Inclusion policies are not working

[somewherbetweenHoneyandTrunchbull]

I am an experienced teacher. And every year budgets are being cut and more and more children are being chucked into mainstream. Non-verbal, extremely sensitive to noisy kids being put into an overcrowded open plan mainstream school. Some have a little speech but couldn't hold a conversation. Many not toilet trained. Many cannot control their emotions and anger. Some where English isn't a first language. Many with social work involvement and living through ongoing trauma at home.
Meanwhile support staff numbers are being cut, year on year.
I had been managing just about. Spinning many plates. Constantly juggling. But then they enrol another two kids with complex needs into my class on 28 individuals. I just can't do it any more. This week I've been bitten, scratched, hit so hard I thought they had cracked a rib. Violent incident forms all filled in but reality means not much will change as I can't get more that 2 20 minute slots of teaching assistant time each week.
I love my job. I love the kids. I love those lightbulb moments. But at the moment I can't do my job of teaching children. I can barely keep them and myself safe in my class. I try. I'm exhausted. I'm worn out working day and night so that I'm super organised so everything can go smoothly but it never does. If it was just one child having a meltdown I probably coolyld cope. I just do t know which firework will go off when. I don't know what is setting them off and once they go, others follow.
I cry most days at how hopeless it feels. I have some really bright and eager children too. They are also being let down by this system. I'm not sure who the current education policies help. It doesn't seem to help anyone except desensitising children to daily bouts of violence and the language.
I'm very broken tonight. I'm so sleepy but won't help x

Schools can call an ar and the only legal requirement is that it must be held by one year from the last. If a child is repeatedly being violent over a period of time surely the school would have mentioned it or if less than a year it will be getting near to ar date anyway and a term early to coincide with (whatever reason/ parent request/ too many reviews at once/ ease for staff) is easy to get by.

If schools are clever about it they don't have to.word it as an early review.

But you said they couldn't refuse the review, they can.
And yes, you can then request a reassessment and go to tribunal, but what do you think is happening in the meantime? The child is not having their needs met, they are not coping, the school is not coping and nor are the parents.

I work for a statutory service supporting parents of SEND. We are open to all but it's fairly obvious who needs our help and we direct our resources at those least ability to manage it themselves. We are still at the mercy of these parents making themselves known to us but we do try and plea with schools/school nurses/other services to just spend 2 minutes with them to craft an email to us and make themselves known, we take it from there.

It doesn't reduce the inequality. Both of my children have plans largely written by private reports. My 6 YO is struggling so I've ploughed some money into a fresh OT assessment and block of sessions to help him. He's lucky because I can afford to sort things when he needs it, not just when the NHS/LA agrees.

The cost can be astronomical to get well written plans.

My DD in her EHCP has had £2.2k EP, £735 specialist SALT x 2, £580 OT x2. She's only in year 4. I work with families in the same LA who could have the same child and 4 lines of provision in section F.

Schools then can't get the funding. My DD's properly written plan the school could clearly fo a thorough provision map and eventually got the funding.

If it is less than 11 months since the previous review, it is an early review, whether we call it that or not! In which case a local authority can refuse.

But at least something is happening. Letting things carry on without doing anything helpful and moaning on sm doesn't help at all.

During this time schools could also provide an abundance of supporting documents if they choose so the la don't have a leg to stand on.

They could refuse but unlikely. Sen case usually dont know if they're coming or going.

Would you rather not try or ask?

Do you not think we do!!!
Do you honestly think schools want to keep children in mainstream when parents want them in specialist provision because they simply cannot cope or don't want to provide anything they can to make this possible. Do you think that we want classes disrupted because we don't have the facilities to support a child, do you think we want staff to resign because they are being hurt by a child who simply cannot cope in the classroom, do you think we want children isolated from their peers as the only way to keep them safe, do you honestly think we just throw our hands up in the air and say " oh well, never mind we will wait til next year!"

It is also very difficult to get professional reports, even if they are deemed necessary. ADHD or ASD assessment? Refer to CAMHS, 12 months plus. Schools get 3 EP slots per academic year, no help if you have 25 children needing assessment.
Speech and Language? There are no therapists commissioned to do assessment for the LA, so they have to go on the NHS waiting list which is 16 weeks for the initial assessment.
Again, if it was just one child then it’s easy to collect evidence, get assessments done, but when it’s four or five in a single year group then the schools simply don’t have the time.

Sometimes no schools dont try and children are really let down. As seen in this thread. How is a parent supposed to get the support for their child with only positive reports or no evidence because of la policy or fight when teachers are saying they need to do more plan, do and Review? Clearly not everything is being done. I've spoke to parents who have been told not to apply for an ehcpna by the school, I've spoken to parents where their child's 1:1 is used for a group of children events though specified in section f because the other children have needs and the teacher can't cope, kids with aac devices that aren't used in school or the best one was left uncharged in a draw, as above someone with no formal training in makaton supporting a child from youtube videos (great short term but not long term), then there's the violent kids I've heard many parents only finding out that their child was restrained when they do a sar. How are they supposed to get provision when they don't even know the extent of what is happening.

Not all teachers/ schools are angels or unaccountable. Some genuinely don't care. I'm aware some do. Some are also just bad at their jobs as in any walk of life.

Also from a cynical point of view having an ehcp which is unspecified etc can be easier for schools in that they don't have to provide what was intended but not detailed.

The threshold for ehcpna is very low, I posted it earlier. If the la agree to assess or if parents have appealed give them the evidence so that they can reasonably ask for these needs to be assessed. If the la don't have commissioning in place of timeframes aren't going to be met the la should be commissioning independents. Parents would need to enforce. This includes adhd and autism assessments. How can a child have a needs assessment if all needs aren't assessed. The la shouldn't be writing something like to be completed in x date, it isn't lawful.

As below

We would never blame parents but teachers, well most I know are trying so very hard to do everything they can for children. You saying that we must take responsibility is just another person saying this is all our fault.
Statements like that are why I won't be in this job past Christmas even though I love working with children. It is all I ever wanted to be. I've no idea what else I can do. 20 plus years of being a teacher but I can't do it anymore.
The system, the local authorities and the government are letting children down.
I cry everyday with frustration. I know what is needed. I'm trying my best. I've told people what is needed. But every day I am physically assaulted or just physically exhausted from trying to keep everyone safe.
I wake in the night thinking over strategies to try. I spend my wages to buy things to try.
Would you say an over worked nurse was letting children down? Or would you accept that this might be outwith their control?
I am so done.

Me too, I'm off. This is my last year too. Maybe someone else can be the miracle worker that is needed. But not me.

Mainstream is simply not suitable for all children. DS1 started in special school and now has a Master's and lives independently, so it is not the case that no-one can achieve outside the mainstream. In his case starting in mainstream would almost certainly have crushed him.
Closer working between the special and mainstream sectors is key,allowing children to move between them as needed.

Schools don’t have time to fight the LA, it takes time to chase them up, to challenge their decisions, to take them to tribunal x 6, 7, 8 kids. The LA is broke, they just won’t spend money on private assessments. It is not the schools fault, and it is certainly not individual teachers fault.

Don't blame parents... blame teachers.

Is that seriously the message?

Because in the past very many of them would have been declared legally "ineducable" (this used to be formally certified) and shut away.

Simple.

Source: I used to work with adults with LD, autism and other disabilities, many of whom had spent decades in institutions of several hundred beds each.

Sadly, it appears to be. 😔

Schools dont take the la to tribunal, parents do. Parents challenge decisions not schools but you can provide the evidence in writing.

The LA's do tend to cough up when given a pre-action protocol letter or threatened with jr. It doesn't matter if they don't have the money, they have to find it or take it from elsewhere.

It's mainly teachers on here complaining, what I've pointed out is that sometimes they make a rod for their own back.

Should the message be blame parents, is that what you're saying?

Why do you think mainstream is the only place that can happen? My experience and that of many other parents I know is the exact opposite. Too many parents fall for the anti special school BS fed to them by some campaigners, or, and I'll be blunt, because they are in denial over the extent of their child's needs at the particular point they're at.
OP is clearly not talking about well supported high achieving children with additional needs but those who struggle with the basics of mainstream school life.

Straw man argument. Of course it's not what they are saying but you apparently only see it in either/or terms.

We are blaming parents who sit their children in front of a tv or hand them a tablet to keep them quiet, who spend their time ignoring their children, those are the only parents where any blame at all has been mentioned.

We are not blaming parents who are as frustrated with the SEND system as teachers are.

Teachers have massive pull with ehcps of they wrote that they can't meet need or child needs x support etc parents are able to act.

I think it's important to note that classroom teachers generally have no pull at all. It is the SENCO, alongside SLT, who is involved with contacting the LA to say the school cannot meet needs. They don't always listen to what teachers have to say about what is actually happening in the classrooms