Where's the best place to live in England if your child has SN??

[ntt]

Thanks!

[misdee]

not herts.

[butty]

It's ok where i am in morecambe/lancaster.

the intervention with dylan ahs been great and he recieved his statement last may, and has attended the SN school since april, before the statement was finalised.

on the other hand regarding dd, it is crap

it seems to be taking me forever to get any kind of help.

But top trumps to those who have helped me with dylan, although i have to say that was only with his schooling requirements and physio, SALT and OT are pretty much useless!!!!!!!!

Butty.xxx

[butty]

Sorry, also agree with FioFio, about the NHS and appointments, i think it basically sucks everywhere in the country

[anniebear]

I live on the Wirral and have not had any real problems with anything (yet!!)

have had equipment lent us, got Buggy as soon as we asked for one. Statement fine, support pretty good

Are you thinking of moving to the best area?!!! lol lol

[ntt]

right - I'm off to Germany!! lol!

I just keep hearing/reading horror stories about parents having to fight tooth and nail for their kids to get the most basic help and funding in terms of specialist referrals therapies and educational support, and it's scary! I don't know where people get their energy from to contend with all this stuff as well as look after their kid's sn, especially if they have other children too to consider. And then I'm amazed that some people have access to all kinds of things like respite, special equipment, one to one educational support and regular weekly therapies etc seemingly as a matter of course.

I would prefer to be in the latter group lol We need to move anyway. Someone at Scope said they'd heard Ireland was very good........

[dinosaure]

I think that lou33 reckons that surrey is good?

How are you, ntt, I was thinking about you the other day?

[2shoes]

Have to say Brighton/hove is good.
appointments seem to be ok. nappies and stuff no trouble. respite reasonable.
But DD is at a special school and I do think that helps move things along.

[Mytwopenceworth]

we used to live in Herts and THEY WERE CRAP! my advice to anyone in Hertfordshire with an sn child - MOVE We were treated like a nuisance at best and an out an out enemy of the state at worst!!

We now live in Derbyshire and it is so different. maybe we dropped on lucky, i dont know, but we have had nothing but support! we have been listened to AND the boys have now got an ACTUAL speech therapist for the first time ever! we couldnt believe how different it has been. our boys are thriving here and we feel much more supported.

[anniebear]

I agree, I think being in a special school muct help, Ellie has been going since she was 2 and 4 months and they have been very helpful. They ahve a school nurse who I can go to over lots of things and obviously their is OT's there, physio ETC ETC

[emmalou78]

well chesterfields OK on the NHS side of things IF you get the right people, we have a wonderful SALT who is worth the combined weight of all teh town in gold and then some, the clinical psych and develomental pead are also brilliant, but we fell lucky with who we got.

Not so good on the LEA side from what I can gather, I'm already very against our Ed psych, she's f*king sht, I had to go the inclusion team to get a request for statutory assessment put in, 9 months after I was told it owuld be!, thye've just agrred ot assess but we've been told we might well get 10 hours a week IF we're lucky... I never really tal about how bad his ASD is, but filling in the parental advice form has hit home a bit and what the LEA propose for ALL SN kids in teh next few years makes me sick to the stomach, I hate the words 'inclusion policy' i'm hoping in 3 months time ot be prooved wrong on the LEA front though!

[emmalou78]

my twopenceworth, where in this county are you?

[geekgrrl]

am happy here in Harrogate, N.Yorks. - dd has full time support at school without any hassle, never had a problem with nappies and no limit either.
Appointments with the GP excellent, everything else I can't really say as dd's been in the system since birth so never had to wait forever for a referral. There are two special schools here - dd went to one for nursery and it was nice (but not right for dd in the long-term iyswim).
Her audiology stuff is done in Leeds at my request, and they have been absolutely outstanding. :) (am v. happy with them at the moment - I asked for a new type of hearing aid for dd which costs 3.5K and they just said fine, we'll order it :) )

[misdee]

see, M2PW agrees with me. for over 2years we have been back and foirth qwith dd2 to the paed with concerns, i got told in sept last year she was 'perfectly normal'. in Nov her [re-school pulled me in as they feel dd2 has SN, so we are now officially in the system waiting for more assessments.

[anniebear]

Wow GG thats fab!

[Mytwopenceworth]

emmalou - bakewell. well, just outside bakewell. where are you? in chesterfield itself?

hell yeah misdee, herts are bloody crap! we were in west and the woman we had to deal with -mrs C.R. was a total ...... yes she was.

[coppertop]

Things aren't too bad in Cambs. I think the child assessment procedure is pretty good. Our SALT is great and portage is excellent.

The waiting list for OT is huge though. Ds1 was referred at 3yrs. He's now almost 6yrs old and has just reached the top of the list.

I haven't been through statementing though so can't comment on that.

[geekgrrl]

isn't it just anniebear?
(sorry for hijacking ntt)

[emmalou78]

yes, chetserfield, well Newbold, but if our house was about 40 foot higher we'd be able to see the spire from here!

I'd love to live out that way, are you under CDC on saltergate?

[Mytwopenceworth]

really? i used to live in newbold years ago, on lancaster road.
we come under Dr A, but we see him at newholme hospital. havent had any contact from cdc, but no doubt they have us on a file somewhere. unless the inclusion officer who comes to the reviews comes from there? shes based at some place in chesterfield!

soooo many different parties involved it makes your head spin!!

[lou33]

sw surrey is v v good imo

[eidsvold]

for us it is Australia

Am sure there are other places but the easy access we have to therapy/therapists/hospital services/school etc... the lovely part of essex we lived in comes nowhere close to where we live now.

Surprisingly we moved from a not so nice area to a rather posh and lovely village ( just out from the county town) and we lost resources like portage.

Here in Aus dd1 has regular - as in weekly or fortnightly speech therapy, same with physio although we are having a break from that, ot. Attends a sn kindy as well as mainstream, hospital access to leading consultants.

Best part - from picking a GP from the phone book - now have the most fabulous GP - cared for me during pregnancy with dd2 and she knows dd1 ans is fine with dd1 giving her cuddles etc... in a couple of years has come to know dd1's foibles and her little 'tricks' Dd1 loves going to see Dr Michelle...... couldn't have had a better one there.

[Saker]

Like CT we are in Cambs but at the other end of a very big county. Different CDC etc. Unlike CT we haven't had to wait long for OT assessment (couple of months) or for any other assessment. Preschool support has been good and portage v.good. In our case I would say the paed is the weakest link and the other thing I have found is that they can be quite quick to carry out assessment but slow to follow up and to co-ordinate with each other.

I think it is less to do with county than which Primary Healthcare trust you are in now for medical type things at least.

[LIZS]

Hear varying reports about East surrey. Friend had good support with her prem baby from birth but we've got stuck in a year long wait for OT assessment when trying to access it later on. Switzerland was great for accessing specialists but £££ and OT not fully covered on our health insurance