SEND - children’s needs to be reassessed from year 6 2029?

[missbish]

Are they taking the piss? After the struggles parents have trying to secure support for their child, they’re then going to threaten to take it away once they’re due to go to secondary? Ds goes to secondary this year so I don’t think it will effect him but I am so angry for those it does effect.

I don’t understand the timeline either. DS has an EHCP and we applied for his secondary school before the rest of the LEA through the special needs team rather than the LEA portal.

I’m lucky with the school I sent him to - they have made so many adjustments for him and it could have been a nightmare going from a one form primary to a school that has 300 students in a year group.

Then there should be a basic online package with self lead tuition offered. They can take it or leave it, and do it at their own pace.

This is a great idea.

Just to say my son was not waiting on a diagnosis when we got his EHCP. He was diagnosed with asd age 4, the August before he started primary. It took the school 6 months to put him on the Sen register, even though on his first day I took his diagnosis letter from the consultant in and handed it to the senco, who was also his new reception teacher. We didn’t get the EHCP until year 4 !

That depends what we mean by results.

My son won’t pass his GCSE’s, but he has learned a great deal at school. His communication is vastly improved, he is emerging onto the EYFS curriculum, he can recognise shape and number. That progress is a result.

For others, their child is able to engage with education because their physical needs are catered for, and if that wasn’t the case their education wouldn’t be happening. Their children being able to access education, is a result.

At the end of the day you can’t not provide provision for SEN. If you do everybody loses:- other pupils, the SEN gets worse, prisons fill up, MH needs get worse, there’s more reliance on benefits, less tax being paid…

It’s in everybody’s interest to make send a priority and to provide good provision.

Are the government trying to to say though that needs such as this will be met automatically rather than only via EHCP? The feeling I get I that it may be easier to access support needed without the cost of an EHCP ?

You don't know what has been tried though! I honestly used to think the same, and then I had my own disabled children. They have severe learning disabilities so we get beaten with the 'soft parenting' stick (slightly) less often. I used to use traditional parenting, firm boundaries, etc etc and it just did not work. It escalated and escalated and everyone was miserable.

It's only now that I have been immersed in the community fully for a decade, have had intimate access to SEND families' lives (because most of our friends have SEND children), that I can truly understand.

No there would be massive safeguarding risks.Kids need to be in school for mental health and education too. Parents need to work and pay taxes. Abusers could say their kids can’t manage school, the educated would struggle to educate and support their kids and the uncommitted wouldn't bother. Every child deserves and needs a school place that meets their needs

But many want EOTAS?

I watched that. She is a mum at the end of her tether. You don’t discipline away autism.

The ignorance and amount of arm chair psychologists on this thread is hysterical.

I'm struggling to understand how that would be possible in my son's case without an EHCP.

Things I've seen such as hubs, speech therapy etc are irrelevant in his case. He has no learning disabilities and is NT, he is perfectly fine in a mainstream class of 30. His support needs are all physical.

If no EHCP, where is the staffing going to come from to support his physical needs? That is my concern.

Want or feel like they have no choice?

If there are no plans to change EOTAS and my son's EHCP is taken away because he's in mainstream. It will be an avenue I will absolutely be considering if I was able to get him a new EHCP eventually.

They will have left me with little choice.

I'm already having to accept a 'good enough' education for my children. Absolutely my children would do miles better in an expensive private school with access to loads of arts and music and the resources to enable them to explore stuff like sciences more widely, but tough shit I can't really afford private school and tbh i dont believe in private education so yes I'm accepting a 'good enough' education for my kids.

Mine go to a very average comp with lots of kids with disruptive behaviour, sometimes my eldest comes home quite brassed off because some of his favourite lessons were quite disrupted, that's life, education is provided to us for free and overall it's ok and generally education levels in the UK are high compared to many countries. So yes I'll accept good enough. It's free

If I remember her daughter has PDA as well as autism. That has to be handled carefully.

Love it when people say just tell him off and he will stop doing this or that even though my likely autistic four year old is way behind his age and it makes no bloody difference.

@Playingvideogames online provision isn’t suitable for all. Neither is self led/taught. It isn’t for mine.

People don’t get EOTAS/EOTIS/C just because they want it. It is only legally an option where it is inappropriate for provision to be made in a school or college. Most would prefer their DC to be able to attend school or college.

Yes it’s a specific profile on the autism spectrum.

The ignorance from posters who think they can pontificate and lecture about things they know very little about is 🙄

I think more is needed, not less?

@Playingvideogames it's just as accurate to state that we can't afford the number of people in the UK needing cancer treatment. Should we just offer them a head tilt and an Elastoplast instead? Or is it only disabled children who must bear the brunt of disingenuous rationing from this morally bankrupt government?

@Tarkadaaaahling one of the "best" things about these reforms (other than the assumption that teachers are actual wizards) is just how many SEMH children will end up horribly dysregulated and causing mayhem in mainstream schools. One PDA child in a class sends MN into a tailspin of angst over the (very real - my DS is PDA) risk of harm to other pupils and staff. Will states education still be "good enough" if that level of disruption increases (as it inevitably will)?

Thankfully, laws can be changed. Which is what is going to happen, because it's been deemed the laws allowing this sort of thing are no longer appropriate. Will your arguments about 'courts agreeing' be the same when these children are legally entitled to less? It'll be correct won't it, because it'll be in line with the law?

Just because you can push something through courts by arguing very specific wording, doesn't mean it's right and must continue.

What ‘early intervention’ is the White Paper actually putting in place?

More money for TAs? More speech therapists?

I bet the training will have to be done in teacher’s own time!

It sounds like the SENCo’s time will now be taken up writing ISPs for any child who needs ‘reasonable adjustments’.

I went to school in the 80’s and like yourself I can only remember a few kids who were ‘different’
I think the reasons theres more Sen kids is complex but some reasons are-

Children with complex Sen would not be in mainstream schools
Some children with Sen who’s needs were not understood did not thrive and were not suitable for mainstream school
School was simpler (in some ways) meaning some kids who struggle now could have just about manage/ not bother going in
Life was simpler so some sen kids could manage but would struggle in society present day
Better diagnosis/understanding/awareness

My reply to someone else also applies to you. You don’t actually know what the law will be. The White Paper is just that. It doesn’t mean that it will definitely become law. Many ideas in White Papers don’t actually make it to legislation.

I saw it completely differently. I saw somebody scared of her child, unable to impose the most basic of boundaries. She did whatever the kid demanded she do. She confiscated the Tonie box only for her to snatch it back. I couldn’t see a single boundary.

My post wasn’t commenting on what early intervention was in the white paper?

However, there are some elements mentioned such as Best Start Family Hubs and apparently more professional input earlier without the need for an EHCP. As to whether any will actually happen is another matter…