SEN funding isn't a bottomless money pit

[Sogfree]

I'll preface this by saying I really enjoy my job working in a SEN school. I care deeply for the children and families I work with.

I've had 4 different conversations this week with parents where they expect an excessive amount of additional resource to be allocated to their child. They expect this as, in their opinion, it's needed. I disagree with 3 of the 4 parents that this is needed.

All 4 of the parents are going to fight the decisions county have made. Their decision to fight will mean county spend more money arguing the challenge.

Services are already broken with the increase in need. Recruitment fails, as there aren't enough speech therapists/OTs/CAMHS practitioners etc to employ.

One parent demanding extra from one of these services means another child gets less.

One parent demanding a child goes to school X at £100k per year when a place at school Y at £30k is going to meet their needs means the child who needs the place at school X doesn't get it, and extra £70k per year is wasted. And the parent keeps their child out of school for 12-18 months whilst they fight for the place at school X.

That's the reality.

Every parent wants the world for their child. I understand that. But taxpayers can't afford to give every child the world.

AIBU - parents know their child best and we should fund what the parents say the child needs

YANBU - there's only so much money to go around and parents need to accept hard decisions have to be made without challenging them

The 1st community paediatrician we saw for DS1 said he couldn't be autistic as he waved bye to her (at my prompting). She didn't try and engage with him at all. It was the SALT and HV who had supported the referral in the first place but that was disregarded by the paediatrician. The SALT persuaded me to try again with a new Community Paediatrician, and he was put on the diagnosis pathway. He was diagnosed aged 3 and no one has doubted his diagnosis since.

I was very fortunate to have that SALT assigned to DS1.

Her attitude is that if sone children get more others get less and at this stage it isn’t possible to give every child the help they need so sone are getting more than their fair share at the expense of others

I imagine millions. Prisons, endless wasted council employee hours, missed employment opportunities for those with special needs, long term medicalization which could possibly be avoided with proper intervention.But that would require government to plan beyond the next five years and none seem to have the stomach for it.

Why do you think you know a child better than the parent does?

And you understand that children who can will benefit from life skills rather than academic education are likely to need very high levels of specialist care which doesn’t come cheap. In my experience kids are more likely to be written off academically than pushed into something they can’t manage.

So how do they afford to live? If you have two parents and one is working and the other isn't, maybe that works.

I'm a single parent with children with additional needs and I have to do that juggle of medical appointments and work because I need an income, and I only manage it because my work is incredibly flexible. One of my children would be far better if I stopped working, but it would be almost impossible financially (I guess that 'almost' is the choice I'm making), and my job keeps me sane.

My point was more that parents of disabled children aren't being unreasonable in asking the state to find somewhere appropriate for their child to be during the day - it's what every other parent gets.

"Either the country stands by the principle that every child has a right to an education and puts sufficient money into the system to make it work, or be outright honest about it and admit you don't give a shit about whether disabled kids"

Either the country stands by the principle that every sick person should be healed and puts sufficient money into the system to make it work, or be outright honest about it and admit you don't give a shit about sick people.

The NHS has a framework where decisions are made on what treatments, drugs etc are available and others only available for patients who meet certain criteria. Naturally Patient groups campaign for the latest wonder drug to be available etc.

Sen provision may ultimately need to do the same.

I used an example unthread of a child I know - essentially the support they receive in school mirrors that at their weekend / school holiday respite - which is a fraction of the cost.

YABU.

We argued the case for our daughter for a year, with everyone saying she'd be fine in mainstream. She has significant communication issues, so is very quiet, but super smart and no sense of danger. She escaped her nursery depsite them upgrading the security three times.

We finally relented so she wasnt missing school, sure enough, she had escaped and gone missing in under 15 minutes.

Such a collosal waste of time, huge disruption, and frankly placing her in danger, for no purpose other than other people thought they knew better.

How can we afford it - the tax burden on most is crippling.

I agree it is not a bottomless pit, whilst fully appreciate that parents want the best for their child some demands are unrealistic and it is a case of priority in spending. Mainstream per child spending is considerably less and is also declining in real terms - the bulk of children are mainstream. Funding decisions are difficult and everyone has different opinions.

They manage it by applying for DLA and UC. Which no one ever tells you that you're eligible for when all this starts. Check the website entitledto or if you have questions PM me. Although, saying that It was under threat during the conservatives and seems to somehow still be under threat with Labour! Not holding much hope that Toad Boy Farage will keep it safe when they eventually get a go

How can we work. I long to work. I look at different options and I just can't do it. I have a young adult who can't be left unattended. I have two teenagers on bespoke timetables and one can't go in other people's cars (OCD). I literally can't do it. I wish I could.

What is your evidence that SEN are being over diagnosed?

I haven't voted because I think it's far more complex than that. For context, I have two DC with SEND and I also work with children in a safeguarding role and support a lot of families who have with children with varying levels of SEND.

The number of LA's on the verge of bankruptcy and struggling to afford the increased demand for SEND provision is, of course, a concern. It's true that there isn't a "bottomless pit" of funding but this is frustrating for parents to hear when it's plain to see how much money is wasted by LA's. Our LA has just spent an obscene amount of money on 're-branding' Children's Services, new website, logos and heavily branded marketing materials a-plenty and massive roadshow events promoting what is essentially the exact same service but using new language to describe it, along with many new roles created at Management level but access to frontline Family Support Workers drastically reduced. Meanwhile, we have children who are entitled to School Transport waiting several months (this is not an exaggeration) from the date their application was approved until they actually get to go to school, because we are told they don't have enough staff to organise the transport in a timely manner.

I also worry about the fact that there is now a big money-making industry around SEND and some individuals/organisations are raking it in. Some of the AP providers our LA uses are eye-wateringly expensive and the provision is just not good enough. These organisations are very good at marketing and self-promotion but do not deliver what they claim to deliver. Also some of the reports I have seen from professionals who have set themselves up as private consultants and are commissioned by schools, the LA or in some cases parents to complete assessments, are extremely poor quality but these people are charging an absolute fortune.

There is a degree of unfairness in the system in that parents who are able to confidently and articulately challenge decisions by schools and LA's are more likely to get provision for their children than those with less 'social capital'. But the solution to this isn't cuts to the SEND budget, it's for parents who don't have the capacity or resources to advocate for their child themselves to be supported to do so.

Yes!

The range of children for whom the way we have developed schools seems to get ever narrower, and there are simply not the options that would meet needs for the rest.

Absolutely this. Changes in secondary schools over the past 30 years have just meant more children are unable to cope with them.

My experience is of children with academic ability and social, emotional and sensory needs - they could manage in smaller mainstream schools with more support. It is the environment which is disabling for them. And I suspect a lot of neurotypical children would also benefit from an environment which meets the needs of neurodiverse children.

I’m glad you said it - I’m sick of teachers and their attitudes to SEND and their unshakable belief that they know more.

Are you suitably trained and qualified to decide who gets what supports? That's the main challenge I face being a parent of an autistic child. You get professionals who know shockingly little about autism and try to fob you off because they can smile or sit in a chair for ten minutes. A lot of times the school doesn't even see challenging behaviours because they are masking all day then erupt at home. It can be very frustrating as a parent explaining what your child needs and what the consequences will be if it doesn't happen to be met with "oh well he's fine in school".

They put you and your child in a situation where the only option is to "fail" repeatedly until you get what you need, but by that time the child's needs are greater due to their interventions. It's barbaric and completely par for the course.

If these posters could spend a day on a private fb group for send parents they'd be horrified by a fraction of what we and our children go through.

The paediatrician said "she's very passive, isn't she?" about DD2 when she was 5. Wouldn't refer for ASD assessment. She was diagnosed at 11.

The same paediatrician saw DD1 every 3-6 months from 2-16, 'didn't see ASD'. She was diagnosed at 15, then when he saw her at 16, said she 'presented as an autistic young woman'.

not every expert gets it right though? When my DD was in Yr3 I queried ADHD with her teacher due to extreme hyperactivity and impulsive behaviour. Teacher said no she doesn’t strike me as someone with ADHD. This was after telling me DD struggles with friendships, shouts out a lot, has an incessant need to talk and can get distracted quite easily. Jump to year 4/5 she starts getting very upset going in to school, turns in to total EBSNA. Running away from the school, running near roads, being physically taken in to school. School SENco fills out ADHD screener form and shock horror she scored high on every area! Now she is medicated and much less agitated and is managing to try and get back in to her school. I can’t help but think of my concerns were taken seriously when I broached this in Yr 3 this could have been avoided.

so no just because you work in a SEN school doesn’t automatically make you right.

Many can't afford to live.

Official figures say about half SEN parents live in poverty.

Only going to get worse with the proposed cuts too which will make older disabled dependant children ineligible for benefits and their parents unable to claim for them.

There will be a significant rise in demand for residential care and it will end up costing the tax payer far more. Breathtakingly shortsighted policy.

Life skills and PfA can be part of an EHCP, delivered in a school/college or otherwise in a school/college. Although, obviously, this doesn’t mean all Dc will become independent, some will never be.

EHCPs can continue until 25, or 26 in some cases. They don’t have to cease at 22.