Safeguarding in school

[safefirst]

My son is currently on role at a sen school, he has not
attended since April due to a safeguarding issue, this was
reported to the police and school however there was no
evidence so school nor police could do anything, chair of
governors also done an investigation but once again no
evidence so nothing done, there are issues with incidents
not being reported within the school but this obviously
can’t be proven.
We have tried to slowly transition my son back to school
with myself with him, he started doing really well but
when he see’s one particular teaching assistant he has a
massive meltdown, runs away from her and looks
frightened to the point he is in crisis (this is the particular
teaching assistant we had safeguarding concerns about),
school see his reaction and referred themselves to LADO,
LADO said does not meet threshold but school need to
talk to this teaching assistant and do a risk assessment
based on trying to keep my son and TA apart, school
have admitted this is not possible as they cannot control
when they are in corridors etc.
They are sending me the risk assessment tomorrow and
have said I then need to decide what to do.
I don’t want to remove him from school roll as sen
placements are like gold dust as I’m sure you all know,
can I say they can’t meet his needs on safeguarding
ground? Can’t meet his emotional needs? As every time
he see’s this TA it will cause my son a crisis situation? Do
I need to call an early annual review to do the above?
Sorry for the long post but my son deserves an education
and it’s so upsetting for him to be in this situation.
For context he is autistic, has global developmental delay
and is non verbal.

What happened?

I would get the school to do an assessment of course one ta can be kept apart in a huge school. Communication is the key here,

but if you think the ta abused your son - then held would have to freeze over before I Sent him back and apply for a transfer

What we're the concerns with the TA that didn't meet threshold?

I remember your situation from an earlier post. It’s terrible that he’s not been settled in education all this time.

I am hoping if we can prove they cannot mean his safeguarding needs and emotional needs that we can get a transfer to another sen school.
He came home with adult finger print bruising on his arm, it was absolutely awful and I'm horrified that anyone would do that to a little 6 year old boy.
I don't want him to go back, the school keep saying there is no way we can guarantee they won't come into contact, such as bumping into him in the hallway.
I just can't believe they want her working there, the deputy head and camhs saw his reaction to the TA and were horrified, safeguarding lead at camhs said it would seem his reaction to the TA would be because there was a previous incident or incidents involving the TA, especially seeing as he was happy playing and dancing just before he saw her.

@Hopeandlove @Relocatiorelocation sorry previous post was replying to you both

@KangarooKenny thank you for your reply, yes I did post when this first happened.
There has been no progress, promises from the school that they would put the TA in another key stage were no upheld by the school, she is in the same key stage as my son in the classroom next door.
He has been out of education since April, it's a poor show from the school.
I have been with him when going in for transition, that has only been twice though the second occasion is when he saw the TA, he froze when he saw her, turned run to his pram he considers his pram a safe place, I put him in as I moved she stood in front of him he was screaming kicking out, stretching his arms to keep her away the deputy head then said he's now in crisis we need to get him away because he was in a dreadful state.

You can ask for an early review and request a change of placement. If DS isn’t able to attend then the school can’t meet his needs and the placement has broken down. Unfortunately, if the LA refuse to hold an early review there isn’t the right of appeal. You would have to either wait for the AR (when is it?) or request a reassessment of needs which would have the right of appeal if refused.

If DS can’t attend school the LA have a duty to provide alternative arrangements so DS receives a suitable, full time education and anything specified and quantified in section F of his EHCP. Are the LA doing this?

Whatever you do don’t deregister even if DS can’t attend school.

The difficulty here is that following thorough investigations from a number of agencies, there is no proof that a member of staff has done anything untoward to your ds. You clearly don't agree. Your DS may well dislike this member of staff from some reason, but that doesn’t mean that the staff member has to be treated as if they HAD harmed him. You have 3 choices; remove him from school and home educate, remove him from school and try to get him into another school or accept that the school have investigated thoroughly, and send him back.

If hes not attending because a parent is refusing to send him, then this doesn’t apply.

That isn’t the case here though. OP’s DS isn’t attending because of his distress, therefore it does apply.

@Thatsnotmycar the LA have agreed to an early review, coordinator has said just to let her know when to call it, which it looks like now.
Just to clarify the school are agree that my son should currently not be at school due to the anxiety it causes him in attending.
LA have been excellent and school have been providing work for us to do, my thoughts are that we call an early annual review name our next nearest complex needs school, the way the current school talk it sounds like they don't want my son to return they just seem to protect the TA.

@Soontobe60 I don't agree, in reality school is fully aware there has been an incident with this TA, no they can't prove it but they have referred to LADO twice trying to get to the bottom of it, they don't want a child abuser working in their school as much as as a parent doesn't.
If I take him off roll as you suggest I then take responsibility for his education, whilst he is on roll the LA and school have responsibility to find him a suitable placement, I can't just send him back as you suggest, this has caused mental health issues, going to the school causes massive anxiety for him, if he sees her he is then in a crisis situation which I'm not willing to put my child in, he is extremely vulnerable and our sen schools should be protecting our vulnerable children not taking advantage of the fact there non verbal and can't tell people what's happened, the majority of staff in the school are amazing unfortunately it only takes one bad egg.

The school providing work is not enough. The LA should be providing DS with a suitable, full time education and anything in the EHCP including therapies etc. The LGO are quite clear work sent home from school does not meet the LA’s legal obligations. This should have begun once it was clear DS would miss 15 days.

@Thatsnotmycar thank you so much, I did not know this.
It seemed that the school had the responsibility but that obviously is not true, we have done EOTAS previously and that didn't work well, he didn't understand why they wanted him to work in his home.

The provision wouldn’t be a ‘proper’ EOTAS package via the EHCP, it would be provision under s.19 of the Education Act 1996. The school would still be named in section I with DS remaining on their roll until an alternative school was named via the early review process even though he can’t attend.

The provision doesn’t necessarily have to be at home if that isn’t suitable for DS. It could be provision at a care farm, forest school, in the community, a community centre, library, hospital school, some LAs have small centres they deliver provision at… Whatever meets DS’s needs.

Here is one of the LGO reports that state on its own sending work home isn’t enough - paragraph 61 is the relevant section. And here is another report, that states even if the LA believe you are the one keeping DS at home there is a duty to provide alternative arrangements if they aren’t going to take enforcement action - case study 4 - as s.19 applies for reasons of illness, exclusion or otherwise.

The duty to provide anything specified and quantified in F is under s.42 CAFA 2014.

@Thatsnotmycar thank you so much that's really helpful.
These are things I didn't know and now can bring up in the meeting at school on Wednesday.
I have booked an appointment with sendiass but that is not till next week unfortunately.
We had to fight for this school space, we had a solicitor and was ready for tribunal, the school literally offered him a space for the autumn term at the last knocking.
The school are saying they will not be able to stop them bumping into each other although they will put a risk assessment in place to avoid as much as possible, does this mean they cannot meet his needs in safeguarding grounds?
I'm not sure if we are going to need a solicitor again to fight for a school space.
It's just so up in the air.
They have certainly not been meeting his needs in section f since April, there has been no sensory OT, he certainly wasn't provided 21 hours of education as stated in the report you linked.
It's devastating because they aren't a bad school they simply have a bad egg, this school is 20 minutes from us the next school is 45 minutes away, so just within his travel time, the change will be massive for him that upsets me so much, he hates transition and he is being forced out well that's how it feels anyway.
I can't prove what she done but my son's reaction said a thousand words.

You don't know what happened and will probably never know. It would be better for him to be away from the school as he is so anxious.

But the TA is not necessarily abusive as you seem to imply. As a teacher I have grabbed a child's arm to stop him hitting another child with a toy. That may well have left a mark. Or he may have been hurting himself.

The school seem to have faith in her.

As well as bringing it up at the meeting at school, email the LA’s Director of Children’s Services as it is the LA who are responsible. If the provision is provided 1:1 it doesn’t have to be 21 hours, but it should be more than DS is receiving and if OT is specified and quantified in F that should be provided. If the LA refuse to provide what they should threaten Judicial Review. Usually the threat works, but if it doesn’t contact SOSSEN for help with a pre-action letter.

I would focus on the school aren’t meeting DS’s needs because he can’t attend full time without significant distress.

Does the EHCP include any MH therapies?

Be careful with SENDIASS, some are good but too many repeat the LA’s unlawful policies. If you can IPSEA and SOSSEN are better.

@PurpleWisteria the school don't really have faith in her they were alarmed at his reaction which you did not see it was extreme and he was scared, I'm not the only one who saw it deputy head was there and camhs plus other teachers and TA's.
You would not leave the marks that were on my sons arm by stopping him grabbing a toy, it was severe finger print bruising all up his lower arm.
The school have also tried twice to refer to LADO, I'm not sure what there threshold is but it's a ridiculous system.
I'm sure if you grabbed a child's arm you would document it, there was nothing, no incident reports, no one admitted to grabbing his arm they said he seemed happy that day.

@Thatsnotmycar excellent I have contacted upset previously when we was trying to get a school space.
Thank you you have been an excellent help

@PurpleWisteria also your post shows how teachers go into defence mode for each other, it's truly unbelievable.

@safefirst
What a difficult situation
I would ask the LA for a place at another school although that can't be guaranteed it's in your local area as spaces are very limited. I have a friend and her child is now in a residential placement Monday to Friday as the school is 3 hours away so just not practical on a daily commute. As it happens this has turned out well and the school is excellent.

If the school thought she was in the wrong surely they'd suspend her pending an investigation but if LADO say it doesn't meet their threshold - have you tried to governors??

I hope it resolves soon it's a long time to be out of school.

Tricky one, the reaction is extreme and it's obviously not suitable for him to be in the same school as this TA, however if there is no evidence they can refer to the LADO as much as they like, even though it meets the threshold, if there is no evidence it will be pushed back for the school to deal with internally. Take a look at KCSIE, it details what the threshold is, and if you believe a child has been harmed, it meets the threshold. Keep fighting for the LA to provide him with a suitable education outside of this school.

And some tales told by parents are truly unbelievable, sadly. I suggested what could have happened, you don't want to hear anything that disagrees with what you have decided.

@holidaynightmare the LA have told me keep him on roll at school that way he has more clout to get into another school.