families Minister

Mr Timpson spoke of the need to drive out bullying and bad behaviour, be it at school or elsewhere. He warned about ‘cyber bullying’, since it is more difficult for victims to escape. However, he assured that the government is taking necessary action to clamp down on bullying in school. As of January 2012, Offsted inspections are required to consider pupils freedom from bullying, harassment and discrimination. A wide-ranging programme for teachers has been introduced to help them support children with special educational needs through masters level training for Special Education Needs Coordinators (SENCOs). Mr Timpson hoped that the Children and Families Bill built upon legislations already in place, such as the Equality Act of 2010, to ensure that young disabled people are not discriminated against and have equal rights. Specifically, the Code of Practice, in the Children and Families bill, is to be closely referred to the Equality Act to ensure that the schools are clear about their responsibilities toward children with special educational needs or disability. Whilst legislation is essential, there is a lot of work still needed outside of this. The consistency of support must be maintained, while there is a need to change attitudes and promote good behaviour on the ground. To promote this, pathfinders (pilot areas) have been established to test out reforms to make sure that the good practice that exists is being more widely spread and that it is genuinely a child and young person focused system.  

Chris Holmes MBE, Equality and Human Rights Commissioner

The EHRC’s inquiry shows that there has not been enough progress in relation to tackling disability harassment. Mr Holmes revealed that only 47 per cent of students with a visual impairment and 44 per cent of those with hearing impairment will get 5 GCSEs, to C and above, compared with the national average of 69 per cent. Furthermore, qualitative evidence suggests that disabled children are being bullied, harassed and discriminated against. Also, research from the children's commissioner suggests that those with special educational needs are 9 times more likely to be excluded. Mr Holmes mentioned the Commission’s technical guidance on reasonable adjustments and advised that they make a huge difference,it can be something as straightforward as a teacher being trained in using an inhaler for children with asthma or a pen to stop an allergic reaction. Equal rights, equal respect, guidance for the curriculum enable every element of the school experience to be accessible and inclusive. Mr Holmes concluded that everybody must be included in the education offer because it makes sense on every level. Inclusive education will make a difference not just for the education experience but also when people move into adult life.

Tara Flood, Chief Executive Alliance for Inclusive Education

Ms. Flood expressed that she did not share the Minister’s enthusiasm for the bill as it does not reflect the government rhetoric that there was around the publication of the Green Paper for radical reform. She argued that parents should have a right to choose mainstream education for their children, which is not present in the bill. Instead, the bill gives greater choice for segregated education. Taking ethnicity and free school meals into account, disabled children are 168 times more likely to be excluded from mainstream schools. Currently, children and young people lose their rights to a mainstream placement once they have been identified as having special educational needs. Evidence from the Alliance will be put forward shortly, mapping changes in disabled people’s education experiences. Ms. Flood stated that experiences of children in segregated education from 30 or so years ago are not too dissimilar from the experiences of children today.

Questions and Contributions

Daniel Bush and Richard Lawrence spoke about their personal experience of bullying:

Daniel Bush spoke about the bad experience that he had at mainstream school after being moved from deaf school by the council. He was a target for bullies because he was unable to communicate with them, as his first language is British Sign Language and he felt that very little was done to support him. As a result of this he underachieved in his GCSE’s. However, when he went to the Exeter Deaf Academy after, Daniel flourished because he was fully included in an environment where students and staff were fluent in British Sign Language and his particular needs as a deaf learner were understood. He regained his confidence and excelled by achieving Engineering level 2 with distinction. He would like to do work experience now and the Exeter Deaf Academy can help him with that.

Richard Lawrence talked about walking with his fiancée when a group of school children threw stones at them and called them names. The police did not do anything but the day centre put Richard in touch with a mediator. She organised a meeting with the school children at which Richard was able to explain about having a learning disability and how their behaviour affected him and his fiancée. The meeting was a success as there have been no further incidents.

In discussion the following points were raised:

-         the Children and Families Bill must deliver genuine choice and control for ALL disabled children and young people, not just those who have been assessed as having 'special educational needs'.

-         we must hold the education system and decision-makers accountable for providing an inclusive education in which there is a place for everyone and where there is zero acceptance of abuse and discrimination. It should never be the disabled child or young person who should have to bear the responsibility for fitting into a certain system and having to challenge wrongs.

-         will the Government undertake a review of the potential impact of segregated education on the social isolation of disabled children, as per the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s recommendation?

-         what is the Government doing to ensure that disabled children and young people do not have to go through the same experiences as Daniel of being bullied in mainstream education (bearing in mind that research shows that bullying is also rife in special schools)?

-         what is the Government doing to teach all pupils in both mainstream and special schools about learning disability, and about how disability hate crime affects victims?    

-         what is the Government doing to ensure that teachers and health and social care professionals are trained to recognise, and meet, the needs of autistic children and young people, particularly school leavers?

The chair thanked the speakers, members and observers and Disaibility Rights UK for their support. She highlighted that 180 disability hate crimes are committed every day, and harassment of disabled people is common-place occurrence whilst over half of disabled people say that they experience discrimination on a regular basis. Ms McGuire stressed that if we are really serious about changing the culture, then we need to talk about pre-school education, about early intervention and encouraging very young children to carry the messages that they learn through being with disabled peers in pre-school through the rest of their school and adult life.

Appendix

Zoë Hallam: the right to inclusive education

The right to an inclusive education is something that for a lot of my academic career I’ve taken for granted. Diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at the age of ten, my condition did not begin to manifest in any way that would affect my access to education until I was around fourteen and firmly ensconced in a state grammar school, studying for my GCSEs. This put me in a much stronger position to petition for my continued inclusion, despite concerns expressed by the school regarding the task of making the Victorian buildings of my school suitable for wheelchair access. However, I am aware that had my condition manifested before I made the transition to secondary school, my position would have been a lot more precarious, and this is something I think seriously needs addressing.

My experience throughout school and university has taught me that as a young disabled person the onus is often on me to educate and inform others as to how they can best accommodate my needs – not only among my fellow students, who often have never met a disabled person, but also among the professionals who are meant to be helping me access the services and opportunities offered as standard to my able-bodied peers. The lack of knowledge and understanding of the needs of disabled people endemic in society often, in my opinion, stems from a lack of exposure to real disabled people and the real issues they face. By allowing young people to interact with disabled people their own age, these barriers can start to be broken down. I see this most clearly in my friends – often they will tell me about places they’ve been and comment on the access issues or solutions they’ve seen there, which is something they wouldn’t even have considered had they not spent time with me and understood the difficulties I encounter getting around. The more people are around those with needs different to their own, the more likely they are to bear those needs in mind in their future careers, whether that be in employing disabled people or designing buildings or systems which cater for them.

Conversely, it’s been important for me to interact with able-bodied people in a normal setting too. One of my key concerns about schools which cater only for disabled children is that for the formative years of their lives they are surrounded solely by other disabled people and people who are highly tolerant and understanding of their specific needs. While obviously in an ideal world, everyone would be highly tolerant and understanding, it’s clear that this is not the case. An important lesson for me was to learn how others saw me and the assumptions they might make about how to treat me. It was a hard lesson, and sometimes unpleasant, but it has helped me cope with my life after education and go into situations with some idea of how others might perceive me. Like it or not, as a disabled person I have to reconcile with the fact that not everyone is going to accept me and my needs, and I have had to learn how to help people understand exactly what I need them to do, and, on occasion, how to fight my corner. Sheltering disabled people from this knowledge while they’re at school, and then thrusting them out into the world and expecting them to suddenly adapt to a much less tolerant and adapted environment is, in my opinion, asking the impossible, and setting them up as easy targets for those looking for someone to persecute.

I’ve focused mostly on social exposure as an argument for inclusive education, but I think for me there was another equally important argument for my continuation at a mainstream school. I was a high academic achiever, eventually ending up at Oxford University, and I credit this in no small part to the support provided by my school – extra-curricular activities, allowing me to take on additional subjects at A Level, and co-ordination with universities regarding open days and access events. While I have no personal experience to speak of, I doubt that a school which catered purely for disabled students would have been able to provide the same level of support and aspiration, particularly in terms of providing extra challenge in lessons to continue to stretch me. What was important was that the school, as it should, recognised that my learning and development needs extended beyond those associated with my disability and acted to make the most of my academic capability. I think it is important that any school do the same and my concern is that by providing such a strong focus on disability, an institution might allow other aspects of a child’s development to fall by the wayside. For me this would have had a significant impact on my higher education and I may not have ended up with the promising career I have today.

It hasn’t always been an easy ride accessing the education I know I have a right to, and I’ve been lucky to have had both my parents fighting my corner. But this really shouldn’t be the way it has to be. I would like to see disabled students having to battle less to receive an inclusive education if they have the capacity to access it, regardless of what support needs to be put in place by the school to enable it. I would also like to see a more long-term vision for each individual student, rather than, as was my experience, a fairly stop-gap approach to problems as they arose. I would especially like to see a developed support network to aid transition from school to university. As the first disabled student to attend an out-of-area university in my Local Authority, there was no knowledge base as to what needed to be done and whose responsibility it was. I almost ended up having to defer my enrolment due to a lack of provision by my local authority of a suitable care package. The idea of “seeing the person, not the disability” is an old and perhaps clichéd one, but I think it truly applies to education. Ghettoising and isolating disabled individuals might solve some problems in the short term, but purely focusing on the practical difficulties caused by our disabilities will not help us to become fully rounded members of society, and to reach our full potential. I believe that inclusive education will go some way to helping with this problem – by attending a school that is not just about disability, a young disabled person has a much better chance of not just surviving, but thriving in a world which really isn’t about disability at all.

About Zoë Hallam:

Zoe graduated from St. John's College, Oxford in 2011 and now works for the Ministry of Defence as a commercial officer. She was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at the age of 11 but has been mainstream educated for the whole of her academic career. Zoë is an ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign Trailblazers and believes strongly in the principle that disability should not be a barrier to potential.