School transition for SN child

[Frustratedandfedup]

Struggling to find any answers online so have come here for advice. I know I should've posted this on the SN boards, but there's more traffic here and I need a solution now because I feel utterly hopeless at the moment.

My child has moderate ASD and is due to start at a mainstream school in September (not disabled enough for a special school apparently) and they have told me that they want me to only bring him in one hour a day for the whole first term, because it'll take them that long to get support for him! He's currently does full days in the nursery next door to the school, he will have no problems settling but because of his lack of danger awareness they need someone to supervise him and they don't have the staff.

I'm a single parent, I work shifts, have no family nearby and the school is out of catchment so don't have any friends who can help out. I can't just take six weeks of work! There are no other suitable schools nearby (plus his sibling is at this one) the LEA won't send him to a special school and I don't really want to have to shove him in a new unfamiliar nursery and keep paying £120 a week in nursery fees when I don't have to (also there will be no space for him at his current nursery in September)

Please help me! Is there anyone I can contact about this, what are my rights? I was fully expecting a week or so of phasing in to school, but six weeks! Can I hire some sort of support worker whilst they are sorting their funding out? Feeling utterly miserable about the whole situation.

It's not odd at all it's happening to special needs kids all around the country and has been for years.

The problem you have is you challenge it they start throwing round terms like "it's all he can cope with" "it would be emotionally troubling to him"

We all know they mean we can't cope and we don't want to but it's a difficult one to stop

Yup. It's abysmal.

The social worker phoned me back to say she'd get onto the school. She said they can't refuse him on the grounds of him being in nappies. She also said it might be tricky until he's compulsory school age. She has met my son before and believes he needs a statement, so she's going to call the school and find out exactly what is going on in regards to that. They know how well he's doing with his respite carer, he took to her straight away and happily went out with her. He's also been in his current nursery for just under two years and I've never had a single phone call to collect him, although they agree he needs support because he tends to only interact with adults rather than children. But he's certainly not a danger to other children, and he's very well behaved. He never runs off and the tantrums a few and far between, and are no different to a normal toddler of his age. I think there definitely needs to be some compromise here, even if he just goes in half of the week and spends the other half in a nursery until it's sorted, as I'm relying heavily on wrap around childcare for work.

Good, glad your social worker is on the ball and proactive. Also, hope phone call with IPSEA is helpful tomorrow. Keep posting - we have a wealth of experience here

Update: the school phoned me to say social services want to organise a 'child in need' meeting.

What does this entail exactly?

She also said it might be tricky until he's compulsory school age.

She may be forgetting that, whether he's of compulsory school age or not, if it is the norm for children of his age to be at school full time then refusing to allow your child in full time is disability discrimination.

A "child in need" is defined in the Children Act 1989 this way:

"For the purposes of this Part a child shall be taken to be in need if—
(a) he is unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision for him of services by a local authority under this Part;
(b) his health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired, without the provision for him of such services; or
(c) he is disabled."

Your child would come under (c). It sounds like a meeting to discuss generally what help he receives. It would make sense to ask social services to carry out a full care assessment under the Act.

Oh, okay Judy hopefully it will be for the best then...

He did another settling in session today with the other children from his nursery. I asked the teacher if he was okay and she said yes, just fine, no problems. So I hope they are starting to realise that having him there isn't really going to be an issue.