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

Do you think there are increasing number, s of children with significant needs requiring a special school place?
The reason I'm asking is because all four special schools in my LA have doubled in capacity in the past 10/15 years to.meet the growing needs of children.

Same in ours - all have added extra classes, added a satellite site, split across 2 sites to add capacity. Specialist nurseries have also increased places significantly. These are all oversubscribed. But mainstream numbers have gone down, so there isn't an overall increase in numbers of children - one mainstream primary was closed and converted into a special school.

Are you looking for special school or mainstream?

cambrudge/shire has a lot of autistic kids and some schools that specialise in them - eg the Gretton and the Cavendish on the Impington Village Village site.

if you can pay for private the council doesn’t matter.

Cambridgeshire - mostly good intent but overwhelmed. Some primaries much better than others. Many secondaries esp in Cambridge have autism units that are partially integrated,

Surrey = shit!

Yes definitely, which is why like I said, we've been lucky compared to some. I know many who have really struggled (even back when DS was diagnosed, I had friends who found getting an EHCP a battle), and who continue to really struggle now. I did have to really push for a space for DS at school, but got one. We've been fortunate, if you can call it that.
I will say the help and support I've had from the SEN staff in schools and college has been second to none and I'll be forever thankful. They've been like a second family to DS at points and made his life so much easier. They don't get enough credit for the job they do.

I live next door in Hampshire and I've heard some horror stories about Surrey. Hampshire is pretty grim but Surrey really takes the piss.

To answer the OP, I'm in Hampshire with three children with SEND and I think it depends on the level of need and their "diagnosis". My oldest is autistic and once in a special school for secondary things went quite smoothly. College was a mixed bag. My second is also autistic and his secondary education has been a shit show. Fortunately I have a really good relationship with his LEA caseworker and they are working hard to get a provision for him right now (he's fucking TWENTY!). My third has dyslexia and its been completely smooth sailing, EHCP, wonderful resourced provision for secondary education and great support in college.

We looked at relocating to Dorset but there isn't a single provision in the (wider area) that we were looking to move to that supported dyslexia - not even in the private sector. Teacher friends in the area tell me that the local authority doesn't recognise dyslexia as SEND 😲

My son is at college with someone with dyslexia from Crawley are and they were unable to get an ehcp for them in that area. Its a complete postcode lottery.

If you get a good ehc where you are, it will be difficult for the new LA to dillute it. Imo the important thing is being able to access the provision. If your child needs specialist provision you might need to work out where that is and move close by, or your child will be stuck in transport for hours every day. That's a big issue if you move to a large county as their sen school could be a very long way.

London local authorities are usually pretty good for sen kids. For one thing they are geographically small so it's easier to reach the provision. Have you considered an outer London LA? Sutton, Kingston, Richmond all have plenty of provision for example, including post 16.

Btw why are you rdeferring for a year? The usual advice for kids with sen is to give them support as early as possible

I would absolutely second what you've said. I got to a SEND evening in milton keynes, 4 families say their children have nowhere to go to school, mainstream cannot meet their need and there is no special provision with space.

Greater Manchester. And I have two experiences.

One amazing. Everything the child needs and they are excelling in a private SEND high school

Other, has been out of school for nearly 2 years and only just got agreement for SEND provision.

I dare say the fight in the parents has had a massive influence.

This. Shocking.

Buckinghamshire. Shit.

We are Sussex. I would describe your experience as incredibly lucky. Here all provision is either stretched or inadequate. An EHCP is widely known to take around a year to get sorted despite the statutory timelines (these are just ignored), and CAHMS waits for assessment for schol age children are around 4-5 years once a request to assess has been received. One of my children has been waiting over 18 months just to have the paperwork screened, we aren't even as far as being on the list awaiting assessment yet. My other child is preschool age still, and waits for even initial appointments for the child development centre/SaLT etc are around a year, sometimes more, and again, you are screened then back on another list for another long wait. It is astoundingly poor, even allowing for how stretched services are. We are fortunate to have worked out what we need to do to try and get what we need for my youngest, and be in the position to be able to pay for some private support with things like SaLT.

I would say on the whole, the LA attitude filters down to most schools and they pay lip service to meeting childrens needs, but there are some gems of schools around who manage SEN, with or without and EHCP brilliantly and are passionate about inclusion, but they are the exception, not the rule unfortunately.

Lancashire SEND is officially shit. They had Ofsted all over them for weeks last year and they’ve been served an improvement notice to take steps to improve their services.

And Reform reckon they will cut council tax by cutting out waste and “corruption” but are having to spend money sorting it all out. It’s the magic beans again.

Kent- absolutely horrific. Almost broke us.

Based on very recent/current experience during the national SEND crises. DS is 7 (year 3) and (now) in an independent specialist.

This
Not enough staff, not enough resources, not enough money

Bedford- I must start by saying that there are lots of professionals who are trying their absolute best, however are dealing with lack of funds to do what they'd choose to do if the funds were infront of them.

Our NHS services are spectacularly stretched, CDC wait list is 4+ years for diagnosis. Hearing tests under CDC are taking 18 months or so.
I've decided to go private for quite a lot of stuff for my autistic kids, and actually the next thing on my "list" is to see if I can obtain private health insurance moving onwards.

The LA themselves have been faultless. They've spoken with me on the phone, and said that actually they have a 20 week time frame for getting an EHCP in place if it's required, and have helped me to get a contact at the CDC to help with some of his medical stuff.
I feel quite comforted from a discussion I had earlier with someone from the SEND Team at the LA, however I will still be providing g evidence from as many professionals as possible during the EHCP application process.

We do have Autism Bedfordshire which is an invaluable resource for parents of SEN children, and slightly further away in Herts there are places like brighterdays and tune into ASD.

Avoid Brighton & Hove and West Sussex

Poorly resourced.

Inherently flawed and fundamentally unfit for purpose.

In other words forcing children with hugely complex needs into unsuitable mainstream schools under the guise of 'inclusion' because the local authority has no provision that can actually meet your child's needs (complex SEMH). However parent blaming is absolutely rife and pretty much the only thing available.

Shit. I don't need a sentence.

And also avoid East Sussex.

Sheffield shite.

Theyve just been failed in a massive inspection. Right mess

Undoubtably.

I’ve worked in a few local authorities, so have a different view.
South Gloucestershire - exceptional
Surrey - horrific
Oxford - horrific

At Surrey I had a caseload of 140 but it was a shitshow left behind by a number of agency members of staff.
Oxford I had nearly 400 and had panic attacks most days.

Kent is diabolical , no understanding, senseless time wasting, no continuity, no standard of care