In the News

Ministers moved yesterday to scrap so-called sin bins for disruptive pupils and replace them with specialist centres run by private companies, charities and academies, in an admission that the policy has failed. Pupils will be removed from schools in larger numbers and at an earlier age in an attempt to prevent them being excluded later on, under the plans set out in a white paper yesterday.

A charity despairs at public ignorance about people with learning problems. Yet it’s the constant redefinition of disability that sows confusion.

An MP with a cleft palate will tomorrow introduce an amendment to the embryology bill that could reduce the number of late abortions on the grounds of disability. Nick Palmer, the Labour MP for Broxtowe, wants doctors and clinics to be forced to provide mothers with the most up-to-date scientific and medical information about a foetal disability.

Those classified with the disorder may have an extreme manifestation of common traits

Schools should appoint a member of staff to look after each pupil with disabilities or special educational needs, under new government guidelines aimed at stamping out bullying issued today.

Schools in England are being advised on how to stop the bullying of children with special needs or disabilities.

A test that can identify early signs of autism among babies could emerge from a major new study of the developmental disorder that is being launched tomorrow.

Chemicals found in pet shampoos may be linked to a raised risk of autism, a study of how environmental factors influence the developmental disorder has suggested.

The UN is celebrating the coming into force of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) - a landmark agreement that aims to give the world's 650m disabled people full equality.

Many people on Disability Living Allowance are seeing their benefits stopped and face a bureaucratic struggle to restore them