SEND - children’s needs to be reassessed from year 6 2029?

Are boys with complex SEND statistically more violent than girls with similar complex SEND? And will this translate to special school being reserved for more boys and ending up sexist potentially? A lot of girls will harm inwards rather than outwards. I cannot see how they will be able to accommodate violent SEND needs in mainstream as it will be a safeguarding issues vis a vis other pupils.

So it is just a question. Also, I guess teen boys are stronger etc. How are they going to make sure it does not end up sexist?

Well, as SENCo, I know that I have fought tooth and nail for our pupils to get the right support and funding and it nearly broke me. I have resigned and sadly looking forward to it being someone else’s problem going forwards.

I wish I could believe this but it’s not the experience a lot of my circle witness with our own children in mainstream schools and they got a lot of money for mine when she was there … did they still not follow her EHCP … nope and that included a fully funded 1-1 they they took advantage off.

I think we have the same child!

Schools can’t win either-we fight for money for those children but by the sounds of it, they might not even get an EHCP under the new order, let alone a special school place.

It doesn’t sound like there will be any winners.

DD1 is going to cost the State so much. If she had been placed in the right secondary school, she would have thrived. But she was placed in the wrong school because it was half a mile closer. It was the wrong school profile for her needs and she was completely unable to cope. Now she has a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a learning disability nurse, she's just been assessed by an educational psychologist, a SaLT assessment is underway, the LA have had to commission a private OT assessment. The EP has told me today that only a completely bespoke and individual education provision will meet her needs. Not cheap. All because the school she should have gone to was ½ mile further away.

To add ' because that is what they get carers allowance for'

Getting the bingo going.

Happens all the time on threads like this unfortunately.

"The issue is is parents can’t win really
people don’t want money spent on our children because “ there is no money “ although let’s be honest there is other people they could target than disabled children but then they also don’t want Sen children disturbing their own children’s education …. Families like ours will always be the problem."

Someone will be along in the minute to say there is no point in educating some children and their parents should just keep them at home.

My son was this child.

He was shoehorned into an EYFS mainstream placement and spent most of his time hiding in the cloakroom or attacking those around him. We were told multiple times a week he’d bitten, scratched, kicked either an adult or another child.

He’s 9 now and still has limited communication, he’s currently in his bedroom shouting the letter E. For no real reason. He’s still in pads, still smears, still bites.

There’s no way mainstream would have coped with him long term, and there’s no way children like him should be kept there or sent back.

The issue is is parents can’t win really
people don’t want money spent on our children because “ there is no money “ although let’s be honest there is other people they could target than disabled children but then they also don’t want Sen children disturbing their own children’s education …. Families like ours will always be the problem.

We have several children at my school like this-non-verbal, in nappies with no awareness of having soiled/wet, attempts to smear poo, developmentally 1-2y in a year 2 class. They have EHCPs (not providing full time support) and have been refused special school places. This is only going to increase by the sounds of it.

My son wouldn't have survived years ago either.

He wasn't born disabled but became disabled as a result of complications from an illness which in the 70's was considered terminal.

As a parent of a disabled child I don’t know the over all answer as the why are there so many more these days.
I can tell you in our case years ago she wouldn’t of survived to make it to school.
she would of died at birth.
she has a generic condition that includes her being autistic as well as health and movement disabilities but if you saw her down the street you would never know why this girl would need 74 k a year in education and 52,000 a year in home healthcare.
she is one of the many that wouldn’t fit in these boxes.
but the reason why there is more of her is because they are now able to survive ❤️

Sorry for the typos. Trying to do 2 things at once.

The severity of the needs has increased massively. My school was always good with SEN so we always had higher numbers than any other local schools but it was manageable because it was making adaptations to ensure inclusion within a mainstream class. The severity of the needs had made life impossible in some cases. We have children who are non-verbal, in nappies and who are at the developmental age of 18 months.How are we supposed to include them in a mainstream classroom. It us only you g to get worse under these proposals.

Yes I know exactly what you are saying. Why are there so many nowadays

This is the reason why I have just handed in my resignation. I have been a TA for 13 years and the number of TAs at my school has doubled in that time. Everyone is now working with SEN children. The mainstream children do not get any additional support anymore. I have 2 children in my current class with EHCPs. Both have different and in some areas completely conflicting needs. They both also have medical needs which require staff to have additional training. Both, have been refused places at special schools. Both are working academically at pre KS1 level and are expected to go to mainstream secondary schools in September. If it was just a question of making reasonable adjustments to enable them to access the curriculum that would be one thing, but they both require a bespoke curriculum and would be better off learning life skills not academic study. We do not have the facilities, budget or staff to bespoke the curriculum so these children are not getting what they need from the education system and neither are the mainstream children who fall behind. Everyone loses under this system and is the reason I am leaving.

Sorry, my post was in agreement with yours, and was intended to suggest that the PP poster you were responding to doesn’t like facts and figures, because it doesn’t help their hyperbole.

The noun was LA, however 😂

I quite agree that posters without a clue should look at facts and figures, and not post things that aren’t reality, however (admittedly sarcastically!) I was agreeing with you.

This is a public forum and I don’t need your permission to answer @Playingvideogames post on SEN funding.

Your second sentence doesn’t even make sense? “There’s a devolved, …..” Devolved what? It’s an adjective and needs a noun.

IMO, it’s a pity posters who clearly have no direct experience or knowledge of children with SEND, don’t spend more time, looking at the facts and figures first, rather than making ludicrous assertions, with no basis in reality.

Those children (lots of them) are already in mainstream, with no hope of a special school place and no chance of that changing. They are not getting a good education and neither are the pupils in their classes.

Inclusion was never supposed to be about treating all children with SEN as a homogeneous group that could all thrive in mainstream. I'd agree that level of need probably can't be supported in a mainstream environment. The reason we have this scenario is because specialist provision has been cut back. But at the moment, even those with less obvious (but still very real) needs - those who could thrive in mainstream with appropriate support - are not being met. That's why the number of EHCPs has increased so much.

Absolutely. I’m old enough to have taught under the previous incarnation of ‘stages’ as well, prior to 2001!

So I’m sure after this particular ‘once in a generation’ reform, we will get another one fairly soon. Probably one that will say, ‘7 areas of need was FAR too many, we now need 2/3/4 etc’.

Thousands of teachers will leave, hundreds of SENCos will have breakdowns and countless children will be failed in the process.

As to the £300-odd training each teacher will receive, it will be very interesting to see which (MAT-supporting Edu-celeb) gets the gig! Tom Bennett? Paul Dix? Probably organised through someone like Capita so they can be bunged a few quid as well.

I am very glad I am leaving education!!

If only DS1 could get in a box! Maybe that is the answer. We should put him in a box and he would be unable to climb out. Or maybe not. DS1 is likely to turn to self injurious behaviour and simultaneously sound like he is being murdered.

The proposed reforms have hallmarks of the old system. Targeted, Targeted Plus, Specialist. A rebranding of SA, SA+ and SSEN. No doubt reforms at some point in the future will return to something more aligned with the current system.

I have to say, I'm pleased they are acknowledging that packages need to include evidence-based interventions. So much guff out there that has no research to back it up.