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Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) has been regarded as a separate diagnostic category by some, while others see it as part of other diagnoses, such as Autism. This study contributes to this debate, by providing a conciliatory stance, aligned with the neurodiversity paradigm. A scoping literature review on Pathological Demand Avoidance (and related terms) has been conducted to systematically identify the everyday life functioning features mentioned in the empirical research as key for children with PDA, using the taxonomy of the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF). Results show a significant overlap of key functioning features between children with PDA and Autistic children, as well as with children with other diagnoses such as ADHD. We argue that by adopting a neurodiversity stance, which the ICF can help promote, the debate around what constitutes PDA and what constitutes Autism becomes less relevant. It is more important to focus on the specific and identified everyday life participation issues that may, at certain points in time, become overwhelming for Autistic children (with or without PDA) and to children with PDA (with or without co-existing diagnoses).

The evaluation of schools and educational settings has been the focus of scholarly debate for decades, with systems around the world varying to a certain extent on the continuum between high stakes (with schools being heavily accountable for outcomes) and low stakes approaches. In England, an independent high-stakes system is in place, with the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) as the responsible body for conducting evaluations of all educational settings. However, considerable controversy has surrounded the efficacy of Ofsted’s inspections, with lack of transparency regarding individual judgements by inspectors often being highlighted. Given the widely recognised importance of high-quality early education for the future of children and economies, evaluation of early years settings is key. This study examines and identifies patterns in Ofsted inspection reports for early years settings in England, helping to distinguish between Outstanding-rated settings and others, from a potentially unconscious perspective, through in-depth document analysis of Ofsted reports. Children’s progress reports were also analysed against Ofsted ratings, the specific content of the Ofsted reports and deprivation levels of the postcode. Results show a very limited link between children’s scores in progress checks and official Ofsted ratings of the settings, and that it is possible to identify a group of variables that most clearly distinguish Outstanding-rated nurseries from others. Implications for future practice and research are discussed considering potential challenges and opportunities of the current inspection system versus a more self-evaluative system mirroring that of other nations.

Objective: In recent years, school belonging has been associated with optimal general health and wellbeing and has been targeted in mental health promotion programs in schools. However, less attention has been paid to the relationship between school belonging and loneliness, especially during primary school years. This study aimed to first analyse the relationship between socioemotional wellbeing, school belonging and loneliness during primary school years, and secondly, according to the belonginess hypothesis, to examine the role of school belonging as a mediator of the relationship between socioemotional wellbeing and loneliness. \ud Methods: Children (N = 517) of primary school age were recruited from three schools in Greater London to participate in a mental health screening, which involved the completion of standardized self-reported scales for sense of school belonging, loneliness and socioemotional wellbeing. \ud Results: Multinomial logistic regression analysis shows that how that although correlated, socioemotional wellbeing does not predict loneliness. However, in line with belonginess hypothesis, school belonging partially mediated the relationship between socioemotional wellbeing and loneliness in primary school age children. \ud Conclusions: Our findings provide novel data concerning the key role of school belonging in shaping the relationship socioemotional wellbeing and loneliness in primary school years. This has implications for practitioners working to promote health and wellbeing in schools.

Several studies on the impact of Covid-19 on children’s wellbeing have been published, including for those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. However, limited evidence is available on who these children may be, their socioeconomic background, age, gender or type of school attended. This study examines the role of socio-demographic characteristics on the experiences of Autistic Children, compared to non-Autistic children, to assess the detrimental impact of the pandemic, but also potential silver linings. Primary-school aged Autistic children were more likely to mention a silver lining (for mental health), as well as younger non-Autistic children from more affluent backgrounds. Similar effects were observed for older non-Autistic boys with special needs attending mainstream settings (regarding physical health).

Portraying the voices of children with complex genetic neurodevelopmental disorders about their health, care and education needs in their statutory documents is a challenging task. This study examined the ways by which the perspectives of children diagnosed with Down Syndrome (DS) and Williams Syndrome (WS) are portrayed in their statutory documents, namely the Education Health and Care plans, in England. Using the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health for Children and Youth, we analysed the content of Section A of the Education Health and Care plans of 52 children and young people with WS and DS, between 5 and 26 years of age. A minority of statutory documents (7.7 %) explicitly reported the children's voices, and many failed to document how the children's voices were accessed. Only a few specific or evidence-based tools to access their voices were reported. Most statutory documents portrayed parental rather than children's voices concerning aspects of their health, care, and education. This study highlights the need to establish the use of evidence-based tools for ascertaining the voices of children with complex neurodevelopmental disorders and including them in decision making about their health, care and education needs.

Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their families are likely to be significantly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic at various levels, particularly given the implementation of school closures during national lockdowns. This study employed a survey design to assess parental perspectives on the impact of school closures and of returning to school in England, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Eighty-three parents of children and young people with various types of need responded to the survey between September and December 2020. The survey included multiple choice questions and open-ended questions for further in-depth examination of parental perspectives. Results show that: the majority of parents reported that school closures had a detrimental effect on their children’s mental health (particularly those from the most deprived neighbourhoods) and on their own mental and physical health (particularly for ethnically diverse parents and for those whose children attend specialized settings);returning to school was considered to have a positive impact on children’s mental and physical health for the vast majority of parents, despite fearing exposure to the virus;many parents have reported that their children were calmer and happier at home during school closures and became more anxious and stressed upon returning to school. The role of cumulative risk in these children and families, as well as the role of schools as key support agents for the most vulnerable are discussed with implications for future research and policy. © Copyright © 2021 Castro-Kemp and Mahmud.

Background:\ud It is widely accepted that early childhood intervention for children with disabilities should address the assessment-intervention cycle holistically. Documenting both assessment and intervention is important to support provision effectively. In England, the official document that describes needs and provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities is the Education Health and Care plan. This document requires inter-professional collaboration and a focus on children’s holistic participation, rather than diagnosis.\ud \ud Aim:\ud To examine the consistency between provision, outcomes and needs of young children with disabilities in England, as described in their Education Health and Care plans.\ud \ud Methods:\ud The plans of 68 young children were examined and the relationships between documented needs, outcomes and provision actions analysed.\ud \ud Results:\ud provision is more related to children’s individual needs, than to their diagnoses, when needs are described in sufficient detail; interdisciplinarity leads to higher quality documentation of provision and outcomes. However, more needs to be done to support professionals in developing higher quality needs descriptions and interdisciplinary collaborations.\ud \ud Implications:\ud Training and interdisciplinarity with a common language between professionals have the potential to improve currently observed challenges regarding consistency between provision, needs and outcomes.

A dual approach to mental health in schools has been widely defended, where the assessment of psychological distress and the examination of strengths/well-being are two separate continua. In line with a well-being approach, school belonging has been referenced as an important indicator of mental health in children. This study explored the predictive role of school sense of belonging alongside other demographic variables (gender, main language spoken at home, and socio-economic status of postcode) on the socio-emotional health profiles of primary school children in England. Children (N = 522) were recruited from three primary schools in Greater London. A survey including measures of school belonging and socio-emotional health was administered to all children. Results showed that it is possible to identify groups of students at primary school level based on socio-emotional health ratings on gratitude, zest, optimism, and perseverance. School sense of membership, as measured by the psychological sense of school membership primary (PSSM-P), was the best predictor of group membership and, together with socio-economic status, explains 37% of the variance in socio-emotional health profiles. Belonging starts affecting well-being and socio-emotional health as early as in primary school, hence the importance of universal screening and early preventive actions to promote well-being in this age range. The study provides evidence supporting the use of the abbreviated (PSSM-P) in predicting socio-emotional health profiles, with potential to complement distress-based measures.

It is widely recognised that cross-sector partnerships are key to improve outcomes for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). However, evidence-based strategies fostering these partnerships have not been systematically identified, and terms designating different forms of collaboration are used interchangeably. This study aims to contribute to systematically identify practices for cross-sector collaboration for children with SEND, critically positioning these within collaborative traditions (multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity). A scoping review of the international literature of the past 10 years was conducted, following Arksey and O’Malley’s methodology and considering type of SEND studied, country of origin, approach to collaboration portrayed and study design. Only papers describing empirical applications of collaborative strategies were included in the final review (n = 8). Practices identified ranged from multidisciplinary to transdisciplinary and included: partnerships between higher education and healthcare organisations, implementation of school clinics, schools as interdisciplinary hubs, management’s own partnerships and networks, assessment in person with the whole team, videoconferencing, periodic meetings with key professionals, informal on-site discussions and transdisciplinary play-based assessment. Implications for practice are considered, in particular the need to examine how these strategies are implemented in a variety of settings and the need to develop the skills that elicit transdisciplinary work.

In England, the Children and Families Act 2014 has been regarded as the most radical change in the Special Educational Needs and Disability provision for decades. Building on the recommendations of the Warnock report and subsequent 1981 Education Act, the 2014 Act introduced the Education Health and Care plans to replace the Statements of Special Educational Needs, with the view to promote holistic and participation-focused provision. This study aimed to examine and compare the quality of the Education Health and Care plans developed in some of the most deprived and some of the most affluent regions in England, with a particular focus on young children, given the well documented instrumental role of early childhood intervention. The Education Health and Care plans of 71 children aged 4 to 8 years old were gathered and a systematic analysis of the needs and outcomes reported in those plans was conducted. Results show that the pattern of needs is similar across diagnostic categories, with the exception of mobility needs. However, more affluent local authorities provide more detailed descriptions of certain types of needs (related to mental functions and sensory functions) and higher quality outcomes. Special settings also present more detailed descriptions of some needs than mainstream settings, as well as higher quality outcomes. The higher the number of reported mental functions needs (related to emotional regulation), the higher the quality of the outcomes written for those children. However, the quality of the outcomes is markedly low across plans, local authorities and settings. These results show that the status quo of the Special Educational Needs and Disability policy and provision is still characterised by marked social inequality and specialised work-force disparities, 40 years on from the first Warnock report and the commitment to full inclusion.