36.4% to 40%.

Strategies will then need to be identified showing how the staff and school will aim to achieve this objective.

The Equality Act and effects on SEN provisions within schools

The EA has now strengthened the promotion of inclusion within mainstream schools through anti-discrimination procedures and reasonable adjustment requirements. This now legally requires schools to ensure provision of additional support for learning when any child or young person needs support for whatever reason. The EA has reinforced previous legislation introduced in the 1990’s with regard to inclusion in schools for students with SEN and disabilities. From 1994 onwards there was an annual increase of SEN students being educated in mainstream schools.

‘The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and the UN Standard Rules on Equalisation (1993) both unequivocally support the right to equal treatment for all and view this as a right to mainstream education’.Diseed.org.uk (2004)

In support of the UN Convention above, The Salamanca Statement was adopted by the UK government and in Excellence for All; The Programme of Action and Removing Barriers to Achievement have supported the development of inclusion.

UNESCO (1994 p7) stated ‘that those schools that had adopted inclusive policies are the most effective means of combating discriminatory attitudes, creating welcoming communities, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all. Moreover, they provide an effective education for the majority of children (without special needs) and improving the efficiency and ultimately the cost effectiveness of the entire education system’.

In implementing the EA, Educating Scotland (2012) also supports the philosophy of inclusive education. They stipulate that inclusion rather than integration demonstrates a move away from seeing disabilities as a ‘deficit model’. The emphasis through the EA is more about recognising the whole person rather than focusing on the learner as being