Special school with full time residential care

[kakool]

I have a 14 years old daughter with autism.
Her behaviour has become very violent.
she is in a special need school with weakly bording.
the previous school excluded her because of her hitting and injuring the staff.
she comes home on friday and leaves on monday. also all holiday at home.
i have 2 little babies at home age 1 year and 2 years and she has been hitting my son who only 2 years old.
the situation is very bad at home.
i wrote the LEA to provide her with full time residential facility.
They wrote back " they can't do it and they are only responsible for her education, not respite.

I want any advice from you parents what can be done to get a full time residential school for my daughter.
anyone have list of schools with full time residential care?
Also is there a place where she could be permanently?

I know one slution is the tribunal but it costs so much money.

does any of you know a good private educational psychologist in London?

regards

[purplepidjin]

Here

You may struggle to find the £250k a year though :(

[WetAugust]

To get full time residential placement you need to prove a social need as well as educational need.

The funding is usually split bewteen the Ed Service and the SS. So you'd need to contact SS explain the problem and see if they will support you - but that's unlikely unless you can prove that she needs and it would be detrimental to you or your children's health / well beng if she is denied full time residential care.

[bigcar]

more schools here and what wetaugust said.

[sugarcandyminx]

You might want to look at schools run by Cambian, Priory, Witherslack group. The Isbi website has a search facility where you can look up ASD schools with 52-week placements.

My son is in a 38 week residential placement and we had to show that he needed a waking day curriculum at tribunal. This was considered an educational need, so his placement is funded just by the LA and not SS. He comes home every other weekend and holidays, but some students only return home for holidays. I think there have been cases where 52 week placements have been funded through tribunal, but only for those with very complex needs, usually SLD as well as ASD.

What does the current school think about her requiring residential care?

[Marne]

We have a Cambian school not far from us which taked full time and week borders (most of the children are full time). Like others have said you need to prove that she needs full time placement, if you have a social worker they should be able to help you, if your dd is a risk to your other children then they should be on your side (keep fighting).

Oh and the Cambian school is great (have been to have a look).

[kakool]

hi
thanks everyone, your advice is appreciated.

i spoke to a barrister about this matter, he says first i should find a non maintained special school for my daughter, get assessment by him and then go to tribunal.

Anyone have any idea about non maintained special school?
are they privste or govt funded?

[bigcar]

non maintained are private schools which I think most of those linked to here are.

[WetAugust]

They're private or independant schools.

Just google autism + indeppendant schools

The only flaw in your barrsiter's approach is that some independant special schools will not accept requests for assessment from the parents but insist that referrals are done by the Local Authority. Some also charge several hundred punds for the assessment as it can mean the child staying there for a few days.

[kakool]

lol...correcting
my mind is not working these days.
barrister said i should find an educational psychologist to do assessment first.

[ByTheSea]

My DS2, almost 14, is in full time residential school (although we try to have him home for some weekends and all school holidays if it gets unsafe we have a place for him to go). It is paid by SS and the LEA. It was not safe anymore for my younger DCs to have him in the home and he couldn't cope at mainstream and was posing a risk to the others. It has been wonderful, he's doing fantastic and his last several visits get better and better. You'll need to get Social Services on board if they aren't already.

[ByTheSea]

Just wanted to add that getting the placement was NOT easy and DH and I had to advocate on DS's behalf, and on behalf of all our family, for a very long time.

[purplepidjin]

I used to work for a certain company mentioned above (beginning with C!) which is how I knew where to look for the link above )

The majority of places were funded by LEA, SS or the Health Service. There was the occasional person privately funded, but the fees are very high as it's a waking day curriculum ie 7am to 9/10pm. The staffing levels are a maximum of 1:3 during the day and 1:6 overnight, obviously depending on the needs of the students at the particular school. They also have a lot of post-16 provision, which is worth bearing in mind for the future.

I can't speak for other companies running similar provision, although Coxlease (which I think is now Priory??) has a good reputation - we played them at football a few times!

Cambian also own the OAASIS advice service, so if you call them they will be able to let you know where to start.
HTH

[purplepidjin]

Oh, and weekends/time at home is optional - still is afaik. Some students went every other weekend, som every weekend, and some not till the holidays. In a 52 week school, some may never go home for a variety of reasons. Funding was available for transport, too

[kakool]

I had very bad experience with Social Service.
my daughter was with them for 1 1/2 year.
it was the time when she was being excluded from her previous school every other day due to her hitting the staff at the school.
the social service did an assessment, said they were short of funding and will give my daughter 6 hour of respite per week.
she was only taken out 4-5 times and then for a long time they said they can't find a suitable person for respite.
after over a year i asked them to close her file as it was not worth.

i am really confused, if i involve SS again they may write a report that my daughter does not need a full time 52 weeks.
in case if they do this and i have to go to tribunal to get it, their report can make a difference in the tribunal.
i find no difference between SS and LEAs.

another question, when you get a 52 weeks school through tribunal, what happens when your child finishes school at 16 or 18?
do you have to fight all over again to get a college with 52 weeks?

[WetAugust]

It appears from your recount of your last contact with SS that they didn't try too hard to find a long-term resolution to the problem and that you got frustrated at their lack of interest/action and drpped the matter.

they'll try to do this again. You need to be prepared for that. After all ignoring you will save them approx £1/4 million a year.

So you need to be totally focused on it, challenge any report that is not accurate and if necessary play the child protection issue in respect of your other children.

You're right to see SS in the same vein as LEAs - tere are just different departments within the same organistaion - the Council.

As for post 16 - the Head of your child's existing school is responsible for developing a Transition Plan. He/she will call a multi-disciplinary meeting to decide what support is required at post 16. Your input will be sought. They may dceide that a post 16 placement is required and some of these will continue up to age 25.