HMIE and Inclusion
Why Inclusion?
By ‘inclusion’ we mean taking positive action and intervening in order to enable achievement for all by building and fulfilling the potential of every child, pupil, young person and adult. Achievement is defined in terms of the totality of outcomes described by Curriculum for Excellence, along with other out-of-school experiences. In order to bring this about, we need to:
- acknowledge, address, affirm and embrace social and cultural diversity;
- enable access and participation of all individual learners and groups of learners by means of appropriate pathways for progression; and
- focus on and address the needs of all learners, remove or reduce any barriers and promote engagement and involvement so that learning is personalised and learners are enabled to meet their potential.
‘Inclusion’ is particularly important in the context of lifelong learning, as not only does it relate to engagement and involvement in specific activities and experiences at the current time, it also enables future and continuing participation and involvement in the community, and personal development and empowerment.
Similar ideas are reflected in related terms like 'equality' and 'equity'
HMIE has a key role in ensuring inclusion by promoting equality and fairness for all learners. It does this by making sure that establishments and services are held accountable to stakeholders, and by driving improvement and building capacity, through:
- evaluating the extent to which education and service providers bring about inclusion and equity in education;
- evaluating how well establishments and services meet the needs of all learners;
- evaluating the outcomes of education for all learners;
- collecting and promoting best practice (see the link to Good Practice to the right of this page); and
- ensuring that in our own actions, we demonstrate and model equitable and inclusive approaches.
For more detail on HMIE’s findings on inclusion, including examples of best practice, click here.
HMIE’s inclusion work is managed from our Inverness office – you can contact us at hmi.inverness@hmie.gsi.gov.uk.