North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has called on the Education Minister to address the growing number of exclusions for pupils with special educational needs (SENs).
Speaking in the Chamber this week, Mr Isherwood said it is time to stop punishing children with special educational needs and to start providing them with the support they need.
Raising the matter with the Education Minister, he said:
“Last August, a landmark court ruling in a school exclusion case made it clear for the first time that all schools must make sure they have made appropriate adjustments for autistic children or those with other disabilities 'before they can resort to exclusion'.
“I've recently in the last two weeks received a letter from a constituent, a father with whom I've been working for some months after his young autistic son was excluded from school, with a decision letter regarding their Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales case, which ruled that there had been no evidence of reasonable adjustments.
“It said the school had been forced to admit that the exclusion itself was discriminatory, and it required the school to provide a written apology, to include an apology for the disproportionate length of the exclusion, an apology for not providing sufficient support to address their son's additional learning needs, and explaining how the school will address the issues raised in this decision. It also instructed them to arrange additional training for staff and governors in relation to autistic spectrum conditions and ALN (Additional Learning Needs) more generally at a level that is more advanced than introductory level.
“This isn't the only case I have like this; I have many. At a time when local authorities and schools should be fully aware of the ALN Act and the impending significant changes, how are you going to on the ground ensure that children like this don't continue to be punished for being who they are, and are engaging with staff who truly understand what their needs are so that they can live happy, healthy and fulfilled lives?”
In her reply, the Minister, Kirst Williams AM, said a “significant proportion of the £20 million ALN transformation programme funding will be used to support activity to upskill the workforce so that they can better recognise and better meet the needs of all learners with ALN and learners with autism”.
Mr Isherwood added: “On top of figures showing that exclusions of secondary school pupils with special educational needs in Wales doubled over 10 years to 2012, figures for 2016-17 showed that pupils with special educational needs had 10 times the rate of temporary exclusions from Welsh schools compared to those without. It is apparent from my casework that this is still going on, despite amendments to the Additional Learning Needs Act 2018 secured by the Welsh Conservatives that meant children with additional learning needs can expect to have their rights taken into consideration by the public bodies that make decisions on the support they receive”.