Bolton Data for Inclusion
The
Action Research Centre for Inclusion
(Sponsored
by: The Barrow Cadbury Trust)
at
Bolton Institute of Higher Education.
Data No 5 :
March 1997
Author(s) :
John Kenworthy
Title :
Beyond Credit: The Funding of Segregated Education
Abstract :
A summary of a family’s struggle to find school places for their three children when returning to the North West of England.
A family from the
future return by time travel to the North West of England in the year 1997.
The parents are historical researchers and have two years to gather
information about attitudes, customs and practices.
Having found a place to live, their next task is to find school places
for their three children. They
encounter a problem which baffles them. One
of their children who has always needed considerable educational support is
refused a place in their local school. The
Education people tell them the child needs to be educated in a special place; a
school apart from their other children and miles away from where they have
chosen to live. Nothing in their
experience has prepared them for this. How
can we begin to explain to them the practice of segregation?
Is there any clear rationale to it or is the practice simply an
unchallenged legacy from the days of large scale segregation in medical
institutions?
This study looks at
some of the available data on segregated education and the way it is funded in
the North West of England. Every
year, each LEA. is required to publish a Budget Statement, also known as a
"Section 42" Statement. This
details the Authority's spending on Primary, Secondary and Special Schools
including the budget share and pupil numbers for each school.
All 17 Authorities
were approached and 14 returned Budget Statements for the current school year.
It is hoped that data from the remaining three LEA's can be included in
the final report, to be published at the end of January.
What can time
travellers learn about segregation from this information?
1.
Authorities don't agree on how many children need segregated education
How likely your
child is to be segregated depends on where you live. For instance, in one area of Greater Manchester a child
living in one Authority at one end of a street is three times more likely to be
sent to a segregated school as a child living at the other end of the street.
2.
The size of the Authority has no bearing on the percentage of children it
segregates.
Manchester, despite
having a much smaller population of 71,000 segregates at twice the rate of
Lancashire with a population of 210,000. On
the other hand Bury with 28,000 school children segregates 280 whereas Knowsley
also with 28,000 segregates 630.
3.
There is no clear relationship across the Authorities between segregation
and "special need".
Comparing the
percentage of children segregated to the percentage with "Statements of
Special Need" across the Authorities does not reveal any clear
relationship. For instance, Salford
segregates about 1.5% of children and statements 2.2%.
St Helen which also segregates 1.5% children statements 5% of children.
Alternatively, Wigan segregates 2.2% and Lancashire segregates 1.4%
although both Authorities statement about 4% of children.
*Information on Statements
provided by Dept. Education S.E.N.2 Returns (1996)
4.
Variations in the rate of segregation between Authorities could only be related
to the number of special
school provided.
The only factor
clearly related to rate of segregation across the Authorities is the number of
special schools provided, relative to the total school population.
5.
Segregated education is a relatively expensive option.
An Authority’s
total allocation of money to a pupil in segregated education is five to seven
times the average costs for all pupils. Assuming
this money could be transferred with a child into the mainstream how much
support would this buy.
6.
Segregated school systems are significantly more expensive to administer
and service than mainstream school systems.
Mainstream schools
across all the Authorities surveyed receive an average 75%* of the total
spending on mainstream education. Segregated
schools across all the Authorities surveyed receive only 63%* of the total
allocation for segregated education.
*ASB
as percent of GSB
7.
The costs of segregated education not only increase but accelerate with
increasing segregation.
There was a trend of
accelerating costs across the Authorities related to increasing rates of
segregation.
Perhaps the time
travellers would decide that a child's "need" for segregated education
is determined more by an Authority's need to justify the existence of its
segregated schools than any other factor. They
may well conclude that the segregated system needs their child more than she
needs it.
They could of course
decide to keep their child out of school for the two years of their stay or they
could return immediately to their own, more enlightened times.
Sadly, time travel is not an option for the rest of us but political and social change can be.
Further information is available from:
Karen Barton (k.barton@bolton.ac.uk)
Bolton Institute
Chadwick Street
Bolton, BL2 1JW
England