The Government green paper issued this year proposes to remove the statutory responsibility for assessing children with special needs from Local authorities and give it to the voluntary sector. This would mean there would no longer be any democratic accountability to provide proper assessment of Special educational needs. The knock on effects off this for the most vulnerable children in society could be catastrophic. It has the potential to take education back to the dark ages in regards to recognising and meeting the needs of children with a vast array of different special needs.