DLA- its time to reapply help

[SummerIsAlmostHere2023]

Hello, I was awarded DLA middle rate component 2 years ago for my child who has behavioural needs. He was permantley excluded from reception within 5 weeks of starting school.
At the time he was awarded he was under a child psychologist and also having in out from Barnardo's and play therapy with the Haven.
They all helped him in different ways to control his emotions on some ocassions.

He is settled better at school now that he has structure in place after being in a pupil referral unit for a whole school year. He was under a Peadetrition who wanted me to medicate him which I refused to do purely based on other children I know that are medicated and how it affects them (basically zombifies them).
He still smashes things in the house, hits, bites, doesn't like to be in different environments, doesn't like to visit friends/family, doesn't like people messing with his things (everything has a place), won't eat food unless I have cooked it, won't eat food he usually likes if it looks different (the other day he refused to eat his chicken dippers because the skin had come off on one side and made a big deal about it), he still takes a while to calm down when he works himself up into a bad state. Also he still frequently wakes during the night EVERY NIGHT, sometimes he switches from my bed to his up to a few times or sometimes he wants to wake up and wake the rest of the house up this could be 3am. I have to lie in bed with him until he falls asleep otherwise he is up and down the stairs all night.

He is 6 almost 7, I have just had his renewal papers but I am in 2 minds now if I should reapply or not purely because I have decided to deal with his behaviour in my own way and not accept help from other sources (medication) so I have no evidence to really send this time.

Would you put an application in anyway or just leave it?
Any suggestions or help would be very much appreciated.
Thank you

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Having to provide care every night could lead to higher rate care. Just because it has become your norm doesn't mean you shouldn't apply. It sounds incredibly hard work and you are doing well to cope with it all x

And choosing not to medicate child does not stop you claiming x

You should still complete the renewal. Does DS not have an EHCP you can use as evidence? Even without medication there are other things professionals can do to support DS, does he not have any support?

It can be challenging, especially during holidays when his routine is disturbed. He doesn't have an ehcp the only support school offer him now is he eats his lunch with the staff, he will not eat in the dinner hall because of the excessive noise and he doesn't like to eat in front of people.

Why wasn’t an EHCNA request when DS was permanently excluded within 5 weeks or during the year in the PRU?

Does he not at the very least have an IEP (or whatever the school calls their equivalent)? Does the school not provide support with emotional regulation and emotional literacy? Has he not had a sensory OT assessment? Has he not seen anyone about his eating difficulties, it sounds like he might have ARFID?

It sounds like DS needs far more support if he “smashes things in the house, hits, bites, doesn't like to be in different environments, doesn't like to visit friends/family,” on top of the eating difficulties.

Because the PRU didn't believe he should have been permantley excluded (he bit the head teacher when she tried to restrain him, bruised another teachers arm and pulled a 3rd teachers hair).

He has no kind of plan in place at school, he doesn't show any signs of aggresion they said.
They have seen him be aggressive towards me and his sister, I'll be honest I just feel embarrassed to ask them because they will look at me like I'm making it all up.

I feel he does need support but the support his previous school offered was early help intervention which put me off after I read somewhere they can refer to social services. Hence why I am kind of suffering in silence, I don't want people judging me who are on the outside if that makes sense.

It is extremely remiss of the school not to have an IEP or equivalent. DS clearly needs SEN support. It isn’t uncommon for DC to ‘cope’ ‘fine’ at school but not at home. It doesn’t mean the problems are at home. It is often a sign of unmet needs and if those needs were better met at school home life would improve.

There is far more support school can and should be offering than only Early Help. And, Early Help doesn’t always result in further social care interventions and even when that is necessary it doesn’t have to be feared. It can be support from the children with disabilities team.

I think it was a failure for an EHCNA request not to made. If the PRU genuinely didn’t think DS needed to be there/SEN support why did he send the whole year there?

I think because all school offer him support with is just lunch time they don't see the need for an ehcp. I will have a conversation with them after the Easter holidays and let them know what is going on at home.

The PRU said they couldn't find a school willing to take him mainly because of his age, apparently a lot of schools don't take children that have been permantley excluded.

The school should be providing more support though and there should be an IEP.

During the normal year of entry schools can only refuse a placement based on behaviour if the pupil has been permanently excluded twice, and even that has an exemption when the pupil was below CSA at the time of exclusion which DS would have been unless you deferred DS starting reception. This is in the admissions code. So that doesn’t make sense as a reason, nor does DS’s age.