Special educational needs co-ordinators’ perceptions of effective provision for including autistic children in primary and middle schools in England

ABSTRACT

In the Autumn of 2017 a small-scale study was designed to explore the degree to which school staff in the East Midlands of England were in an informed position to meet their statutory obligation with regard to the autistic children in their care as reported by a sample of special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCos), members of the school staff in the best position to shed light on the topic. Findings indicated that the SENCos in the study under consideration here were clear that, overall, they were confident in their own abilities to assess autistic learners’ strengths and weaknesses and plan for meeting identified needs. They were much less confident that their colleagues with prime responsibility for classroom teaching and implementing special arrangements had commensurate knowledge and understanding, or even necessarily were very well disposed or well enough informed to differentiate classroom activities appropriately.

KEYWORDS:

• Autism
• inclusive provision
• parent partnership
• teaching assistants
• SENCOs' views

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Janice Wearmouth http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3935-6808

Cathal Butler http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9429-545X