YOUNG people in York have launched a hard-hitting video, which challenges schools to make inclusion work.

Sixty special needs and mainstream pupils worked alongside each other to give frank insights into the issues facing schools as more special educational needs pupils are educated in the mainstream.

The project is the result of a partnership between the Institute for Citizenship, the NSPCC Children's Society, Connexions and City of York Council.

Young people from All Saints', Canon Lee, Northfield and Fulford Cross Schools worked with specialist drama teachers, to explore their ideas about how schools could change to make inclusion more successful.

The video was developed in the light of York's reorganisation of special needs education, which will see the city's two special schools closing in 2004.

Bernie Flanagan, of the Institute for Citizenship, said: "Everything we are putting into this video is based on young people's experiences and ideas.

"By listening to young people and sharing what they think, mainstream schools can benefit and adapt themselves better to the needs of all their pupils."

Copies of the video and resource pack are available price £25 plus £3 postage and packing from the Institute for Citizenship 4 Lendal, York Y01 8AA. Tel 01904 654557 or contact catherine@citizen.org.uk.

Updated: 12:15 Wednesday, October 22, 2003