Reflecting on the models of disability utilised in schools

Abstract The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system is in crisis. A major new inquiry has been launched to find solutions, in part exploring how educational settings can become more inclusive through the provision of ‘high quality support’. This begs the question—what is high quality support? Revisiting how SEND is conceptualised can provide a valuable starting point for exploring this question. Models of disability frame the way we understand SEND, informing policy development at the national and local level. This article argues that awareness of the medical and social models of disability is important, but that high quality support should be shaped and guided by an interactionist and multifactorial account of disability, as advocated by the World Health Organisation.