Explain The Role Of Equality, Diversity And Inclusion In Work With Children And Young People

page 5 - 1.2 - Describe the importance of supporting the rights of all children and young people to participation and equal rights.

Anyone providing services for children with special needs – health, education or social service departments, as well as voluntary organisations – must act within the legal framework. Legislation can change at any time and all health, education and social care practitioners, also Early Years workers, should be alert to new Acts and Regulations. There have been many changes to legislation in the UK over recent years which have affected this and a gradual increase in entitlements for these pupils.

The special educational needs (SEN) team are supported by a very active group who make sure that they provide a range of activities to meet the needs of our ever growing community of special schools, as well as colleagues in mainstream primary and secondary schools. Their aim is to work together to ensure good practice to promote effective approaches to enhance the students learning with Special educational needs.

All these laws influence the rights of individuals. Every early years, childcare and educational organisation needs to have policies and practices that put these laws into action:

SEN Code of Practice 2001- The SEN code of practice 2001 provides a clear framework for identifying, assessing and meeting pupils' special educational needs.

The convention on the rights of the child 1989- The Convention's objective is to protect children from discrimination, neglect and abuse. It is the principal children's treaty, covering a full range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. It grants rights for children in peacetime as well as during armed conflict, and provides for the implementation of those rights. It can promote anti-discriminatory practice by giving children protection and rights. It can also make sure that children will be given somewhere safe to be; not near any war zones and hazardous areas which could cause ill- health.

The United Nations convention on the rights of the child is to promote all aspects for the care, development and education of children, non discrimination on the grounds of gender, religion, disability, language, ethnic/social origin, civil and political rights, economic, social, cultural and protective rights.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is there for the rights of children should allow children priority

The children act 1989 has influenced some settings by bringing together several sets of guidance and provided the foundation for many of the standards practitioners sustain and maintain when working with children. The act requires that settings work together in the best interests of the child and form partnerships with parents or carers. It requires settings to have appropriate adult to child ratios and policies and procedures on child protection. This act has had an influence in all areas of practice from planning a curriculum and record keeping. The every child matters framework has

The United Nations Convention on the rights of a child (1989) is a treaty that sets out the rights and freedoms of all children in a set of 54 articles.

On October 1st 2010, the Equality Act came into force. This consolidated and strengthened the previous equality laws. This act prevents children and their families from being discriminated, victimised or harassed because of their age, sex, race, religion or disability. Through this act each child, whether already in the setting, or applying through admissions, will be treated in a fair and equal way, with aims for all children to have reasonable provisions to allow them to access all educational areas. Although a school is not expected to make adjustments that are not reasonable, they are expected to make general adjustments, reasonably planned within the school’s approach to planning for SEN children. The Equality Act 2010 outlines four definitions of discrimination, direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, discrimination arising from a disability and harassment and victimisation. This allows school settings to have clearer expectations and implement them. The Equality Act 2010 and the Discrimination Disability Act (DDA) (2005) both aim to ensure each and every child has access to a broad and balanced academic and social curriculum. Following this code of practice in a school, confirms that all members of staff provide the same high-quality teaching to children, as well as displaying professional behaviour.

1.1 – Outline the legal requirements of disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs.

All schools are required to produce a Disability Equality Scheme (DES) that sets out ways to promote equality opportunity, positive attitudes towards pupils, staff and others with disabilities.

It is important here to clearly distinguish between the terms of integration and inclusion as they are often interchanged (Thompson, 2002). Ainscow (1995) suggests that integration is about making a limited number of additional arrangements for individual pupils with SEN in schools which themselves change little overall, reflecting Warnock’s report. On the other hand, inclusion implies the introduction of a set of changes through which schools restructure themselves so as to be able to embrace all children. Integration involves the school in a process of assimilation where the onus is on the assimilating individual (whether a pupil with SEN or a pupil with a different cultural and linguistic background) to make changes so that they can 'fit in'. By contrast inclusion involves the school in a process of accommodation where the onus is on the school to change, adapting curricula, methods, materials and procedures so that it becomes more responsive. The creation of an inclusive school system certainly appears to harbour numerous challenges including: changing of staff attitudes; restructuring of the physical

The government are committed to developing an education service that provides equality of opportunity and high achievement for all children (Gov.uk, 2018). The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (SEN) plays a vital role promoting this commitment. This code of practice now endorses a uniformity approach to meeting children’s special educational needs and places the rights of children with special educational needs at the heart of the process, allowing them to be heard and to take part in decisions about their education (Gov.uk, 2018). The old SEN Code of Practice is for any children that come under the needs for extra help while in a school setting and have been assessed, any children that are assessed now will come under the new SEND Code of Practice 2018 (Gov.uk, 2018). A child or young person has a special educational need or disability (SEND) if he or she has a learning difficulty, which calls for special provision to be made for him or her.