You may have seen a Government pronouncement that many of the 1.7 million children currently identified as having a special educational need are wrongly diagnosed in the press recently writes Anne Hollinshead of Wolverhampton University.

Well, the argument is that if teachers were better trained, the current three level ‘Statements’ and ‘School Action’ systems were scrapped and schools offered more pastoral care then this number would be greatly reduced and opportunities for all children improved.

Well, I’ve just read the Government’s recently released Green paper on Special Educational Needs (SEN): Support & Aspiration: A New Approach to Special Educational Needs & Disability; and it’s got me a little worried:

• About how the identification of SEN can be improved to ensure diagnosis at the earliest possible stage?
• About the impact on local authority SEN provision given the proposals for private and third sector providers to be offered to parents via personal budgets.
• About the changes to legal rights of parents to choose inclusive or special school provision for their child.
• About whether the proposals deal effectively with the extension of the school leaving age to 18.

But it also got me thinking about my own (now grown up) children’s experience of support and aspiration – and up popped Mrs Jones.

Mrs Jones, a larger than life primary teacher, with an equally large bosom to which she regularly clasped children when they had done well, was a matriarch who commanded respect as she strode through the school like a ship in full sail, the elasticated waistband on her skirt pulled up high, allowing a shudderingly awful glimpse of pop-socks below.

Mrs Jones was a magician, philosopher and physician all rolled into one.

As a magician, she could make artifacts from almost anything, and at the Christmas Fayre (with a ‘y’) could magically produce ‘mulled wine’ from Ribena, Sanatogen tonic wine and a pair of old socks.

And of course, as a primary school teacher, she had had special lessons on how, with just the single application of a damp paper towel, to cure everything from skinned knees to broken arms.

What made her really special though was that she understood ALL of her special children’s needs, adding to their development both academically and socially.

Mrs Joneses up and down the country develop such a range of skills that we couldn’t even begin to imagine how to bottle and teach them.

Skills such as recognising exactly what support to offer to which child at exactly the right time, when to give parents a repost and when to give a reassuring hug to a worried mother.

Mrs Joneses respect the fact that all children are unique individuals and do their best to cater for each child’s specific requirements – without the need for legislation.

It was at this point that I realised the Government has missed a trick.

Instead of paying out for the Salt Report, the Lamb Inquiry, all-party parliamentary groups, involving private providers and buying new online teacher-training materials, all they needed to have done was herd all the country’s Mrs Joneses into a room together.

I bet they could have sorted out the whole issue with nothing more than a wet paper towel and a bit of common sense.

And I bet that if Mrs Jones was leading this change, we wouldn’t be so worried about what the future holds for approximately half of the 1.7 million children who under the new system will no longer have a ‘special need’.

Anne Hollinshead is Head of Special Needs and Inclusion Studies at the University of Wolverhampton’s School of Education.

Image by Phil Dowsing/Flickr