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Inclusive education for all children, starting at early years, has been recognised by UNESCO (2025) to be of global importance in order ‘to leave no one behind’.

Currently within England, the number of students with special educational needs (SEN) in schools is rising each year with the most recent data revealing that 18 per cent of students have SEN (DfE, 2025) while autism is the most common primary need (House of Commons Library, 2025a).

Amid this, mainstream reception teachers, who work with children entering school at the ages of four and five, are under enormous pressure to follow the early years foundation stage (EYFS) which focuses on ‘readiness’, ‘progress’ and ‘assessment’. What’s more, each pupil must complete the statutory (RBA) within their first six weeks of school. This was introduced in 2021 as a fairer measure of numeracy and literacy; however, educators have argued this is one of many factors which has subsequently meant less time for teachers to spend with children with SEN (see Morgan, 2024).

‘The RBA was introduced in 2021 as a fairer measure of numeracy and literacy; however, educators have argued this is one of many factors which has subsequently meant less time for teachers to spend with children with special educational needs.’

This framework, alongside the , which teachers have been following for the past 10 years, uses the term ‘must’ to create strong entitlements for children with SEN. However, teachers have been left stranded in the ambiguity around how in practice these entitlements should be achieved. The 2025 ScopeSEND, highlighted the critical role of inclusive, positive language to allow policy to create greater understanding of supporting students with SEN and nurturing a deeper sense of belonging for them.

What’s the impact?

While the warned of a £1bn deficit for the local authority, still in 2024, the government was not proposing any changes (House of Commons Library, 2025b). Now, the current government has discussed its plan for a phased transition process over the next two years to reform the SEND system by 2027–28. This reform could result in significant changes to mainstream schools including a restriction of education health care plans to special schools which are already full and will allow local authorities to continue their deficits for the next three years.

The past decade has left mainstream schools in crisis without appropriate budgeting. And yet, amid all of this, reception teachers, with growing numbers of SEN students, are being instructed to create a fast-paced learning environment without the full training of strategies that specialist teachers have to appropriately support children with autism.

Inviting autistic children to the conversation

It is widely acknowledged within special schools that children with autism benefit from a approach and using . This means viewing communication as a fundamental human right while using a holistic approach supported with appropriate resources such as Voice Output Communication Aids and communication boards. However, mainstream senior leaders do not appear to be implementing these approaches fully to support the growing number of autistic pupils in their schools in comparison to special schools who have individualised communication policies (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Total communication procedure

Source: New Siblands School. (2025). Total communication procedure.

In order to challenge what is often the line of least resistance for mainstream educators due to competing educational demands, examined how total communication could be creatively used to advocate for autistic children with limited verbal communication to express what made them happy in their mainstream reception classroom. They were given an iPad for self-led photography (see figure 2) and an additional communication board (see figure 3).

Figure 2: Photovoice visual aid

Figure 3: Communication board used within the photovoice project

When holding the iPad to explore their world, both children’s imaginative play and vocabulary increased. One child used the camera as her viewing screen. She would move the iPad all around the room and look through it carefully deciding where to take her photograph. She would take it, look at it, show me while smiling and then click back to take her next photo. The second child participated with two puppets on his hands and attempted to take the photographs with his nose.

Both students could clearly state what they did and did not wish to photograph. There was a held assumption prior to the project that one child did not understand emotions and yet during their self-led photography they chose to take countless photos of other children who they described as ‘friends’ who ‘were happy’.

Through their photographs the children demonstrated a want to communicate with trusted adults or friends, hold meaningful objects, and have access to outdoor and self-chosen quieter spaces. Listening to these students allowed me to adapt my teaching to create a further sense of belonging for all students in their class environment.

Hope for change

Professional conversations in England appear dominated by deep-rooted funding concerns but rarely invite children with autism to contribute to the policies and the learning that impacts them directly. What would happen if the SEN reform used a child-centred approach to create the changes that directly impact these often-marginalised students? Could special schools, mainstream and additional stakeholders be working in closer partnership to foster a more holistic approach to pupil voice? Could photovoice, a globally acknowledged methodology, be applied creatively to educational environments beyond England to continue to support autistic pupil’s sense of belonging?

References

Department for Education [DfE]. (2025). Special educational needs in England: Academic year 2024/25.

House of Commons Library. (2025a). Autism policy and services: Education.  

House of Commons Library. (2025b). Special educational needs: Support in England.

Morgan, J. (2024, March 26). Reception baseline: Wrong time, wrong data, wrong idea? TES Magazine.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO]. (2025). Leave no one behind: fostering rights, inclusion and non-discrimination.