Richard Garner: A balance has to be struck for each child

Dame Mary Warnock has been a passionate advocate of unlocking the doors of mainstream education to pupils with disabilities.

As the author of the report 25 years ago that allowed barriers to be brought down, she deserves to be listened to when she says the time has now come for a major rethink.

The Government is committed to inclusion, wanting as many children as possible to be educated in a mainstream school. According to Dame Mary, inclusion has become something of a "mantra" for New Labour.

An unfortunate consequence of this noble zeal, fired by David Blunkett when he was Secretary of State for Education because of the appalling treatment he received at a boarding school for the blind, is that local education authorities have sometimes seized upon it to close down costly special schools simply to save money.

This has forced some children into mainstream schools who will not be able to benefit from such an education.

The truth of the matter is that there were many children locked away in special schools who were denied the chance to benefit from mainstream schooling.

Equally, there are, as Dame Mary says, children who are too "fragile" to survive in a mainstream school and who would find a large secondary school a "bewildering environment".

A balance has to be struck as to where to draw the line and it can only be done on individual assessments of children's needs.

Therefore, it is right that the Government should seek to ensure mainstream schools are adapted so they offer a physical environment in which children with disabilities - such as wheelchair-users, for instance - can flourish. It is also wrong, though, that any authority should close down its special needs schools and insist that all its pupils - whatever their needs - are taught in mainstream schools.

It does not necessarily have to be the case that, if a child is taught in a special school, he or she should be cocooned in that environment to the exclusion of having any contact with pupils at mainstream schools - or the reverse. Links between the two sectors should be encouraged. This was not always the case in the 1970s, the era which produced Dame Mary's original report.

Dame Mary's call for a rethink on policy should force those in charge of policy decisions to make sure provision is maintained for those children who are more likely to thrive and achieve in a special school setting.