ABSTRACT
The fundamental principles of comprehensive schooling challenge the notion that special educational needs consistently require expertise from specialists or from institutions whose boundaries are well defined. Instead the service delivery model should adopt notional or actual networks of personnel and provision. Mary Warnock and the Act are not about special education alone; taken seriously they are very much about the organisation and quality of all schooling. Warnock and the 1981 Act which are providing a focus for attention on special education and it are their perceived consequences which have created an expectation of change for the 'service delivery model'. If any change does occur, teachers will need the experience and skills to implement the new form of service; and the introduction of relevant experience and skills into teacher training requires a forward planning prediction of what the new model will be. What follows is an attempt to consider how such a prediction can be made.
