Introduction

The needs based special education framework established after the Warnock Report has endured for over 40 years, despite its progenitor more than once calling for its abolition (Warnock, 1978, 1993: xi, 2005; Education Act, 1981). A limited extension of a disability rights-based approach to special education was introduced through the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001), followed by an extension of its measures in the revised Disability Discrimination Act (2005) and the Equality Act (2010) which unified discrimination legislation and extended protections to individual disabled children.

Following the reforms in the Children and Families Act 2014, the Code of Practice 2015 (DfE/DoH, 2015) attempted to integrate the rights provisions within the overall special educational needs (SEN) framework, but in practice the rights framework has played an ancillary role to the dominant Warnock framework. Essentially both legal frameworks seek to remove barriers to learning (DfE/DoH 2015: 1.33) but operate on entirely different principles and apply to overlapping but not coterminous groups of children and young people. The Warnock framework seeks to identify SEN needs and the Equality Act framework to prevent discrimination. The failure to address the discontinuities between the two legislative strands within the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) framework undermines the aims of the reforms and is a barrier to equitable provision.