Ms Jennifer Doran:

As regards the comment about special classes versus mainstream classes, we did a lot of research into what the evidence tells us as to whether outcomes are better in one setting than another. The first thing we found was that there was a dearth of research to inform and to answer those questions as to what we might have expected. Out of the 400 studies over 20 years that we looked at, only 43 were strong and robust enough for us to draw any sort of interpretation or to include them, and some of those questions were answered in a limited way. For example, we found three studies internationally which were very robust and longitudinal, with large sample sizes, which suggested that those who were in mainstream classes, as opposed to those who were in special classes, had better post-school outcomes and qualifications. They are only three studies and they are international. They were in Norway and the US, so we cannot interpret too much from them.

In some of the other studies we found, however, in six international studies across Europe and the US, we looked to see if there was any impact on students with special educational needs being in mainstream classes and on those without special educational needs in terms of their outcomes. What we found was that there was no impact, either positive or negative, on the academic outcomes of those children without special educational needs having students with special educational needs in their classroom. It is quite interesting that the research really does not tell us one way or another what is best. Very often, however, we find that parents make assumptions as to what will be best for their child in terms of perhaps more resources in a smaller classroom if it is in a special classroom, or in a special school, where they will have smaller pupil-teacher ratios as well. We talked about lack of evidence and knowledge around the impact and the outcomes for students in whatever setting it might be. The truth is that evidence is not available because we have not been tracking it at a national level to be able to say for sure. Each of these recommendations here, we suggest, are needed to try to improve the environment, particularly in mainstream schools, with regard to initial teacher education, continuing professional development for teachers, school environment, greater access to therapy resources and greater access to behavioural resources. Regardless of what the model looks like at the end of the day, these issues need to be addressed within mainstream schools across the settings, and our consultation groups recognise that and strongly articulated that during the consultation, regardless of whether they believed mainstream was the only way or whether they believed we should maintain special schools or special classes.