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 can understand your frustration about your child not receiving their entitlement and you should take whatever steps you can to advocate for them to receive it.

Many schools are failing to deliver specified provision/ entitlement for reasons they can't control and therefore can't address even if/when they receive complaints. These include:

• Being unable to commission or recruit and retain needed staff. There is a national shortage of speech and language and occupational therapists and educational psychologists. Nearly all special schools have infilled vacancies
• With more working from home roles and more flexible contracts, many people who would have once wanted TA roles for the school/term time hours are now opting for other roles. The calibre of applicants for vacancies can be very poor and can lead to infilled positions.
• LA payments to schools often do not cover the cost of provision specified. For example, the payment an LA makes for 10 hrs of OT only covering the cost of 6 hours.

The is pressure all round. LA place a lot of pressure on schools because, ultimately, where an EHCP is in place, it is the LA's legal duty to deliver it. They delegate this responsibility to schools, and put a lot of pressure on them, but even the best schools often cannot deliver for reasons they can't control. Parents, understandably complain, but where schools are doing all that is within their control, there is nothing they can do.

The system isn't working. There are huge cracks. My concern is that the mess is causing many of those who have the highest standards and the most integrity to leave. Therefore, when things do improve at government policy and funding level, I am not sure the infrastructure will be in place in LAs and schools to implement it effectively.

for Children that are capable yes but the fact that it was an issue means that he probably isn’t, a 13 year old that the la have judged to need 24 hours 1-1 support a week (it’s not easy to get an ehcp and generally less hours are given than are actually needed) is on the balance of probability not going to be able to take responsibility for their own medication.

My youngest DC, age 13 has an EHCP with 24 hrs support

When was this issued? Does it state 24h or is it a banding? Our LA haven’t stated hours for years so any saying that would be old and need updating. What the LA said paid for 24 hours, 6 years ago, probably pays for 18 hours now. Look at exactly what’s specified in Section F and go through it at the next review.

Many secondaries have moved away from solely using x hours of 1:1 support in lessons and use the funding for running interventions for them.

I have a child with sen and an ehcp. When I was touring schools, a sendco said to me 'if the ehcp says 1-1, your child won't get it. We are stripped bare'. I'm not saying it's right. It's not. It's a legal document and should be followed but the funding isn't there. The budgets aren't allowing for it. Does your child even care or feel effected when the TA has been in exams? If it says 24hrs a week then some hours shouldn't have one

You do have the choice to move your child if you are not happy with the school. It is totally unrealistic to expect your child to have 1:1 support every single day unfortunately. TAs are taken to cover exams and occasionally to help with things like school trips. Nobody thinks this is ideal, but unfortunately it is the reality in the current climate. Blame underfunding by central Government rather than an individual school - resources are just stretched too thinly.

Of course the SENCO and TAs should not be saying anything in front of your child about you being THAT parent. That is totally unprofessional.

The thing is though this doesn’t seem like a case where the school are disputing that they aren’t providing what is in the ehcp, as is often the case when section f isn’t specified and quantified enough and parents think child should have a 1-1 but the funding is used in a different way. The school saying the ta is required elsewhere so even if op’s section f was perfectly worded and clear the school wouldn’t be able to provide it anyway

The devil is in the details on the ehcp. Does it state 1:1 during all lesson times or simply access to a ta for 24 hours a week? The difference is that with the later they are not employed purely for your dc and as o discovered the school could redeploy them if necessary and use other resources to help my children. 1:1 tends to be for those with behavioural issues or health concerns whereas my dc would be left working on a computer for instance. Not ideal but budgets are too tight to fund all the £6k a year school contributions and if it's not 1:1 they are expected to share

As someone above has recommended you need to look at your banding or hours. The most recent awards of EHCP's has been banded but our LA has now gone back to hours. This will depend on your LA and will tell you just how much support is awarded.

Also, look at Section F in your EHCP document and the areas of need. This will specify whether your child can work in small groups with a TA as part of their funded hours, most do now as this covers the social aspect of the EHCP. Have they got a +5 which provides lunch cover? The lunch cover is often given separately and only us usually awarded to those with physical need or high behaviour needs so if your child doesn't need this the +5 will be used elsewhere.

She doesn't have the right to move the child if the school is named in the EHCP. Some mad advice here!

OP, the LA is legally responsible for providing section F of the EHCP. Check what's specified, is it direct support? How many hours?

If you have complained once, and school say they can't fund it, you need to seek an early review. There is guidance on the IPSEA website on how to do this. The next stage would be judicial review but you would need to go through the process stage by stage. The Scope website has a pretty good guide.

You absolutely must be the squeaky wheel, politely but firmly. 121 TAs are not awarded easily, your DC needs it, it must be provided. The school's other staffing issues are not your DC's problem. Depending on your LA you could have an informal conversation with them first as they will also probably want to avoid an early review they may speak with the school.

I think you need to treat the professionalism issue separately and pursue a complaint there, but it is especially bad that the TA is insinuating the child's disability is being spoken about and considered annoying, to the child.

Hop over to the SEN section where you'll get some more informed, kind, advice.

"Depending on the SEND it doesn't mean they can't start to take it responsibility for medication.

Why is society so keen to have low expectations of SEND students?"

I think a parent knows better what their own child needs than someone who doesn't know the child.

@HelenaWaiting My point wasn’t that OP doesn’t have a right to complain. Of course she does. It was that she might be being a bit unrealistic if she has had to complain so much. Bear in mind we have only had one side of the story.

My friend has a child with an ehcp who has been without a 1:1 TA for the last month. She always complained about the TAs(2 this year) and then complained when they left. The school hasn’t been able to recruit another. She is complaining about that now.

None of this is relevant. If the EHCP says OP's child must have a TA, that is what has to happen. If the school doesn't get enough funding, it must take that up with the local authority. If the school can't "juggle" EHCPs it should tell the LA that it is unable to offer.a place when consulted, and be prepared to take it to the Secretary of State if necessary.

Schools have to contribute the first £6000 out of their own budgets, so even a "funded" TA for an EHCP isn't actually fully funded. For a TA who earns around £18,000, that means a full third of what they earn (not to mention top-ups needed for e.g. NI and pension contributions) is not funded by the government. Neither are extra staff in case a TA is ill - our TAs get allocated by greatest need on a daily basis.

It isn't fully funded, but it's incorrect to say "a full third" isn't fully funded. The school gets delegated funding of a notional £6K per year for each child with SEN. There's a complicated calculation which means it's never actually £6K, but it's certainly not £0 which this answer implies. It's probably in the region of £4K at least depending on where OP is.

Building a good relationship with the school is relevant. I’ve worked in a school and ‘those’ parents don’t get a call back, everybody has to be dragged into meetings with them etc.

Understanding the school’s viewpoint is the first step in building a relationship to understand where the problems are stemming from.

Sorry, but I don’t think digging in is the fastest way to a resolution.

If children are entitled to a scribe or reader in exams, they are also likely to have EHCPs and should have spent time beforehand practising working with them, as dictating responses to exam questions is very different from writing them. If schools are not funded for that, again it is up to them to make a fuss with the local authority, if necessary supporting the parent in a formal complaint or the judicial review process.

If the EHCP requires someone else to have responsibility for this, there is a reason for this evidenced by a professional. So it's pretty clear that OP's child does have the sort of difficulties which bring them into one of the exceptions that you seem to acknowledge. No school is taking on responsibility for delivering medication to all children with SEND if it doesn't have to.

Defining provision solely by reference to banding is unlawful. The law has not changed since 2014 and it remains the case that provision must normally be properly specified and quantified. Why assume because your LA is breaking the law that every other LA is doing so?

The whole the school has to pay towards it is still the child’s funding,

they don’t have to find it from no where, they have to put the element 1 and element 2 funding ( sen fundin) ) towards the total amount of the ehcp.
they wouldn’t be getting that sen funding if said child wasn’t sen or on the school anyway.
OP you can call an emergency ehcp review and look at wording very carefully.
my daughter has 32.5 hour direct 1-1, which is stated clearly it is direct 1-1 and by whom.

So if a SEND parent is not one of "those" parents, presumably in your school their child doesn't get the provision in their EHCP and nothing ever gets better.

As others have rightly pointed out, SEND parents have to advocate for their children, and when a school doesn't respond to polite requests what do you suggest they do? Understanding the school's viewpoint doesn't help any child.

It is so depressing the way so many people on MN take the view that the needs of a child with SEND must always be put to one side because it's tough for schools. It's even tougher for those children, who only really have this one chance at education at the optimum time for learning. The simple fact is that many schools do manage to comply with their legal duties, so one of the first questions that arise about those who don't is (a) are they properly managed and (b) are they advocating for children to the LA with SEN with parents, and if not, why not.

Schools don’t get £6000 per SEN child, they £6000 for the number of SEN children based on what would we be expected for that type of school, area etc. And it doesn’t sit in a pot waiting to be used if a child is then deemed to need additional help due to SEND needs. Schools can’t afford to do that

Our local authority is basically rationing the number of EHCPs issued to save them having to provide additional funding

I agree that it is worth asking for an early annual review, though the LA doesn't have to comply. One way or another you need a meeting with the school which is calm and constructive, in which you say to the school basically "Look, you have a duty in law to use your best endeavours to meet my child's needs, and when you take away provision that you specifically receive funding for, you aren't using your best endeavours. If it is the case that you don't have enough funding to meet the requirements of my child's EHCP, please raise that with the LA. Please also let me have the figures so that I too can take it up with the LA, because they have an absolute duty to secure my child's provision. If necessary I am prepared to enforce their duties by judicial review but I will need your support in that. If you can't support me, I will have to insist that my child receives the full complement of EHCP provision with no exceptions, and I am advised that that also is legally enforceable against the school. I really don't want to have to get into legal fights, so let's work together on this."

https://sossen.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Judicial-Review-SOSSEN-.pdf

The chain of command for making a complaint is usually:
Head
Governing Body
LEA or Ofsted.

Look at your school's complaint policy and follow the process. If you've already spoken to the Head then the next stage is the Chair of Governors. If you escalate things too high and miss a step they will probably bat it back down.

The simple fact is that many schools do manage to comply with their legal duties

I’d be very surprised if that were true. I think it’s more likely that most schools redeploy TAs to support exams, or put students with an EHCP in the same class so they can share a TA, or the TA assigned to support an individual is used to support the whole class.

As well as not having a TA it is possible that the pupil doesn’t have a teacher.

If 1:1 has been awarded I assume that your child needs it and I would be upset if my son didn’t get that. Mine doesn’t speak he doesn’t do anything he would need the person with him or he’d be off home etc he’s heading for specialist provision but as per it takes time and money resources etc.

I think some people don’t realise why our children require 1:1 or more care. It’s for their safety, education and care not just for fun. And if parents didn’t get on at the schools they’d just sit back and do nothing. You have to be the advocate for your child no one else will. yes it’s tough for schools but that’s not our fault or really our concern.

Mine is that my child is safe in school, that he’s getting an Education - he’s not at the moment he’s running away etc and that he’s having his needs met. He wouldn’t, for example he able to do his own medications he’d just take them all or none, and that’s not anyone thinking he is incapable but keeping him safe and knowing what he is capable of and supporting him to do what he can for himself he just needs the correct support. Mine is not, and whilst op son isn’t getting the Ta at all that was recommended what is happening? I’d be worried too, and the fact they are talking about you in front of your child is awful. Mine wouldn’t be able to tell me so god only knows what they would be saying, v unprofessional

she has 24 hour funding but her funding is being used for other kids. In no world or school is that acceptable for starters.

The TAs talking about the mum like this is out of order and I would be standing in front of the head explaining that it is to stop now, and also explaining how i am escalating this. Not shouty, not ranting, just clearly and calmly.

When a parent finally gets an EHCP the school are absolute twats for taking it away.