Inclusion is becoming more of an issue within educational systems in all countries, it is symptomatic of the ambiguity which surrounds issues related to inclusion and exclusion that the words themselves have recently acquired new and restrictive meanings. “Inclusion” is sometimes used to mean the absorption of pupils currently educated in special schools into mainstream schooling: “exclusion” sometimes means the sanction formerly known as suspension or expulsion. Throughout this document the words are used to refer to the much wider issue of access for all pupils to high quality education.

1. A universal system of education must serve the needs of all who use it: it must seek to offer fair and equitable opportunities for learning for all young people. Improving the proportion of success at the cost of excluding the unsuccessful (both actual and potential) is not an option for a universal system. So inclusion is fundamental to standards.

2. Inclusion can be achieved only through cooperative action by schools1 pursuing a common purpose shared with those who manage and regulate the service. All schools should recognize that they have a responsibility for inclusion, which extends beyond their own pupils. Governments should enact policies, which positively promote inclusion, should test all their policies (including those for school admissions, funding and accountability) against the acid test of inclusion implications and should abandon those which promote exclusion.
   
   A Universal Issue 

3. Our position statement leads us away from the preconception that inclusion is simply the antithesis of exclusion, and that exclusion is a “problem” focused on schools in areas of most widespread economic and social deprivation. Instead we begin from the principle that “The fundamental responsibility for education inclusion rests with everyone particularly the included”.

4. Of course parents will rightly seek the very best education for their children, and in consequence their own children’s inclusion will almost certainly be a more significant issue for them than the exclusion of others. So policies must seek actively to mitigate this rather than to exacerbate it.

5. None of us can regard inclusion as a minority issue, and nor should we regard its pursuit as achievable in terms of the provision of compensatory initiatives for the “deprived minority”. Educational inclusion is an issue which touches us all and which should permeate all aspects of educational policy.
    
   

   Policy Implications
    
   Pupils and the Community

   Admissions
   

6. Schools funded by the state must provide for everyone who chooses to use it. So there is a fundamental problem in its embracing a competitive admissions process driven by parental preference. If schools are encouraged to seek a competitive edge, it is hardly surprising that they may adopt admissions policies which seek to use the cachet of “exclusivity” as a selling point.

7. Education Service cannot promote inclusion if schools are driven to adopt admissions policies which are themselves exclusive. Many pupils are excluded even before they are allocated a school place. In some areas schools have taken the initiatives to work together to obviate this problem, this should be welcomed.

8. Inclusion is not served by the accountability process values only the achievements of the most able.