TreeHouse launched its new research report at the Liberal Democrat party conference

26 September 2008

TreeHouse launched its new research report on inclusive education for children with autism at the Liberal Democrat party conference on Sunday 14 September.

TreeHouse will be holding events at the Labour and Conservative party conferences in the coming weeks on the theme of inclusive education for children with special educational needs (SEN). The events will be held together with the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID)

With senior speakers from TreeHouse, the NUT, RNID and with MPs and Lords present, the Liberal Democrat fringe event saw lively and sometimes controversial discussions about the current education system and the state of education provisions for children with SEN.

Sasha Daly, Policy and Parliamentary Manager at TreeHouse, said:

We published our report, entitled ‘Improving Inclusion: Getting inclusive education right for children with autism’, to coincide with the party conferences. It highlights the inconsistency that exists in including children with autism in the educational system. The report also reveals that schools are often ‘too target focused’; do not ‘appropriately manage children’s behaviour’ and do ‘little to prevent bullying’. These issues stirred up a lot of interest at the Lib Dem event last week and we look forward to further debates at the Labour and Conservative events coming up.”

The fringe events at the Labour and Conservative party conferences look set to be just as vociferous. Shadow Children’s Minister Tim Loughton will be speaking at the Conservative event, and sharing a platform with the Acting General Secretary of the NUT. At Labour’s event, members of the Government will hear about the dissatisfaction with education provision for children with SEN along with TreeHouse’s recommendations for improving inclusion.

At the events TreeHouse are also showing a short film on inclusive practices at TreeHouse’s school in north London. The film follows the experiences of young people with autism as they attend placements at mainstream schools, go out in their local community and welcome pupils from a local primary school who come to TreeHouse to share play time with them.

Download the TreeHouse report entitled Improving Inclusion: Getting inclusive education

To find out more about these up and coming events visit the TreeHouse party conference page

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