History of the Lamb Inquiry 2009 - Case Study Example

The Lamb Inquiry Name of the Class Professor Name of the School City and state Where it is Located Date Introduction Special educational needs and disabilities usually have an effect on the young person and children’s ability to learn. This is based on the fact that, they tend to affect the children’s ability of understanding things, their behavior or their ability when it comes to socializing, reading and working, physical ability as well as their concentration levels. Young people and children usually make progress at various different rates and they also have diverse ways in which they best learn. The teachers also take into account this aspects and more so when it comes to organizing their teaching and lessons. This means that, the young people and children who may be making slower progress or having a number of difficulties in some areas can be given extra help to assist them in succeeding. This essay sets out to discuss whether the statement whether the Lamb Inquiry 2009 describes parents as experiencing an “unthinking, uncaring system that doesn’t listen to them or take their concerns seriously” (p.4) is an accurate reflection of the issues facing parents today. History of the Lamb Inquiry 2009 The Lamb enquiry 2009 was formed as a part of the response of the UK government to the House of Commons education and skills committee report on special educational needs on funding and assessment. The leader of the enquiry was Brian and he was tasked with the Department of Children, schools and families of the inquiry to assess the manner in which parental confidence in the special education needs system can be improved and enhanced (Audit Commission 2002). The inquiry aimed at looking for better and effective ways of including the parents, offering them with increased level of access to support and information in the educational paths of their children in addition to developing better school and home collaboration revolving around the notion of learning. The equality act of 2010 was also introduced during the same time with the Lamb inquiry. To a great extent, the inquiry can be termed as being an effective one. Based on the report, parental confidence on the SEN system was a major issue when it came to offering provisions for the children with the Special Educational Needs (Morewood 2014). Discussion of the statement The inquiry findings were mixed in that, some of the parent’s experiences were positive while at the same time, some parents experienced countless problems (Peacey et al 2009). A great number of the negative experiences are closely linked to the question statement on whether the Lamb Inquiry 2009 describes parents as experiencing an “unthinking, uncaring system that doesn’t listen to them or take their concerns seriously” (p.4) is an accurate reflection of the issues facing parents today. The statement under discussion is an accurate reflection of the issues that parents are facing today. This is based on the fact that, parents do not seem to have a stronger voice. Based on the report, parents offered the opinion that honest, open and good communication was an essential component when it comes to the building of good relationships and confidence (The Lamb Inquiry 2009). Thus, the system needs to change and start taking the concerns of the parents seriously. In this regard, face to face communication with the parents and also treating them as equal partners with expertise in their needs of their children seems to be so crucial to the establishment and sustaining of confidence. Most of things that are likely to go wrong are usually as a result of the poor communication between all the involved parties that is; the parents, the local authorities and the school. Thus, when effective communication is enhanced, parents will feel like the system is thinking, caring and that it also listens to them and also takes their concerns more seriously (Westwood 2004). To ensure this, parents need to be offered ease of access to information that they may need and this needs to be offered on a timely basis and also in ways that seems convenient to them (Wink 2005). This is based on the idea that, in schools that have been found to be more useful, the effective engagement of the parents have been found to have an insightful impact when it comes to the children’s’ progress as well as to the confidence between the parents and school. Therefore, parents with children with SEN needs to be listened to more and they also need to be brought into partnership with the various statutory bodies and this ought to be done in the most effective and meaningful way (Westwood 2006). Another idea that supports the statement under discussion is that fact that, parents feels that the learning institutions need to have a clearer focus on the outcomes. A great number of the parents have the wish that their children succeed on a number of outcomes, for example, they need to succeed emotionally, educationally, behavioral and socially (Strategic Children Services 2009). This is based on the fact that, during the inquiry, about 39% of the parents felt that their schools had not discussed any of their children outcomes with them. In the past and prior to the inquiry, the development of the disability equality scheme failed to get the involvement of people who are disabled. However, the inquiry achieved some benefits in that, the schools are required to involve the pupils and more so in the development of the scheme at the school. This offers helpful insights into what usually makes school life difficult for the SEN and also on what frustrates the participation and learning and through such means the children with SEN has came up with practical and simple suggestions on schools need to make changes (Westwood 2008). Some of the aspects that are dealt with includes an improvement on some procedures such as the anti-bulling behaviors and also improved access of learning. This plays an essential role in that it helps a lot when it comes to the improvement of the outcomes of these children (Martin 2015). Parents also feel that the SEN system fails in terms of quality assurance and accountability (DCSF 2008). For example a great number of the school information is not published by the local authorities there is no reference to the local authority information in the school policies. Thus, the parents feel that the system is not caring and fair to them and for them to be fair and considerate of their views they need greater level of compliance. Therefore, the parents require a change in terms of the approach they takes to working with the parents. By doing so, there seems to be a need for an increased level of quality assurance on practices and policies and more so when it comes to the children with SEN (Nettleton 1995 and Winzer 2007). Parents also feels left out in the SEN system and the information in the schools and also that the policies tend to be vast. Information seems to be very essential for parents and parents have a right to know well about such aspects as if their children have any kind of special educational needs and its meaning. Parents also need to know the best way and the channels they can use to complain of things are not going on as planned. In respect to these the parents ought to know what the outcome that the schools aim at achieving for the children with SEN (Lamb 2009). Parents also felt that the system failed to work for them and based on the inquiry they needed the system to work for their children in the same way that the system works for everyone else. Based on the various development that have occurred overtime in relation to parent engagement as well as information that is shared among parents offers greater opportunities for the inclusion of SEN and other related disability information (Parsons, Lewis & Ellins 2009). The development tend to e more focused on the outcomes as well as on progress, for instances, the proposals for the school report cards (Woodcock & Vialle 2010). The report cards will offer information on progress and attainment. This ought to include measures of the school success when it comes to the promotion of the progress and attainment of the students with SEN. These measures ought to be inclusive and it should not in any way try to separate the students with SEN from their peers who do not have SEN. The leaning policies and school teaching ought to include how the SEN children are taught and schools also needs to include an outline how the pupils are involved in the educational opportunities that are offered by the school (Ekins 2013). For the parents to term the system as fair the information that is available on the extended day provisions also needs to show how the children with SEN are included. To the degree that the policies on the manner in which the school work with the pupils with SEN ought to be incorporated and more so in the mainstream policies and as a result the requirements of the SEN policy can be streamlined and reduced with additional requirements. Greater sharing of the outcomes as well as the performance measures are mirrored in other kind of development and more so across the public sectors (Twomey 2006 and Woolfson & Brady 2009). This will play an essential role in that there will be a fundamental change in the relationship that exists between the professional and the parents. Thus the previous relationship model the professional as being experts and the ignorant person seems to be no longer relevant in this era. Thus, for parents to feel that they are into the system and that the system is fair to them schools ought to have dialogues with the parents and more so on issues of their SEN policy and that the policies in place meets the detailed requirements. There are greater benefits in reducing the various requirements of the policy and more so in favor of great amount of engagement with the parents and also implementing what the parents have recommended (House of Commons Education and Skills Committee 2007). Conclusion In conclusion, special consideration needs to be given to children with special needs. Based on the above discussion the statement sourced from the Lamb Inquiry 2009 that describes parents as experiencing an “unthinking, uncaring system that doesn’t listen to them or take their concerns seriously” (p.4) is an accurate reflection of the issues facing parents today. Thus, for parents to feel that they are into the system and that the system is fair to them schools ought to have dialogues with the parents and more so on issues of their SEN policy and that the policies in place meets the detailed requirements. References Audit Commission 2002, Statutory assessment and statements of SEN: in need of review, Wiley, New Jersey. DCSF 2008, Quality Standards for Special Educational Needs (SEN) Support and Outreach Services (Ref: 00582-2008 Dom-En), DCSF Publications, UK. Ekins, A 2013, SEN and Underachievement in Primary School: Exploring the differences, Optimus Education, London. House of Commons Education and Skills Committee 2007, Special Educational Needs: Assessment and Funding: Tenth Report of Session 2006–07, The Stationery Office Limited, London. Lamb, B 2009, The Lamb Inquiry: Special Educational needs and parental confidence, viewed 2 December 2016, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100202100434/http://dcsf.gov.uk/lambinquiry/downloads/brian-lamb-lettter-to-ed-balls.pdf Martin, J 2015, Building Evidence through SEN Case Studies: Tools for self-evaluation and school improvement, Optimus Education, London. Morewood, G 2014, SEND for classroom Teachers: Providing quality first, inclusive teaching, Optimus Education, London. Nettleton, S 1995, The Sociology of Health and Illness, Blackwell, Oxford. Parsons, S., Lewis, A & Ellins, J 2009, ‘The views and experiences of parents of children with autistic spectrum disorder about educational provision: comparisons with parents of children with other disabilities from an online survey’, European Journal of Special Needs Education, vol. 24, no. 1, pp.37-58. Peacey N, Lindsay G, Brown P and Russell A 2009, Increasing Parents’ Confidence in the Special Educational Needs System: Study Commissioned to Inform the Lamb Inquiry. Coventry: University of Warwick. Strategic Children Services 2009, Children’s Plan one-year-on SEN commitments: Information for Parents of Children and Young people with SEN and Disabilities, viewed 2 December 2016, http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/9043/1/Review%20of%20SEN%20and%20Disability%20Information-%20consultants%20report%20to%20the%20Lamb%20Inquiry.pdf The Lamb Inquiry 2009, Lamb inquiry special educational needs and parental confidence, viewed 2 December 2016, http://www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk/files/dyslexiaaction/the_lamb_inquiry.pdf Twomey, E 2006, ‘Linking learning theories and learning difficulties’, Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities, vol.11,pp. 93-98. Westwood, P 2004, Learning and learning difficulties: A handbook for teachers, ACER Press, Camber well, Victoria. Westwood, P 2006, Teaching and learning difficulties, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne, Australia. Westwood, P 2008, What teachers need to know about learning difficulties? ACER Press, Camber well, Victoria. Wink, J 2005, Critical pedagogy. Notes from the real world, Pearson Education, Boston, MA. Winzer, M 2007, Confronting difference: an excursion through the history of special education. In L. Florian (Ed.), The Sage handbook of special education (pp.21-33), Sage, London, England. Woodcock, S & Vialle, W 2010, ‘Attribution beliefs of students with learning disabilities’, The International Journal of Learning, vol. 17, no. 7, pp. 177-191. Woolfson, L & Brady, K 2009, ‘An investigation of factors impacting on mainstream teachers' beliefs about teaching students experiencing learning difficulties’, Educational Psychology, vol. 29, pp. 221-238. Read More