There has not been a national review of this scale and thoroughness since as the breadth of chapter coverage and detail indicates. The Warnock Committee was set up in 1974 by Margaret Thatcher, then Education Secretary (Minister of Education), with a broad remit that concluded in 1978 in a report of over 400 pages. So, the paper will conclude that without grappling with these general policy issues we cannot expect some of the important questions in the SEN and inclusive education field to be addressed more coherently and more convincingly either conceptually or practically. This paper will address some of these matters and consider policy making ideas that go well beyond the kind of Government committee review so well-exemplified by the Warnock Committee. This takes us well beyond special needs and inclusive education to questions about the quality of educational and social policy making, with England as the main focus of the paper. In looking at the policy context of provision for this hard to define sub-group of pupils we also need to consider the quality of general educational policy making and ideas about how this can be improved. It is mainly the policy and provision aspects of the Warnock Report that we are remembering in 2019. This is not just to examine how what counts as special educational provision is inter-connected with other aspects of educational provision, but also how SEN policy making is inter-connected to broader educational policy. The argument in this paper is that while commemorating the significance of the landmark Warnock Report published 40 years ago, we need to look at the policy context of provision for pupils with special educational needs (SEN). Though this proposal arises in an English context it has international relevance to the project of renewing ideas and values about the nature of schooling in a way that takes genuine account of SEN and disabilities. Finding common ground between different social and political value perspectives involves deliberative democratic principles and approaches that could influence representative democratic policy making. An EFC would cover all key aspects of education including designs for including the diversity of learners. It would aim to design a 10 year consensual educational policy framework, within which political parties and governments will work a framework that could be renewed after this period.
The Commission would set policy priorities as a settlement that has the potential to reconcile plural and sometimes contrary value positions. It proposes an Education Framework Commission (EFC). Drawing on a post-democracy political analysis ( Crouch, 2000) and contemporary ideas about deliberative democracy ( Fishkin, 2018), with a recognition of the plural values that underlie policy tensions ( Dahl, 1982). It uses this analysis to conclude that without grappling with these bigger policy issues we cannot expect some crucial questions in the field to be addressed more coherently and convincingly either conceptually or practically. It then argues that policy for pupils with SEN illustrates the democratic deficits in educational and policy-making processes in general. This paper shows the strong inter-connection between SEN and inclusion with other aspects of educational provision as the basis for proposing that future policy directions depend on general policy processes. The Report's significance also highlights the nature of provision for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities and the changing context of policy making in contemporary liberal democratic society. This paper argues that the significance of the Warnock Report after 40 years goes beyond the impact of its deliberations and recommendations on UK policy and practice and its wider international influence. Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.
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