Ms Teresa Griffin:

When we looked at the extended school year, as July provision was then known, we found that access to the scheme should be based on student need rather than a disability category. The research is very clear that all students, irrespective of special educational needs, regress over the long summer break and that students with complex needs not only regress more but take longer to recoup what they have lost. It is almost impossible to generalise but the important thing is that students who need additional support over the summer or access to a summer programme should get it. It should be based on their individual needs rather than a category of disability. We thought the categorisation of disability with regard to access to the extended school year was open to challenge on equity grounds because we could not find any evidence base to support access simply for children with autism-----