IEP and schools action plus

[rachyrah]

my 5 year old was put on schools action plus so that the speech therapist could work with the school. Does this mean he should have had an IEP? I've never seen or heard about one if he has..

[LIZS]

yes he should. Ask the senco to review it with you (or it may be write it !) so that you cna support what they are trying to achieve at home.

[mumeeee]

Yes he should have an IEP and the school should. Discuss it with you.

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

He should have an IEP and this should be reviewed termly with you.

If speech therapy is required I would actually now look into obtaining a Statement from the LEA.

[nasrin]

hello, please don't worry about you child going on the IEP- (individual action plan) because this is a postive approach fronm educational point of view as your child will be closly assessed and monitored through close observations. This will allowing them to put addiontal support into help your child's learning. The speech Therpist will also advice you on ways to work with your child to encourage their speech. _ often from my experience as my child was delayed in his speech and he too recieved speech and language support as well as beng on IEP - the school use a variety of methods ie. pitcure, simply words , to encourage child to use sound to devlope into words. so don't worry

Also, you should be given a copy of the IEP that clearly would state what action and work will be carried out with your child - giving additional support to your child through learning strategies at his/her level of ability. The senco must go through the IEP with parents and have consent with parents signuature - a copy to of IEP for parents and one go's to class teacher. However if you need advocate support I advice you to speak to Parent Partnership who act as advocates in supporting and advice/explain how the statment/iep process works - also will advice and direct you to help in reasuring you of any concerns you may have or lack of understanding of statement process. To obtain the number you can ring Education and ask for Parent Partnership or ask the senco at school.

all the best.. please do not hesistate to ask me any further advice or questions ,because, i can understand how you are feeling because i felt the same when IEP was put into place for my child. this has been postive for me as it has helped me to understand my child and how to communicate with my child. As time has gone on his speech improved but school found he had other difficulties so he is getting other aditional support. So think postive .

I hope all of the above will rest you mind a little... all the best. take care

[sayithowitis]

If a child is placed at SA+ on the SEN register, they will need an IEP/IPP. section 5 here will explain what has to be done by the school wrt supporting your child.

As nasrin says, you should have a copy of the current one and you should also be invited to attend reviews regularly.

You should also have a copy of any programmes from the SALT, so that you can continue working on targets at home.

Remember that a well written IEP will be building on previous targets and achievements, so may contain several small targets rather than one or two big ones, but if the school is on the ball, they should be constantly updating these to account for successes and further targets.

Also, whilst the idea of a 'statement' is great, in many authorities, and mine is one, the only children who are getting them now, are those for whom a special school is appropriate. The rest are staying at SA+, occasionally with a small amount of funding, but as this is not part of a statement, the LEA is under no legal obligation to continue the funding. In this authority, schools are seeing their SEN budgets cut and headteachers are having to make tough decisions about which children will receive the support because the money is having to come from the general school budget.

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

"Also, whilst the idea of a 'statement' is great, in many authorities, and mine is one, the only children who are getting them now, are those for whom a special school is appropriate".

The LEA are acting unlawfully if they are doing this because this is blanket policy.

[sayithowitis]

Attilla, I agree, but until someone takes them to court on it, the situation will not change. However, FWIW, in all my years working for this LEA, I have never, ever, heard of a child getting a statement just because speech therapy is required. Half the time they don't even get speech therapy from a qualified SALT because there are simply not enough of them. In this area, a child may be seen by a SALT for an initial assessment, thereafter, it is down to the school and the parents to do whatever work is required. Including having to make a determination as to where and how to move a child on once they show signs of progression. And now that schools are having to buy in to services that were once provided by the LEA, the situation is not going to improve. Speech therapy, behaviour support, SCS etc, are all areas that will now cost the schools directly and given that budgets are being cut, it is not going to be easy.

Anyhow, to get back on track, I would suggest that OP contacts the school, preferably in writing or by e-mail ( because you then have proof of what you say) rather than by phone, and asks why she has not been given a copy of the IEP/IPP s. I would also recommend that you contact Parents in Partnership, as suggested by nasrim, and if necessary, they can accompany you to meetings at school. Always helpful if it turns out that school have not done their bit properly, as PIP can make sure you don't get 'fobbed off' with a load of bull!

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

Many LEAs have been bought to account for their actions by the courts and many LEAs are now going down the route of devolved funding which is generally bad news for those children with SEN or those who require statements. However, the funding issue is not and never has been the parents problem.

Some Parent Partnerships are far better than others; many of them are not fully independent of the LEA (my particular PP work out of the same office of the LEA) and are therefore not totally impartial. I would also advise the OP to contact one of the organisations out there like IPSEA, ACE or SOSSEN as well as her local PP.

[sayithowitis]

Yes, devolved funding is the system in our LEA. Sounds wonderful when they tell parents that it means the school 'has more freedom' to spend as it sees fit, but of course the reality is that unless it is a statement, there is no legal obligation on the part of either the LEA to continue to give it to the school, or indeed for the school to spend it on SEN. I know of at least one school locally that has reduced all TA hours and claimed it is because of the 'cut' in their SEN budget, whilst managing to spend £50,000 having an 'outside classroom' built. And I know of other schools that have withdrawn all extra support for children below SA+ ( only in class differentiation now available for those children) whilst spending a fortune having the school re decorated.
I am sure it is a great comfort for those children and their parents to know that at least their children will be struggling in beautiful surroundings!

[ohsoyummy]

Hi rachyrah,

I am a SENCO at a primary school and wanted to answer your question. If your son's school has felt the need to involve a speech and language therapist in order to support his needs then he will be placed on school action plus. However, it is not a statutory requirement for him to have an IEP. It is however a statutory requirement that your son has targets that he is working towards, that you are made aware of them and that they are regularly reviewed with you. These targets with be specific to your son's needs but an IEP is only one way of setting targets and monitoring progress towards those targets. It may be that as a parent being presented with 2 or 3 targets on an IEP template which is easily digestible and gives you an overview of what your son is working towards is useful but I'm sure that your school and the speech and language therapist will be working towards many smaller targets in order to meet your son's needs. The problem with an IEP is that in order for it to be manageable, the common/best practice and advise is to only record a small number i.e 2 or 3 targets on this format, whereas in reality there may be more being worked towards. The bottom line is that you should be kept informed and meet regularly with the school's senco, your son's teacher and/or speech and language therapist who can discuss with you in detail what progress your son is making. A IEP is simply a format that is widely used by school's to record targets but your son's school may have their own, maybe better means of recording these targets and progress. Whatever their practice, they should be keeping you informed of your child's progress and the support that he is receiving. Excerpt from Directgov website re IEPs: "Sometimes the school will not write an IEP but will record how they are meeting your child's needs in a different way, perhaps as part of their lesson plans. But they should always be able to tell you how they are helping your child and what progress they are making."
Also, someone above posted that "If speech therapy is required I would actually now look into obtaining a Statement from the LEA". This is not the case! Although, I don't know what your son's individual needs are, I do know that difficulties with speech, language and communication are some of the most common SENs that present in children. It may be that he needs this intervention for a period of time and that in due course this can be withdrawn once the necessary progress has been made. If, however, over time your son is not making any progress with the support of this specialist then it may be considered that he needs are more profound and with the input of yourself, the senco, the SLT and his class teacher you can decide whether to apply for statutory assessment. The decision to request a statutory assessment of a child is not one that is taken lightly (whether or not there are cuts in funding) and this will be particularly true as your son is so young. Unless his needs at this point in time are considered quite severe or profound, the school will first support him at the level of school action plus. It may that he just needs some extra support.

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

"Also, someone above posted that "If speech therapy is required I would actually now look into obtaining a Statement from the LEA". This is not the case! Although, I don't know what your son's individual needs are, I do know that difficulties with speech, language and communication are some of the most common SENs that present in children. It may be that he needs this intervention for a period of time and that in due course this can be withdrawn once the necessary progress has been made. If, however, over time your son is not making any progress with the support of this specialist then it may be considered that he needs are more profound and with the input of yourself, the senco, the SLT and his class teacher you can decide whether to apply for statutory assessment".


My argument for applying for the statement asap if speech therapy is required is that on SA plus the support offered can be very limited anyway and besides anything else SA plus is not legally binding. If long term speech therapy is required the surest way of having that in place in school is via a Statement as the statement should in theory state how this particular support should be specified and quantified. With SA plus there is no cast iron guarantee that speech therapy would be actually ongoing. Even with a statement in place SALT support can be patchy.

IEPs should also be SMART; poorly written or thought out ones are worse than useless. If speech therapy is needed then there ought to be an IEP in place; how would progress be recorded otherwise?.

The only criteria as well for statement is need.