ABSTRACT
It has long been acknowledged that parents play a key role in the education of their children with special educational needs. Current government policy has reinforced the importance of a positive relationship between parents and schools, and with the local education authorities who have the statutory responsibility to make appropriate educational provision. In seeking to create a ‘partnership’ between parents and local authorities, the government is clearly intending to counter the increasingly confrontational relationship which was the experience for many parents as they struggled to ensure proper educational provision for their child during a time of shrinking resources. In the same way as ‘mainstream’ parents exercise their rights over choice of school, parents of children with SEN also want to ensure a proper standard of education for their child, but their influence on the system, either as individuals or in self-supporting ‘lobby’ groups, has been weak. This chapter will explore the particular issues for parents of children with SEN as the government develops an integrated system and encourages a closer partnership between parents as individuals, teachers, support groups and the local education authority. It will be suggested that public policy has accentuated tensions between individual rights and interests, and collective justice and equity. In this context, more ‘advantaged’ groups of parents have been able to assert their interests at the expense of others, in a system which has been concerned with the distribution of limited resources. A more socially just system – which encourages diverse parental interest groups to ‘voice’ their claims, in a partnership with professionals, to achieve shared agreements about provision for special educational needs – will be more likely to be truly inclusive.
