Alliance for Inclusive Education

Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE)

The Alliance for Inclusive Education is national information sharing and campaigning network, led by disabled people with parents, teachers and educationalists as allies. We are the only organisation, run by disabled people, that focuses on campaigning and policy development work on education issues. We see our role as bringing together all the ‘stakeholders’ under the leadership of disabled people, to challenge, inform, and campaign for ‘social justice’ and equality for all those disabled learners who have been disadvantaged and marginalised by the current education system.

Since 1990 the Alliance has campaigned for the right of all disabled learners to be included in mainstream education.  The Alliance led the campaign for Special Educational Needs (SEN) legislation that removed many of the barriers to inclusion and it is through the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 that the vast majority of disabled learners are now being educated in their local mainstream school alongside their siblings, friends and peers.  

The Alliance believes that inclusion is about everyone and what we mean is that whilst it might benefit some more than others in the short term. There is no doubt that all of us benefit from meeting and making friends with people from a  range of diverse backgrounds and experiences.

This was the reason that a group of disabled and non disabled parents of disabled children came together in 1992 to set up the Alliance for Inclusive Education.

Those parents wanted a different future for their young people a future where they would feel a valued and equal part of their families and of their communities.

Some of ALLFIE’s current activities and achievements include:

Our Main Activities:

• The “We Know Inclusion Works” Campaign – an overarching campaign to gather human stories of inclusion. This has helped us create a growing body of evidence in support of inclusive education and the benefits it brings to society as a whole.
• We run training events for trainers of education support staff using our “Inclusion Assistant” training pack. The pack was designed with disabled young people and is based on the Social Model of Disability.
• We publish a termly magazine called “Inclusion Now” with partners from the UK inclusion movement. The magazine includes good practice on inclusion, opinion pieces, and personal stories.
• We publish monthly Campaign and Policy Briefings to local groups in their own campaigning work.
• The Alliance is a lead member of the UN Convention Campaign Coalition, which is working to ensure that the UK Government fully ratifies the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Alliance is also a member of the stakeholder group to begin a plan of implementation of the UNCRPD.
• The Alliance campaigns for changes in the law and policy that will bring the end of segregation for all disabled people within the education system.