I start from thinking that every school should be barrier-free for all, and every child is special and should get their needs met. That way, disabled kids would be the same as everyone else, and there would be no ‘special needs’ stigma talk. But I recognise that this utopian answer is some way off.

In the meantime, we need to concentrate resources on some schools, and develop expertise to work with disabled children, so that we can enable them to develop and grow, as we expect with all our children. I do not think that it is about young people with disabilities having the same outcomes as everyone else, because that will not be possible for all. But everyone develops and grows, so the gap I am interested in is between where they are now, and where they will be in five years’ time, with all the educational input they will have received.

Let me say something about disability. I think that disability is complex: people are disabled by social barriers and oppression, and also by bodies and minds which work in different ways, or not as well as the average. I think embodiment is a challenge for everyone, although this is usually only evident by mid-life, when everyone realises that they have special needs for some sort of repair or other. I want us to see our commonalities. As a group of young disabled people said to me more than 30 years ago: they are just like young people without disabilities.

I want everyone, particularly children and young people, to feel okay about having bodies or minds that work differently.