ABSTRACT
If schools and early years settings are to be successful in enabling the social participation and academic achievement of all children and young people within their communities, they will need to look beyond the boundaries of their own expertise and experience, and demonstrate a willingness to work with others who have the appropriate knowledge, skills and understanding. Traditional support services alone, however, whether statutory agency or volunteer-based, can no longer claim to have the monopoly of being a single point of reference and must now adapt to being part of a dynamic, flexible and evolving resource which may include the local community, special and other schools, regional organisations, national charities, local trusts and parents' groups. For this expertise to have impact, however, the school will have to ensure wide acceptance and ownership of in-school systems that are capable of assimilating or accommodating this expertise. This has not always been the case, and in order to consider where support services are going we must first consider where they have come from, and what, for them, constitutes development.
