ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an historical baseline for the origins and the development of the concept of special educational needs (SEN). It highlights the different funding implications of policies which seek to provide additional resources for specific pupils with SEN compared with those which seek to compensate for social disadvantage. The chapter examines four major pieces of legislation which have had a significant impact on the way in which special educational needs have been viewed. These are the 1944, 1981, 1988 and 1993 Education Acts. The 1944 Education Act can be regarded as a major effort by educationalists to move as many 'defective' children as possible out of the medical domain and place them firmly under an education aegis. The Warnock report and the 1981 Education Act have now been superseded by the 1993, the 1996 Education Act and the 2001 Special Educational Needs and Disability Act.
