AIBU to now want to go above my DC's school and take things further

[ballerina1971]

I am very angry with my DC's school. My youngest DC, age 13 has an EHCP with 24 hrs support. last summer when it was exam time it came to my attention my DC did not have a TA for support in lessons when I raised it with the the school they stated all TA'S were helping with exams for 2 wks
• I advised that my DC TA was funded for them through the EHCP, a legal document, not to be used elsewhere DC wasn’t to be without TA again. The school stated they had always done this, I advised this didn't make it right. I had the conversation with the SEN Department, Assumed the matter had been dealt with. My DC then came home in September stating there was no TA again As they were being used for the year sevens, I rang the SEN & insisted that my DC had the
• TA in lessons & having had this conversation with them I didn’t expect to be having it again. A few weeks later my DC came home asking why I had been complaining about the TA’s I was quite shocked by this and I said why are you asking, my DC told me the TA had said to her during a lesson that she better not do ,anything wrong (the TA ) as your mom has already been on the phone complaining to the school about the TA’S! Then earlier this year after my child had stated the teachers seemed to be being nice to her, the same TA said to my DC it’s because they’re scared of your mom she’s notorious around here and laughed. WTAF! This is wrong in so many ways such as, unprofessional, breach of confidentiality. now I’m fuming this is just another incident in a long list of incidents that have occurred since my DC have started there. I’m not talking minor, insignificant things, as I would let those things go I’m Not someone who feels the need to complain at every little minor thing. Very significant things such as overdosing my child on paracetamol and not advising me as per their procedures that they had given paracetamol just to give one example. There are only so many apologies I can receive from the school before I have to take it further. I’ve now had enough, I want this to stop. AIBU to now take this further and not go through the Complaints procedure again. I have followed the school’s complaint process on everything and now I’m sick of it I wish to go to the Local Authoritytand further. The school needs to be accountable for what they're doing I don’t feel at the moment they are. I get a sorry but then they go on to do something else

It's not what op 'would like to have' an EHCP is a legal document that professionals have fed into and stated what a child NEEDs in order to access their education.

Of course parents need to advocate for their child. It’s HOW it’s done that can make a difference. Working with the school will always be more fruitful than rushing to complain. If you as a parent don’t understand where the problems are arising, you cannot work with the school to make things better. Being entitled to something doesn’t make it magically happen and all the complaining in the world won’t change that.

And what does working with the school look like? In my experience it's that parents should suck up lack of provision. OP has already spoken to school and they've continued to use her child's TA elsewhere, without telling her so behind her back, in the hope she won't find out. Is that working together?

When a school can't afford a TA do they tell the parent and work together and support them to enforce the appropriate funding via the appropriate legal channels? No, they sit and blame the parents who expect a legal document to actually be followed. As this thread well demonstrates. Working together only works when schools actually also work with parents, it is not a one way street,

the schools are quick enough to take the extra funding they don’t pay it back to the la if they can’t find someone to do

One of the monitoring letters had the phrase about EHCPs ‘not worth the paper they are written on’ @Headfirstintothewild

@FloofyBird where do they get staff from? Someone on jobseekers who has no experience of or desire of working with children, especially those with SEND. That will work!

You have no idea the answer to that because all ehcp will be funded differently.
my daughters ehcp is completely funded by the La and the school pay nothing towards her or her support as it’s fully covered and it covers the full salary of her 1-1.

EHCPs ‘not worth the paper they are written on’

And? That isn’t uncommon, sadly. It means parents should appeal to SENDIST in order to get a water tight EHCP. Once the EHCP is watertight it can be enforced, via JR if necessary. Parents get the right of appeal to appeal the content when the EHCP is initially finalised, following reviews and following reassessment of needs.

As said by others, it's amazing who can be magic'd up when a pre action letter lands on the LAs doormat.

@Morph22010 very true.

As a teacher, I want to thank those parents who do fight for their child to get the requirements of their EHCP. I completely agree with the PP who that often the requirements are less than what actually required. But it is so frustrating when it gets to exam time and my TA is taken for exam stuff when I NEED them in the classroom otherwise the 34 kids in front of me suffer in some way and have their learning disrupted. This isn't just exam season but also mocks (year 11, year 10, year 12 and year 13 mock periods), then in winter during flu season when our supply agency doesn't have anyone to send us, or a HOY is dealing with a pastoral issue so need her for last minute cover. One of my year 9s should have a 1:1 but she's literally been in 1 of my lessons so far since September - I see that class 3 times per week. Those that think this is just a one off are dreaming.

Schools are so underfunded and all students are being failed, not just the SEND kids, by SEND students not getting what they need. And the government need to be held responsible - they were the ones who closed down so many specialist schools and put students in mainstream education without proper pay for their education as people don't WANT to be TAs for such little pay and schools can't afford to pay them more, or specialist equipment costing a fortune, and insufficient training for staff (if any), with the classes full to busting.

So what suggestions do you have for the school in the short term?

Let's assume they've contacted the LA, and are on the road to challenging their ability to provide.

What does the school do about this situation tomorrow?

Well exams aren't exactly sprung upon people are they. It all should have been sorted before now.

That’s not the point at all. The school will be receiving additional funding to pay a TA to provide 1:1 support for the OP’s child. If other children need support then they need to use the class TA funded by the school budget or apply for an EHCP themselves.

A 1:1 might repeat or rephrase the teacher's verbal instructions, or record them on a mini whiteboard for future reference. They might read aloud to the child, modelling. They might ask prompt questions to keep on track in independent work. They might split tasks into chunks. They might give feedback after every section.

A teacher who knows a child needs this and is missing it will just do it. Even though another adult would make it far easier in practice.

Operative word being should.

Bored of rehashing old arguments.

You carry on in your dreamland while the rest of us SEN hating teachers deliberately fuck up the lives of young people, refuse to help them, never complete a referral, look for ways to deliberately take their provision, break the law, get paid shit loads.

Fighting the system is a slow process when you need a body in a room tomorrow.

A child with 1:1 detailed, specified and quantified in F requires provision that isn’t ordinarily available at a school SEN support level. A teacher absolutely cannot provide 1:1 whilst also teaching the class. Without 1:1 the child will suffer.

That's not the point. Schools can't produce additional TAs by magic for exams and similar situations where more pupils need one to one - and often a separate room because of special provisions.

@DragonGypsyDoris a 1:1 that is specified in section f of an ehcp isn't there by the goodness of the LA'S heart. That provision is there because the child needs it to access education. A school can not decide that the provision would be better used elsewhere for any reason. It would be like removing a ramp from a wheelchair using child as the wood could be used in woodwork to benefit other children.

The logistics of supporting other children are not the child's or child's family concern or responsibility. Exams are dated far in advance with provisional timetables roughly over a year in advance. The failure to staff the exams lies with the school.

In all likelihood if a child has provision of 25 hours plus 1:1 support in their ehcp that ta would not be there if the child wasn't there as the funding goes with the child. What would the school do then?

No-one expects them to produce additional TAs as if by magic. They have a whole school year to find readers, scribes etc, so no magic is needed, and the individuals concerned don't need to be TAs. If they can't organise themselves to that extent, frankly the staff are in the wrong jobs.

Fighting the system is a slow process when you need a body in a room tomorrow.

If you need a body in a room tomorrow, @MultiplaLight, and you have know for a year that you will need that body there, why is the answer to break the law and take a disabled child's 1:1 away?

A 1:1 might need a whole lot more than that, for example implementing a speech and language or sensory programme that they have been trained in by the relevant therapist, taking the child out when overwhelmed, helping with toileting, pre-teaching language, preparing materials in larger fonts, writing notes for the child, etc etc. Is a class teacher going to do all of that in addition to teaching the other 29 children in the class? What if they have two children with SEN both of whom have lost their 1:1s to the demands of the exam system?

They comply with the law, obviously, and leave the 1:1 where they are supposed to be, i.e. working with OP's child.

Planning for exams isn't a sudden short term problem, they don't suddenly happen as a massive surprise to the school.

That works both ways. If schools work with parents to enforce proper funding for the support required under EHCPs, it can only benefit the schools. For example, if they don't have enough funding to supply the support specified, they should be writing to the LA setting out all the relevant figures to demonstrate the problem and letting parents have a copy. The parents will then have the evidence they need to pursue judicial review against the council if necessary. Where complaints often don't work, the prospect of having to pay judicial review costs tends to be very effective indeed.

If funding for 1:1 TAs specified in EHCPs is used in your school "for the biggest all round effect" then your SLT needs some urgent training in the school's basic legal obligations. OP is not asking for anything to be adjusted, she is asking the school to do what it should always have been doing under her child's EHCP. If other children lose out as a result, the school should be applying for EHCPs for them, as the main criterion is that they need support above what is available though normal mainstream resources.

OP is not asking the school to be all things to just her child. She is simply asking for what her child is entitled to by law.

And for the schools that have been advertising for months @GoldenTrout and for the schools that have no money, what do they do?

So many of us have asked this and had no answer. Because there isn't one.

School cannot magic people up when they have been advertising for staff for a year or more.

It would be a very selfish person to insist on a 1 to 1 meaning others can't take important exams.

Schools would love to have the staff they need but people don't want to do it.