Conclusion

Riddell, Sheila

As noted throughout this book, professionals and bureaucrats have traditionally held the balance of power in educational decision-making in the field of special and additional support needs. Reforms of the 1990s and 2000s in England and Scotland tilted the balance of power away from local authority officers and professionals, justifying this shift through the rhetoric of parental empowerment. Research at the time showed that the major beneficiaries were families who could mobilise sufficient economic, social and cultural resources to navigate the system successfully (Weedon and Riddell, Additional support needs and approaches to dispute resolution: The perspectives of Scottish parents. Scottish Educational Review, 41, 62–81, 2009; Riddell et al., Dispute resolution in additional and special educational needs: Local authority perspectives. Journal of Education Policy, 25(1), 55–73, 2010). Until recently, little attention has been paid to the rights of children and young people, who have been largely excluded from educational decision-making (Harris, Playing catch-up in the schoolyard? Children and young people’s ‘voice’ and education rights in the UK. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 23(3), 331–366, 2009). However, over the last few years, the independent rights of children and young people have been boosted significantly by international treaties and domestic legislation, particularly the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Education (Scotland) Act 2016. These measures have ostensibly empowered young people and children as independent actors, with rights to participate in all aspects of their education in accordance with their age and maturity. Attempts to advance the children’s human rights agenda over the past decade have coincided with significant cuts to education budgets. Despite evidence of the ongoing dissatisfaction of a significant minority of parents in both jurisdictions, parliamentary inquiries tend to exonerate the SEN/ASN systems, while blaming local authorities for mal-administration. Finally, the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath pose significant challenges for children’s human rights. In both England and Scotland, emergency legislation passed in March 2020 effectively suspended local authority duties to educate children and parents’ responsibility to ensure that their children are educated. The full impact of school closures on children’s educational development and wider wellbeing is likely to be severe and enduring, and debates around the epidemic have paid little attention to children’s rights. In the months and years ahead, it will be vital to ensure that attention to children’s rights is not occluded by wider social and economic concerns.