CSIE was set up on 28 June 1982 and earlier this week we celebrated our 30th birthday! To mark the occasion, we held an open day last Thursday, 28 June. We were thrilled to welcome a number of people who dropped in to find out more about our work and about inclusive education. We were especially delighted to see Mark Vaughan, founder of CSIE in 1982 and director until 2007, who paid us a surprise visit.

Originally set up in London as Centre for Studies on Integration in Education, CSIE was formed in direct response to the 1981 Education Act and the general duty for children identified as having “special educational needs” to be educated in mainstream schools. CSIE moved to Bristol in 1994 and changed its name to Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education in 1995. As the meaning of “inclusive education” has changed over the years, so CSIE’s remit has expanded to embrace all those at risk of discrimination. Our strategy paper clarifies that our work currently focuses on two key priorities: disability equality and LGBT equality (LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender).

CSIE has been at the forefront of developments in inclusive education nationally and internationally for 30 years. Our work is still needed because many schools and other educational settings still operate in ways that leave children, young people or adults feeling marginalised or excluded. CSIE provides training, information and resources that help to bridge the gaps between equality legislation and current practice. Recent successes include the collaborative production of a short film to tackle homophobic bullying, which is currently being used in the training of Ofsted inspectors.

Some of our other most significant achievements include:

• Influencing international legislation and national policy. CSIE was extensively involved in drafting Article 24 (Education) of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Two CSIE representatives contributed to the negotiations (in New York and online) of the Ad Hoc Committee responsible for writing Article 24. Following signing of the Convention, CSIE was actively involved in lobbying for full ratification, in collaboration with other organizations; in direct response to these lobbying efforts, the then government stated in an interpretive declaration its commitment to “continuing to develop an inclusive system where parents of disabled children have increasing access to mainstream schools and staff, which have the capacity to meet the needs of disabled children.” For more information see our campaigns pages.

• Providing information which empowers others to influence policy and change behaviour more widely. CSIE’s commitment to the regular reporting of local authorities’ school placement trends is one example of this. By making comparative information available, Trends reports have provided clear evidence of the need to transform current practice in some areas. A number of professionals still think that mainstream schooling is not possible for some children, and advise parents accordingly. By providing evidence to the contrary, this work can trouble, and expand, people’s perceptions of what can be done. This, in turn, can lead to more consistent choices being made available to parents in the future. CSIE has recently been awarded a grant from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to research and publish information on current local authority school placement trends. We expect the report to be available in spring 2013.

• Producing resources to support inclusive school development, for example the Index for Inclusion: developing learning and participation in schools (Booth and Ainscow 2011, 3rd edition). This is an accessible, flexible and practical resource for principled school development. The Index encourages staff, children and young people, families and communities to work together in reviewing all aspects of school cultures, policies and practices, in order to identify, and respond to, any barriers to learning or participation. When it was first published, the Index put forward innovative thinking and pioneered new terminology which has subsequently been widely adopted and used, including in government documents (for example, the notion of barriers to learning and participation was introduced in the 1st edition of the Index in 2000.) The 2nd edition has been translated into 40 languages and is in use in more countries throughout the world. Following the success of the pilot project using the draft materials of the 3rd edition, Norfolk County Council have invested in the revised index for inclusion and will be rolling out the index as a tool for improvement across its schools and settings. It is anticipated that other local authorities nationally and internationally will make use of the Index in similar ways.

In the past year CSIE has ventured into the world of social media and now provides a vibrant information exchange through facebook and twitter. We look forward to welcoming more supporters of inclusion in these virtual spaces.