To ask you to sum up your council’s SEN provision in a sentence?

[Starwomanwaiting]

Hello all,
Some very brief background: I have an autistic child, referred at 18 months, saw consultant before age 2, diagnosed age 3, extra funding at nursery for at least a year now. Nursery is applying for EHCP which will take 12 weeks. Have seen educational psychologist and looking to defer reception for a year.

My question: it seems like we have been very lucky with our experience so far (except for speech therapy provision, which has had to be private). However we can’t stay in the city forever and need to buy a house/want a garden. So we need to find somewhere that isn’t going to be total shite for SEND.

If you are outside London and have had a good experience please tell me! I know each case is unique but it would help me do more research. Equally if your experience has been awful and you’d like to warn me off please do so.

I want to do right by my kid, but in a SEND crisis it’s hard to know where to start.

Thanks x

Nottinghamshire County Council and Broxtowe Borough Council have been amazing in their support, from diagnosis to Speech therapy, additional funding in both nursery and school, Sibling support offered and grants for sensory equipment, quick responses to support services /applications and appointment times. Can’t fault them

To put it in one sentence, it would have to be,

Everything my autistic, non verbal child needs.

Better than most
My son is severely autistic with severe learning disabilities we have four LEA special schools in my LA and several autism hubs
As well as,a number of PRU,s ( I'm.in Bolton ).

Therapist working in SEND in London but living outside London - avoid Buckinghamshire! My daughters school has an ARP where the staff do their absolute best but the council keeps cutting funding, EHCP's are taking up to 18 months, as a school governor I can say the provision in thus area is definitely substandard.
In contrast the borough I work in provides an excellent service, the only area where provision needs significant improvement is speech therapy - so I wonder OP if it's the same borough or just a common theme.

Avoid surrey at all cost! Awful is an understatement.

peterborough shite.
durham excellent.

Avoid Kent

Diabolical

sso I started this saying that Surrey is bad which it is. But there are some great schools and with some help from fellow Sen parents you can mange the council. My son has speech delay and it took 18 months to get an EHCP in place but while he didn’t have it his school put so interventions in place so that when his EHCP came through - very little changed except the school now getting funding. My son hd an excellent speech therapist (private) and the school were more that happy for him to have this in school time and a TA would attend to them carry on the work between visits.

i would think about where you want to be and the. Join local fb Sen parent groups as there are sone great mainstream schools for Sen and some not to great

Lancashire... shit

Avoid Lincolnshire at all costs

Just like every LEA the greatest beneficiaries are the employees.

I think I’d rather be in (some parts of) England.

I don't think I can distil the horror down to one sentence, so will just say abysmal.

Trying their best, but skint.

Manchester - bit overwhelmed but generally benign intent, EP services reasonably easily available in most schools. Waiting lists for ND assessment v long post COVID (aren't they everywhere?).

I think most are in such dire straits, there will be people fighting the whole time in every LA.

There are some fantastic staff doing their best with a tiny fraction of the resources they need. So there will be people who feel they have a good deal, but there will be 10x as many who didn't / don't get what their child needs.

Very poor sadly. Severely autistic non verbal kids put into mainstream because there’s no finding or places for them in supported education.

Dealing with Surrey's SEN department has given me sympathy for the people you hear about that lose it and start shooting up the place. I completely understand how a department/company can push you to that level of breaking point.

Uninterested.

Policies devised by idiot bean counters who have no experience with children who have SEN

Lucky you. The only Autism hub in a 200 mile radius of us is shutting down because it is under subscribed. Turns out that’s because the LA have been actively putting parents off , and declining places even though they are half empty.

Cheshire West wasn’t great, we moved over the border into Cheshire East and it was a world of difference. However my son left school 5 years ago now and I’ve heard it’s gone downhill recently.

My one sentence would be

SEN provision is fine but clearing and life experiences for children could be significantly improved if so much money wasn’t wasted on providing parents with transport to school that they either don’t need or could afford themselves, especially if their child receives funding for their mobility though their benefits.

Lancashire, absolutely dreadful