Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-10-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the compatibility of the policy in Schools that work for everyone, published on 12 September 2016, with the (a) UK’s general obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Article 24 to promote disabled pupils’ right to mainstream education, (b) Government’s Interpretative Declaration commitment to build the capacity of mainstream schools to be inclusive of disabled pupils and (c) General Comment No.4 on Article 24, published on 2 September 2016.
Nick Gibb
As part of its commitments under articles 7 and 24 of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the UK Government is committed to inclusive education of disabled children and young people and the progressive removal of barriers to education and participation in mainstream education. The Children and Families Act 2014 secures the general presumption in law of mainstream education in relation to decisions about where children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) should be educated and the Equality Act 2010 provides protection from discrimination for disabled people.
The Department is having, and will continue to have, due regard to equalities impact, both in the study of responses to the consultation document and throughout any development of policy areas, following the consultation.
In our new proposals, we have been clear that we expect selective schools to support non-selective schools, looking to them to be engines of academic and social achievement for all pupils.
