to think that someone is in for a bollocking tomorrow

[Worriedobsessive]

which they richly deserve!

Difficult families?

All parents of SEN children are 'difficult', otherwise they would not even get a diagnosis, let alone the help and support they need.

I am not 'difficult' enough..... yet!

I'd rather any ad told the truth than used official socialworker speak that everyone smirks at, far worse.

You can get statements when you have no SEN, you know, although they aren't as common - maybe that's what the illiterate author was aiming at.

It is very very common in any job dealing with the public, to have in the job description that you must be able to work with difficult people - although various types of wording is used. It is an important skill for the person to have.

SEN families are the same as any other in that some are difficult.

Anyone working with the public will have to be able to deal with difficult people.

Very badly worded ad overall. They've also missed of "n" "an Education..." and they want someone to start "a role".

Working with difficult families, couldn't they have said families with difficulties... Working with families who are having to advocate for their children with SEN faced with numpties more like!

Lanaorana2 You can’t get statements at all.

Families with difficulties has a totally different meaning. Lovely reasonable people can have difficulties.

Should have said something along the line of “challenging conversations” because largely what happens is that parents and carers want support for their children and nearly all the conversations in our borough anyway appear to be telling them that their child doesn’t meet the threshold. An applicant would have to be aware that no matter how obviously desperate and completely entitled they might feel most parents are to have their child supported, they are going to have to be the ones communicating the bad news.

Exactly, brasty. The same wording is in my job description and I work with young people. It doesn't mean all of the parents are "difficult", it just means that I need to be able to deal with the ones who are.

Is this a current ad on a job site or actually on LinkedIn now, or is it a spoof?

ElizabethG81 does your job involve the delivery of their legal entitlements, and do your bosses tell you that your targets involve NOT delivering them and saving as much money as possible, thus making clients “difficult”?

Thinking of the people you are working with as 'difficult', before you even meet them, is not the way to a great relationship.

The way the advert is worded speaks of a deeply ingrained belief that the families being worked with are 'difficult' and - actually - a fear of those families.

I'm guessing the advert was written by someone at the Employment Agency, not the LA. It almost certainly doesn't represent the LA in the manner in which they would wish to be represented.

Don’t think I’d have got half as far getting ds diagnosis and support from his school if I hadn’t been a bit difficult. Took three years in total to get diagnosis and have a teacher sit down with me to discuss ds’s needs. maybe if the support had been forthcoming to start with I would have been less of a pain in the ass to my LEA

Thecatfromjapan you’ve summed up the problem beautifully

@thecat it sounds like notes from the phone conversation / meetings where the la said what they want - but wasn't meant to be written on paper that way.

Difficult does not mean pushing for your child to get the support they need. Difficult is a euphemism for rude, aggressive people. Anyone in a public facing role has to deal with them.

The LA see parents who are pushing for supper as being difficult, which is why it’s in the advert.

Challenging sounds worse. As though parents will challenge anything that's said etc. Which to be fair, they should when it comes to the LA.

Worried, no it involves working with young offenders and actually involves spending a lot of time pushing back against decisions made by LAs. My colleagues and I usually end up being the ones being labelled as "difficult".

All I'm saying is that this is very standard wording and will be in most people's job descriptions for jobs working with the public.

There is no suggestion at all that all families of children with SEN are difficult. Just that some may be.

I don't see the problem.

You have to be "difficult" when you come up against the ignorant incompetent twats in the LA!

To those who think this is no big deal, EHCPs are for children with disabilities. Those with long term illnesses. Those with life limiting conditions.

‘Work with difficult families’ as a person spec in the absence of any such clause as ‘support families and children to get relevant help’ or ‘sensitive approach to establishing need’ or ‘ability to work with parents and children who are in very difficult circumstances “ is VERY telling.

There are scant points about experience at all. So ‘work with difficult families’ takes on a particular emphasis.

I work in a special school (name-changed), and believe me, some of the families are 'difficult'! You're reading this through your own lens of needing to be assertive to get anywhere (which I totally understand). But that's not the kind of 'difficult' they're talking about. I think the current more favoured term is 'chaotic' - drugs, alcohol, crime, violence... You might find it hard to believe but some children with SEN are put into foster care because their parents are neglectful or abusive.

Genuine question : anyone who thinks this advert is ok, do you have SEN kids and deal with the local Authority?

This reminds me of the government's "Troubled Families" programme. What a lovely way to describe families going through a difficult time.