Cash in the Palace was created as part of the pioneering York Inclusive Young Filmmakers – a pilot project that took place from September 2010 to April 2011 as a partnership between Accessible Arts & Media (AAM) and the Yorkshire Film Archive, bringing together students and staff from Applefields SEN School and St Aelred’s RC Primary School in York.  The project was made possible through generous funding from Screen Yorkshire, the City of York Council, York Children’s Trust and the Colin...

Cash in the Palace was created as part of the pioneering York Inclusive Young Filmmakers – a pilot project that took place from September 2010 to April 2011 as a partnership between Accessible Arts & Media (AAM) and the Yorkshire Film Archive, bringing together students and staff from Applefields SEN School and St Aelred’s RC Primary School in York.  The project was made possible through generous funding from Screen Yorkshire, the City of York Council, York Children’s Trust and the Colin & Sylvia Shepherd Charitable Trust.  The project had two films: the other one being Pocket Money. 
It is worth looking at some of the general background to the idea of using drama and film making as a way of developing children with special needs – see the Context for Pocket Money for more information on the specific project of York Inclusive.  The term, 'special educational needs' (SEN), is itself quite new.  The legal definition refers to children who have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn or access education than most children of the same age.  Clearly this is not always easy to determine or know where to draw the line: an Ofsted review in 2010 claimed that the term was being used too broadly.
The 1944 Education Act categorised children with special educational needs by their disabilities, defined in medical terms.  This changed significantly with The Warnock Report of 1978, which was incorporated into the 1981 Education Act.   This introduced the idea of special educational needs (SEN), "statements" of SEN, and an "integrative"—which later became known as "inclusive"—approach.  This is based on the idea of common educational goals for all children regardless of their abilities or disabilities.  Although the 1997 Green Paper Excellence for All Children Meeting Special Educational Needs gave public support to the UN statement on Special Needs Education of 1994 – basically calling for integrated, or inclusive, schools – little in practice has changed.
Part of the difficulty is that of categorising people and having labels that might be inappropriate, or even damaging.  Many reject the use of the term ‘disability’, giving it a different meaning to its conventional use. Thus, some people categorised as being ‘disabled’ see the ‘disability’ as a result of how society deals with certain kinds of people: viz., in not making sufficient provision for people with impairments, and who consequently suffer as a result, become ‘disabled’ – see SCOPE, and also the article on the alternative medical and social models of disability produced by the educational department of the British Film Institute, References.
So called ‘remedial services’ developed in the 1950s, and organisations rose to promote the needs of the disabled, however defined.  One such, Nasen (formerly the National Association for Special Educational Needs) was formed in 1992 out of two organisations: the National Association for Remedial Education (NARE), formed in 1963, and the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), created in 1973 when the Association for Special Education merged with the Guild of Teachers of Backward Children and the College of Special Education. 
The use of drama and filmmaking as ways of engaging children and boosting confidence has been around for many years in mainstream schools – and there are examples on YFA Online.  But this is still a relatively new area for children with special needs; and judging by the paucity of articles covering this area in Nasen’s publication Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, there is still some way to go to making this a more prominent aspect of their education and activities.
One interesting current project is CAST (Creative Arts Schools Trust), recently set up in 2009, the brainchild of actor-director David Morrissey. This seeks to develop creative courses for young people in learning environments worldwide where there is little or no provision.  As they state on their website:
“We seek to promote the development of communication skills and confidence building in young people through drama, music, movement, dance and film. Young people with learning disabilities are rarely seen in some communities; CAST believes that it is important for young people to be given a voice. It has been well-proven that drama-based therapy, delivered by empathic and specialised facilitators, is empowering and effective for young adults at a crucial stage of their social, physical and mental development. At CAST we believe that individuals with special needs have learning differences, not disabilities, and we aim to give them the skills and confidence to manage these challenges.”
Another similar project is run by community filmmaker Ivan Riches, who established a filmmaking organisation in 2009 for commissioned work in the community, health and education.  This uses a holistic and 'person-centred' approach to filmmaking.  Other individual filmmakers have also been at work with children with special educational needs, such as Dick Philpot.  It is to be hoped that this exciting way of engaging young people, whatever their individual abilities, as demonstrated in this film, is not simply left to enlightened filmmakers with little or no support.
References
Colin Gladstone, ‘The search for a model of effective inclusive practice through the Young Enterprise Scheme’, British Journal of Special Education, Online.
A statement is not enough – Ofsted review of special educational needs and disability
Select Committee on Education and Skills Third Report
'Medical model' vs 'social model', educational department of the British Film Institute
Ivan Riches
CAST 
Dick Philpot Film and Song