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More recently alternative perspectives have been presented in which
disabilities are acknowledged and support and adaptations provided.
The presence of disabled children who experience difficulties with the
organisational arrangements of the school is seen as an opportunity
to consider and address limitations in current provision. In this sense
'special educational needs' can be seen as a vehicle for whole school
improvement (Sebba and Sachdev, 1997).
A few special 'education with treatment' schools remain. However, a
number of factors are now serving to promote more formal
structures of support to disabled children and enabling preparation
for further education, training or occupational life in an
unprecedented way, including:
• the inclusion of many disabled children within ordinary schools
and greater accessibility of locally based special schools;
• the requirement for joint assessment by HSS and Education and
Library Boards of children who have a statement of special
educational need; and
• the impending introduction of direct payments to young people
aged 16 and 17 years.
One of the newer challenges for both education and social services is
to ensure that all disabled children have access to high quality preschool
and nursery provision from which they have been excluded in
the past. Such initiatives are now being developed with a view to
mainstreaming disabled children within ordinary pre-school provision.
The development of health services for disabled children
The PPRU study, 'Disabled Children in Northern Ireland' (PPRU, 1995)
demonstrated that health services provide the core services for
disabled children. Whilst 75 per cent of the children surveyed were in
regular contact with medical consultants, only 13 per cent were
receiving social care services at home and of these, over a quarter, 28
per cent reported that they were not visited by a social worker.
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