ABSTRACT
Opportunities to become involved in policy development are presented by the Department for Education's requirement for all Local education authorities (L.E.A.s) to reconsider their special needs policies in the light of local management of schools. The challenge of the education reform Act also provides us with opportunities to rethink the whole basis of reader relationship with parents and families. It is important for parents to be fully involved in the proposed changes to the 1981 Act. Similarly, the 1988 Act will need amendments in the light of experience and research. Further opportunities are provided by the 1989 Children Act which came into force in 1991. Local management of schools is clearly the main imponderable at the present time and could be seen as both an opportunity and a threat. The way the balance between strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is perceived will vary from professional to professional, school to school, L.E.A. to L.E.A., child to child and parent to parent.
