The Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE) is a national charity working to advance equality and eliminate discrimination in education. We believe that everyone is of equal value, by virtue of being human: age, (dis)ability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or belief, and socioeconomic background should not compromise children’s equal opportunities in education and, therefore, their life chances.

Established in 1982, CSIE has been at the cutting edge of educational change for almost 40 years; it published the Index for inclusion: developing learning and participation in schools, which introduced the term “barriers to learning and participation”, now widely used including in government documents, as an alternative to the ill-defined and controversial “special educational needs”*.

Key activities include: advice and support for schools, talks and training, research, consultancy nationally and internationally, lobbying and campaigning for more inclusive education, and a wide range of resources.

CSIE supports schools to advance equality holistically. Our primary focus is disability equality, in order to help harmonise education practice with education law; we are also active in gender, LGBT+ and ethnicity equality, as well as equality with regard to socioeconomic background.

Among our recent achievements is an international award (Innovative Practice Award 2016 from the Zero Project, for a world with zero barriers) for our equality toolkit for schools.

*The legal definition is that a child has special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty or disability
which calls for special educational provision to be made for them (bit.ly/3jy4E6g xiii p.15). At CSIE we believe
that special needs arise as an interaction between a child and the school environment.