ABSTRACT
In Chapters 1-3 it was argued that parent-professional interactions during assessments of children’s special educational needs take place within a wider social context of competing and frequently conflicting interests. Professionals, including teachers, doctors, psychologists, and members of other caring and administrative professions, cannot simply take on a neutral role; they have their own professional interests in the assessment process and its outcomes. They are also engaged in negotiations with both parents and other professionals about ownership of clients, service strategies and resource priorities: negotiations which give meaning to the way in which the ‘needs’ of all participants in an assessment come to be understood. In these negotiations the power of participants to influence how and what consensus is reached in the assessment is not equally distributed. In consequence, the scope parents have, within the official procedures, for achieving outcomes not supported by, or in opposition to, professionals will be limited.
