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

I don’t see why the TA’s think this is aimed at them. The school have told them to supervise elsewhere. It’s the school at fault. But very unprofessional of them to be saying what they’re saying.

Many years ago when I worked in a school, the SN children who were funded were offered 2 different levels they either had 1-1 or they were able to share a classroom assistant, to meet their needs

That isn’t 2 ‘levels’ of EHCPs. An EHCP is an EHCP. What differs is the provision in F - not just if the child has 1:1 but other provision too e.g. some will require SALT, others won’t or some will require a class size of no more than 6 (or 8 or 15, or 20…), others won’t.

What a despicable attitude.

All children have a right to an education. All children have a right to a mainstream education unless it can be proven a mainstream placement would be incompatible with the efficient education of others, and there are no reasonable steps the LA could take to avoid this. Needing a 1:1 doesn’t meet that threshold.

Educating a child otherwise than at school isn’t the easy option for the LA. A comprehensive EOTAS package costs significantly more than 1:1 and other provision in MS. If you think a 1:1 in MS is outrageous you would faint at the cost of DS1’s EOTAS package.

Thank you to all who have provided constructive advice and input and to all of those of you with children with SEN who have similar struggles and mountains to climb I hear you and I feel your frustration, hang in there you’re doing a great job, in a difficult situation. I appear to have started a huge debate on TA’S and provision in EHCP'S that was not my intention. I rarely post and didn't want to make the post too long
I gave the information as detail to show the kind of stuff that had been discussed and what the TA had shared with my child. I think I should of made it clearer and apologise for that. .I have a background in SEN in a LA but now I find myself on the other side of the battle with my own child requiring these services, so do feel quite confident when dealing with matters concerning EHCP content, but also daunted by the state of Education/SEN provision due to so many cutbacks and lack of proper funding. my main focus really was the unprofessionalism of the TA and all the errors the school continued to make, Which I really am fed up with and as they aren’t minor, I will not apologise for complaining to the school. The overdosing was my other child, who is older, had been Unwell I had sent them to school having given a dose of paracetamol at 8:00 AM that morning, advising them to speak to the Head of Year or Tutor if they didn't feel any better to call me to come and collect. my child had spoken to his Tutor around 10:30 am who had told them to go to reception. My DC advised Reception they felt unwell and asked them to call me. The receptionist just asked my child if they could take paracetamol My older child is diagnosed with ASD so literally answered the question they were asked and in their mind yes they could take paracetemol. They weren't asked if they had already taken any that morning, so the Receptionist gave them paracetamol just 2 .5 hours after they already had a dose.
Now their own medication policy is the parents should be advised and an e-mail definitely sent to let a parent know paracetamol had been administered that day, that never happened. I actually found out two days later from my child when something else came up in conversation. This is shocking and dangerous and again I couldn’t leave this and not say anything. So if that makes me one of those parents then so be it. ultimately led to a change in the medication policy and the way pupils are asked to make sure there is clarity, to take into account children with additional needs. This should never have happened. I am not Complaining about insignificant things. I will always advocate for my children and make no apologies for that. I am fully aware that this is a huge problem on a national scale but I cannot single handedly fix that but I can advocate for my child and make sure their legal document is adhered to. Exams happen every year they are no surprise they need to be factored in. My child was born with a rare genetic disorder Which means they were born with physical disabilities. They also have Social & communication difficulties. i have spent the 13 yards of my child's
I have spent the 13 years of my child’s life fighting for services They have been assessed as needing. fighting for OT fighting for physiotherapy fighting for speech and language fighting for CAMHS every single service I have had to fight for. I have followed the compliance process several times all the way through to Govnors, so I really was wondering whether now it would be worth bypassing all that and taking it further because I don’t seem to be getting a satisfactory response from the school and issues keep happening.

As your child gets older - they’ll (hopefully) begin to have a different, more open peer support type relationship with their TAs. Rather than the more distant one with younger children.

You probably want your child and their TAs to be able to have fairly open and relaxed chats and communication.

It sounds like your child hasn’t yet developed the social skills needed to understand what’s appropriate to repeat to who and when. That means you’ll need to help them learn that and in the interim, use your judgement around what you act on. If you go blazing in on every detail, then TAs will be far more distant and less engaged with your child. Which is unlikely to be to their benefit. So while the gossip thing is frustrating, it’s not actually a breach of confidentiality and reacting is more likely to damage your child’s relationship with their TAs than improve things.

If you stick to picking the battles that really matter, and are based on obvious stuff (like whether or not had a TA) rather than solely on things being said to your child then you continue to advocate for them but reduce the risk of them being alienated.

You have to follow the school’s complaints procedures. 24 hours is not full time support…. Does your child usually get support all day? If they do , the school will be funding this out of their budget.
Teachers / schools do their best, there’s never enough funding for everyone.
The TA should not have said something to your daughter but teachers don’t like parents who complain when they are juggling so much

If your school is part of an academy chain have you complained further up the ladder rather than decide to go to the LEA? Check what the chain's complaints procedure is beyond the school.l

So, schools are over stretched and there are not enough TAs. Even given this there is no explanation for the TA to be gossiping to your child. So unprofessional, and needs to be complained about.

I think the Senior Leadership Team would want to know if a TA is sharing gossip.

Highly unprofessional and very unkind to your daughter whose peers will no doubt have heard.

Yes schools are stretched, yes they are having to cope in tough times, yes there are not enough LSAs to meet every child's needs but there is NO excuse for this behaviour from a member of staff.

This! I don’t think people realise how underfunded and understaffed schools are at the moment. Are lot of schools are in huge deficits that they are struggling to pay off!

The TA was unprofessional. I would ask to speak to her line manager (SENDCO usually) and make a complaint.

How did your DD cope without a TA for that period of time?

This! I don’t think people realise how underfunded and understaffed schools are at the moment. Are lot of schools are in huge deficits that they are struggling to pay off!

None of that justifies making vulnerable children with learning difficulties suffer instead.

If schools don't like parents who complain, it might be an idea to comply with the law and therefore avoid giving cause for complaint.

The law changed in 2014 when EHCPs were introduced, though that wasn't the system even under the preceding law (which came in in 1996).

It is the LA's duty to secure the provision in the EHCP, although the school also has a duty to support that. In that situation I would expect the school and LA to work together to ensure that both children had the required support.

If advertising isn't working, they would find that out after a relatively short space of time and should look at other recruitment methods. Plenty have been mentioned on this thread.

What they cannot do is break the law.

Nobody wants the job. So who gets the support?

The real world answer, not the hypothetical one where schools and LAs can recruit all the staff they need.

It isn’t hypothetical to say LAs make appropriate appointments when parents pursue enforcement action. That happens regularly up and down the country in the real world.

How much above TA hourly rate are the LA prepared to fund in your clearly substantial experience?

@Shinyandnew1 one such case I was involved in is now paid in line with M3 on the teaching MPS because that is what it took for the LA to meet their obligations under s42 CAFA 2014. The LA didn’t do this without being forced to though. And it is still cheaper than an independent specialist which is the alternative for that child. Many other cases I have been involved in are paid at HLTA rate or more. I have been involved in numerous cases where £25-30k FTE has been agreed because that is what was needed either because of a lack of staff or to ensure the staff had the required training/experience - including for DS3 who left MS yesterday. An extra 50p an hour isn’t going to cut it. But, again, LAs won’t increase funding without being forced to.

I’m surprised!

Can you outline some more about the judicial review process and what is involved? It’s not something I am familiar with.

@Shinyandnew1 as I posted, LAs won’t do it off their own back. Only when forced to. LAs also like to tell parents and schools they don’t provide more funding - just look at how many schools believe they have to fund the first £6k of SEP in EHCPs when EHCPs can be fully funded (again, LAs only do this when they are forced to).

Here is a link to SOSSEN’s page explaining JR. As well as that page, there are links to more information at the bottom of the page.

As I and others have said, JR is only possible if F is detailed, specified and quantified. Many EHCPs are vague and woolly and therefore unenforceable. With these EHCPs, parents need to appeal to SENDIST when they next have the right of appeal. Depending on their existing evidence, independent assessments may be needed. In order to get the right of appeal, parents can request an early review, but the LA doesn’t have to agree and there’s no right of appeal if the LA refuses to hold one. If that happens, parents need to either wait for the AR or request a reassessment of needs (which does have the right of appeal if refused).

But where SEP is detailed, specified and quantified JR works. Sometimes the threat of JR is enough. If it isn’t a pre-action letter is mostly successful.