Sense response to the Education Bill
26 January 2011
Commenting on the government’s Education Bill, Steve Rose, Head of Children’s Specialist Services at Sense, the national deafblind charity, says:
“Sense is concerned that disabled children will be pushed into the margins as the state becomes less involved in educating our children.
Schools form the building blocks of an inclusive society. But by ending local authority oversight of schools the government risks undermining parental choice by making special education schools the only real option for deafblind and other disabled children.
Local authorities must retain a leading role in funding and developing education services for children with complex needs such as deafblindness or multisensory impairment. Otherwise thousands of school children across the country will miss out.”