Good SEN provisions

[OutDia]

Hello

My youngest has autism. I knew something was different from very early on. He kept missing milestones. I have now been told that when he starts school, he will need a 1-2-1 teacher.

We live close to a primary school which he can attend. However, there is no provision where I live after year 6.

I work from home and have no real ties to where I live. We have a terraced garden where I cannot really leave him to run around. We live quite close to parks though.

I would happily move anywhere in the UK where there are better provisions for his needs.

Does anyone know where would be a good place for him?

I really liked it when I looked around my sons at firwood ,but he's doing OK there .

It isn’t a maintained school but the same rules apply and it is important the OP knows the law surrounding EHCPs because LAs often act unlawfully so I was pointing out the the OP it isn’t an independent school.

Independent specialist schools are very expensive.

My DD attends a non section 41 school, the fees are £85k per annum.
The LEA pay all her fees, including a taxi to and from school.
I ended up going to tribunal to get the place.

I have another child in a maintained specialist school, his package costs £45k per annum.

I would ask the SALT to put her recommendations in writing.

The EP is the most important HCP in the EHCNA.

Ipsea are a great charity, lots of good and well written advice.

I think at the moment the most important thing to do is to get a robust EHCP in place that is as watertight as possible and truly reflects your sons current needs. For us, that took 2 years of back and forth with the LA to achieve, managed to do it without getting as far as the actual court hearing, but it did take mediation, independent reports and a lot of to-ing and fro-ing on the working document to reach an agreement.

The other thing you should be doing is reading, researching, learning. Its important you know the process and how it works with the different types of schools. Visit them too. I've visited schools which look perfect on paper but when I've got there they're totally inappropriate for my child, and vice versa. You're about to start a very long and bumpy road, if you are on Facebook I would suggest finding a local group related to EHCPs/SEND as they will also be able to provide support and guidance based on your local authority.

My son was in what sounds like a similar position to yours when we started this process. 2 years ago I wondered if he would ever speak. I had so many sleepless nights and cried so many tears over it all. There wasn't what i felt was a suitable school. He wasn't appropriate for mainstream and the limited special schools weren't able to meet his needs either.
Now, at 5, he speaks in full sentences (incessantly, its like he's making up for lost time!), is excelling at school (mainstream) academically, is making good progress socially too and most importantly he's happy and loves school. The amount he has changed in such a small space of time blows my mind

I'm glad he's doing well. I've seen you post a few times on various autism threads.

OP, the advice you've had around getting the ehcp right is prob the best first step. Section b should detail all his sen and section f should details provision to meet everyone of those needs in such a way that it can't be misunderstood (specified, quantified and detailed). Sossen and ipsea have great websites.

You need the professionals to put in their reports exactly what he needs and if the slt has said 121 for communication reasons get that in writing and ask for it to be really clear eg x child must have a dedicated ta trained in a,b,c with d,e,f qualifications to aid communication, this will be for y hours per day. The child will require a dedicated 1:1 ta to work directly with him for both structured and unstructured times (including breaks and lunches). The child will require x hours of direct speech therapy per week with a speech therapist trained in a,b,c with d,e,f qualifications. This will be z hours over the academic year. The speech therapist must also produce a report for the annual review and attend the review meeting.

If your son has any sensory needs request that these needs are assessed by an ot trained in sensory processing likewise fine/gross motor skills. It is common for children with autism to have sensory needs, hypermobility and/or dyspraxia as well. The ot will be able to help with daily living skills too (section b and f).

It is established in case law that speech therapy and ot are that vital to education that they are educational provision. Quite often LA's try to put it in health- don't let them as when in b/f and worded correctly tje ehcp can be enforced if provision isn't made.

Have a good read of sossen/ipsea's websites. Get the ehcp right from the get go. Just a word of warning though if you move areas the new la can reassess which could mean having to go through the process again.

If your local maintained schools can't meet his needs, the la can pay for an inde/ non maintained school if they can meet needs. Maybe have a good look at any local schools and see where you feel can meet his needs best (inc inde). You could try to guide the ehcp to point to that school. (Not how it should work but in the real world there is only so many options of schools).

Best of luck