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.

It's almost as if the people making the decisions don't have any understanding of children with disabilities!

I can't see how reassessment at this age will do anything other than cost money for the assessments. I cant imagine any situation where a child with an ehcp at primary would suddenly miraculously be healed from their disability/learning difficulty and not need one at secondary school. It makes no sense. Idiots.

I mean yes it’s staggering and even after that you would have people talking about an ‘underfunded system’.

I'm not sure where 60k of Ed Psychs comes from, that doesn't sound right, I'm pretty sure that's way more than the country currently has?? They train around 200 each year....

Typo sorry.

600

https://apple.news/ABfS6XyPcRKWgIAXrNhPqSw

If anything it's the other way round isn't it! Children who have coped in small nurturing primary schools suddenly get flung into the chaos of a large secondary and the wheels come off completely...

This is a proposal that shows a shocking lack of understanding of SEND. The need for an EHCP increases for y7+, not decreases. A lot of kids who managed to get on ok in mainstream with the universal provision that doesn't require an EHCP in order to get minor adjustments in yR-y6 will experience escalating problems in y7-y9 and the wheels come off completely at some point in y10-y11 if no EHCP has been secured by then. They should be planning for more children to need additional specialist support in older years, not trying to push children back out.

I dont actually think the idea of reassessing children when they are about to go into a new key stage is bad. We are transitioning from secondary to further education and one of the issues is all my sons assessments are from aged 7 and dont reflect his current needs well and his secondary environment is very different than the FE options and we cant get any steer on what he will need in a different environment. The annual review process has been a bit crap and getting things updated is hard. Its just his special school reports basically and progress on his outcomes.

But realistically they cant even assess everyone once at the moment, let alone at regular intervals so I cant see how this will play out. The timing is also wrong as its a year too late and if the aim is to reduce ehcps not ensure support is right its a terrible idea.

That makes more sense. Just looked it up and there's around 3000 in England so 600 could be an increase but will take some time to train I imagine (and I don't know how many might retire during that time). Might not be much different?

Yeah, probably by some poor sod who's had their support removed at secondary because they were doing fine in primary and then can't cope in secondary and have a meltdown. Some schools can't recognise a meltdown even if it hits them in the face.

It will be a disaster.

"The country cannot afford the rising level of SEN need. It feels unpalatable to talk about it in the context of money but ultimately that’s what it boils down to."

What is proposed is a waste of money and time. Providing provision for more pupils in the state sector rather than using profit making companies would save money.

Yes they’re reviewed every year.

This isn't about annual review.
It is a reassessment of need at a key transition point.
The idea that pupils transitioning from primary to secondary phase will magically have fewer needs seems inconceivable to me, both as a SEND parent and teacher.

EHCP are relatively new though aren't they - didn't Gove bring them in? I used to teach secondary (left in 2015) and I remember IEPs and 'statements' only for the most severe/complex children (in mainstream). It was quite rare to get a statement , I taught 600 kids some years and only one or two would have statements. The kids on IEPs had support but it wasn't legally prescribed in the same way but we did support them.
If the proposals are to nudge (or force) schools into more flexibility so more kids can flourish in mainstream then good - it should go hand in hand with changes to the curriculum though and giving more power back to LEAs but i don't know how possible that is with the forced academisation that's occurred. Gove really did a number on our schools.

After they managed to recruit extra 6k teachers funded by VAT?

I wouldn't worry to much - they planned to start in 2029, the latest next GE can happen is Aug 2029, they won't be in power by 2029 school year

From what I can see, they are proposing a reassessment, not an automatic reduction. Secondary is very different to primary, I think reassessing support needs at that point makes sense.

Well Bridget Phillipson said yesterday the reforms weren't about saving money and in fact the government will be spending more money but will be taking action where money is not well spent.

So she may be lying, but i think the vision isnt saving money but getting earlier support so ehcps arent needed as support is just there as standard without having a fight and not being fleeced by private equity.

But Parents are jaded and have been fighting years to get support and are therefore very anxious about anything that takes away the legal mechanism they used to secure it. They see the reality of how wrong the environment of mainstream is for some children. Many are distrustful of politicians and even of schools after poor experiences so dont really believe that this early support will appear or work.

I think the general approach is that if no SEN is detectable by age 11, then they’re very unlikely to be ‘disabled’ (unless medically diagnosed with for example, diabetes), and therefore it’s a ‘SEMH’ issue which doesn’t need addressing via channels meant for children with disabilities.

Does anyone know why there is such a high number of children with SEN now? I remember the odd child at school (70's/80's) but it was rare. Not being goady. Genuine question.

They're talking about putting more money in to improve the pool of Ed Psychs, speech and language therapists etc, which would be welcome. However, the reality is that it takes over three years to train an EP, and good EPs can earn an excellent living on private work, so whether the funding will actually make a difference is highly questionable.

I also simply don't understand the logic of thinking that the need for EHCPs will suddenly disappear at age 11. Even with superb provision at primary level, things like autism don't go away, and the fact is that the transition to secondary coupled with dealing with puberty is a massive change which is always going to need a high level of support.

There were more grades of support such as school action and school action+ before the statement/ EHCP level, and it created a bigger, more beauocratic jump if in-house support wasn't enough.

My concern for DS after his diagnoses was the jump to secondary school and getting to the "right one", particularly as he was diagnosed just before Covid and out of school for half of y4 and chunks of y5. An EHCP is the only way to influence the allocation of school places. While he was initially rejected for an EHCP (and I had no fight in me for appeals at the time in 2021/22) he was fortunate to get a place at the heavily over-subscribed mainstream school that looked most likely to support his academic and social needs.

The EHCP system has never worked effectively from the begining (certainly not in my LA) and that's before all the Covid delays that were never caught up on.

In my workplace we have children being denied EHCPs and going through lengthy, expensive battles through the process when we can't keep them in the classroom safely. The education system and its administrative processes are not meeting the needs of so many children and it will cost long term in their opportunities avaliable in starting adult life. At the same time, the curriculum became more restricted and schools less individualised for children who could just about cope.

The whole thing is a mess, but I'm not convinced that the government understands what the mess is to get the right solutions.

It would make more sense to spend the money assessing all kids for sensory needs in y6 so they have a sensory profile before staring secondary school. This would probably identify nd kids who have gone under the radar at primary and would empower rrhe kids to know what to ask for at secondary and also give the secondary schools helpful info to support the kids wirh send who might be able to manage in mainstream without needing an ehcp if they have enough support.

I came to say this^
I also agree with @Frankiecat2 that the timeline is absolutely wrong. The place is confirmed by the middle of year 6 February. How on earth they are going to manage reassessment of needs in year 6, consultation and transition?
Also in our area you have to be in deep crisis to get a visit/ meeting/ some attention from Ed psychologist. How they are going to manage all these reassessments of needs? Our council Sen team barely coping with doing EHCP plans on time and reviews with minor delays.

All sorts of reasons. There were more tiny schools around then, so some children in effect got all the benefits of small classes and a lot of attention which are much more difficult to get now. There were more basic labouring jobs around, e.g. on farms and in mines and factories, so less focus on achieving basic literacy.

If you were in school then, don't you remember those oddball kids who were constantly struggling? Those were the children who are now getting help. Then again, you never saw the ones with more serious SEN because they were shut away in institutions. There is much better recognition now. Additionally, more children who have suffered brain and other injuries at birth survive.

Lots of reasons but one of the main ones is that The school environment has become more and more unmanageable for nd people so that now rather than just about managing, some kids now can't. Also, a lot of kids before just had a break down or dropped out of school for another reason and therefore weren't considered to be a problem for schools. I am thinking of school refusers, adhd kids who were excluded, kids wirh depression, dyslexic kids who couldn't really access any work etc.

They wouldn't have been in mainstream schools to be obvious in society.

In the early 90s, my friend used hearing aids and was the first hearing impaired student in the school. Other children with disabilities began to be admitted into mainstream around the same time.

ADHD and autism were less recognised but with hindsight there were a comparable number of young people with these traits, and I know some of my friends finally being diagnosed in their 40s.
Struggles were more hidden. No one looked into why people "bunked off", the stakes were lower, less exam pressure, more entry level jobs to work up from the bottom. Arguably the changes in society such as formal childcare, and more intense environments also tips people beyond fragile coping thresholds.

Higher parental age and increased survival rates in premature babies and difficult pregnancies/ births has also increased rates.
Special schools have higher rates of children with complex medical needs so children struggling with the curriculum are pushed into mainstream schools.

Cuts have meant fewer early interventions so more children are starting schooling behind in skills like speech and communication and able to keep up. Waiting lists and processes take years, and children can't develop to their potential in that lost time.

There is a combination of more children, more recognition, and less support/ provision.