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Opportunities for children to be involved in the decisions made about them is a part of current statutory educational legislation. Person‐centred planning (PCP) has been proposed as an appropriate method of meeting statutory requirements. However, there is a dearth of research into its application within education. The paper describes a systematic literature review of current research into PCP within education for pupils with SEMH and the associated outcomes. PCP appears to be an effective way of engaging children, young people and their families but research within education is currently limited and methodologically weak. More rigorous research is needed into PCP and its effectiveness and should include the use of standardised and/or observable measures, more varied ranges of contexts and participants, and longitudinal and child‐led designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Those who work in education strive to create more inclusive environments in school but are often stymied in their efforts by challenges coming from many and varied directions. Politicians, for example, exhort us to be more inclusive but create conditions that encourage separation and exclusion, and inclusive education's history in special education means that the default response of the system around special education is to diagnose, treat and manage separately. That legacy continues to have its effects. Looking both at the history of the management of 'special needs' and at the continuing rise in numbers of marginalised, separated and excluded youngsters, we suggest that some fundamental shifts are necessary in the way that we think about and research into difficulty at school if we are to move beyond Groundhog Day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]