Editorial

Welcome to Inclusion Now 67, with autumn 2023 inclusive education news.

Welcome to Inclusion Now 67, with inclusive education news for autumn 2023. Opening this edition, ALLFIE’s Policy and Research Officer, Edmore Masendeke, brings important news on UK government policy. In the first of two articles (Page 3), he addresses Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement of a new Advanced British Standard to replace A-levels, emerging from the Conservative Party Conference. On page 22, Edmore looks at proposed cuts of 20% in new Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and addresses the potential impact on Disabled children and Young people. In other policy news, on page 24, Richard Rieser asks “Is the SEND Change Programme is an opportunity to develop Inclusive Practice?”

On page 16, parent Tom McDonough’s hard-hitting account documents his family’s experience of navigating inclusive education. Tom offers many suggestions for improvement and concludes: “Stories like this shouldn’t be getting told in Britain in 2023. The fact that they are shows there needs to be a fundamental shift in attitudes in many quarters before disabled people can hope for meaningful improvements.”

Our Voice project is amplifying voices of Young Disabled people in the UK. On page 5, project participants interview Dr Miro Griffiths on disability academia, activism, and youth inclusion. On page 10, Our Voice project looks at the 1900s Eugenics movement, with ALLFIE’s Michelle Daley and Yewande Akintelu-Omoniyi’s commentary on the legacy of eugenics in education and its effects on society.

Young people are also the focus of ALLFIE’s Iyiola Olafimihan’s article (Page 14) on building the capacity of the Disability Movement to campaign on ending poverty for Disabled children, Young people and their families.

ALLFIE’s Youth Parliamentary Officer, Maresa MacKeith, discusses getting the best outcomes for Young Disabled people. Following her previous Inclusion Now writing on the importance of relationships, Maresa looks at inclusive practice and accessing effective Personal Assistant (PA) support for Young Disabled people (Page 21).

On page 20, Blake Williamson’s article on non-verbal communication asks us to ‘Hear My Voice’ and includes Blakes original poem, ‘Anything But Silent’. Finally, we close this autumn 2023 magazine with the Legal Question, on moving to a preferred secondary school, including those named in an EHCP (Page 27).