7. All Change for Special Education

Early in 1974, Mary Warnock was asked by Margaret Thatcher, then Secretary of State for Education, to chair a Committee of Enquiry into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People, later to be renamed children with special needs. The author was a member of this committee. Mary gave a vivid description of the members of the committee in Nature and Mortality (2003). Accompanied by the author, Mary visited the East Coast of the United States to learn about special education there. The working of the committee and Mary’s style of chairmanship are described. The report of the committee was published in March 1978 with the title Special Educational Needs. The main recommendations, some of which were radical and innovative, are described. There should be more integration between special and mainstream schools. The concept of a continuum of special needs was introduced. Children’s educational needs should be protected by statements made by multi-disciplinary teams. Henceforth, parents were to be seen as partners. The report was widely welcomed and legislation following its recommendations was rapidly enacted, but, crucially, no extra funding was made available. The report was later attacked on the inaccurate charge that it recommended special schools should be abolished. Mary recanted unnecessarily as the report explicitly saw a continuing role for special schools. The fortieth anniversary of the publication of the report in 2018 was an occasion for recognition of the enduring national and international impact of the report’s recommendations.