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.

@Playingvideogames has brought up the financial aspect
This post therefore doesn't relate OP

I don’t know what others think but looking past Labours spin this white paper is a cost saving exercise.
Whilst I agree the cost to councils is high I’m concerned This proposed strategy is going to hurt the education of all kids.

How do we make life’s skills and education better for everyone ( and I do mean everyone ) on a smaller budget. ??
This new system is similar I think to
some other countries

eg Finland Renowned for a three-tier support system (general, intensified, special) in mainstream schools, ensuring all children have access to high-quality education regardless of needs.
and
Canada which places children in regular classrooms, supported by well-versed teachers, making it a leader in inclusive education.

Compared to the current U.K. budget
Finland- budget is lower per pupil
Canada- budget is higher per pupil

Theoretically then the two could be achieved.

There is no specialist school that will take my son other then an independent provision.
And yet they have named a mainstream (did not consult any other mainstream then this one after all specialists said they couldnt meet need).

I dont understand how they make these decisions, I asked the coordinator and they said the panel said that my child had to try mainstream first.

Even though his little primary school can not meet needs even with a 1 to 1.
No education for 2 years, been on a part timetable for years to.

And now I have to find the money for independent reports, and more pressure on my family when we are barely getting by as it is.

I would give anything for my child to go to school happy, be educated and belong thats all we want.

I dont want above and beyond, just for my child to be able to have the same as all children.

It's all very confusing because on one hand it says that but it also says that they plan to remove EHCP's from the majority of children in mainstream.

My worry is that they will take my son's EHCP away and think one of these hubs they have planned is appropriate for him which I don't think will be the case because he is absolutely fine in a mainstream class of 30 with support but it seems as I won't be legally allowed to fight for what I believe is best for my child any more which is simply terrifying.

Mine is average intelligence but not able bodied and he doesn't need special school. He is thriving with his EHCP in mainstream.

I just hope it isn't removed and he's stuffed in a hub inappropriate for him to save money.

They're not fiddling the numbers. You haven't read the post properly.

IF (and only if) a child’s needs mean they can be successful in mainstream school, then that opportunity should be given to them. I speak from experience.

When I was at primary school in the 90s, they wanted to move me to an SEN school because they argued they couldn’t afford support for my physical disability, which luckily my parents contested. I wouldn’t have had the same outcomes if I’d been sent to a specialist school.

I think it’s a good thing if they are investing in support for those who are capable of mainstream education where funds have been lacking previously and kids have been sent to specialist schools to absolve mainstreams of the responsibility.

My son is physically disabled and a specialist school wasn't even considered. The only time it was even brought up is when I was told in general terms that all nearby special schools either take autistic children only or require a diagnosis of global developmental delay neither of which my son has.

He does have an EHCP and is thriving in mainstream school with 2:1 support but I have a feeling that they will want him in one of these hubs now which concerns me.

I understand concerns. I think there are probably a fair number of kids that would have good outcomes if the correct support was in place in mainstream.

At the moment too many get left behind because teachers aren’t adequately trained to deal with neurodivergent kids and behaviour issues and the class sizes are too big.

I know when I was at school there were a lot of kids even then that got written off because they had Autism/ ADHD and were just presumed to be badly behaved. I only left high school 18 years ago which seems ages ago but I bet mainstream hasn’t changed much even now! Some say it’s even worse.

I can see what they are trying to achieve, but definitely why people are worried about not getting the support they need. I’d write to your MP with your concerns if I were you.

I definitely plan to raise concerns with my MP.

I think the hub, if done correctly which I have my doubts, could be a good option to keep children capable of mainstream in mainstream if that is in their best interests.

But not all children with EHCP's have Autism or ADHD which seems to be largely what the hubs will be catered towards. There doesn't seem to be any thought for the children who are disabled enough to have EHCP's but are also NT like my son.

He'd be miserable in a separate area away from his friends and it also wouldn't be appropriate for his needs.

Oh yes, I realise that not everyone with EHCP’s have autism or ADHD, I just used those as the most obvious example of specific needs that could be better catered to in mainstream, rather than parents having to take their children out of mainstream because they’re being let down, which seems to be happening more frequently these days if threads on here are to be believed.

I would hope these things could be assessed on a case by case basis. I think I saw somewhere about it being more parent led? Perhaps I’m mistaken.

Sorry, I was more meaning about the hubs rather than you personally. I get it because of course a large amount of children with EHCP's DO have autism and/or ADHD but there doesn't seem to be much thought for the NT children capable of mainstream with EHCP's and taking away their EHCP and thinking it will work simply because these hubs will exist isn't going to end well.

As far as I'm aware, parents are going to have less say now.

She also stated that able bodied children with an average IQ shouldn’t be in a specialist school. This poster wasn’t just talking about financial aspects, her prejudice towards hidden disabilities has been showing through

I think we was very lucky as we got the place at ds specialist school quite easily, they actually spoke to the head at his mainstream school and stated they thought they could meet his needs, they just wanted to meet him first.

"Have you even read the link? It doesn’t cover education. It says “Council spending on education services has been excluded.”

Yes no evidence in there.

I'm just coming back to this. It's outrageous. Ofsted roundly criticise schools that narrow their curriculum too early. It is part of the reason that many state schools have opted to restrict GCSEs to 8 subjects (9/10 GCSEs depending on whether a child can cope with accelerated teaching in science and mathematics). But you think that pupils with SEN can just be given a 'basic online package that they can self-teach and take it or leave it'?

EOTAS doesn't mean home school. It simply means education outside of school. DDs 2&3 have what is probably the closest thing to EOTAS that isn't EOTAS in their school provision. They technically go to school, and they go to the same school, but their provision looks very different to each other.

DD2 can't cope with taxi transport and can't cope with full time provision. She is picked up by school staff, taken to an activity, then dropped home by school staff. She's rarely on school site. The goal for her, right now, is to build her tolerance to be out of the house and doing stuff. It doesn't sound very 'education' like, but it is the key to unlocking a future for her. Until she can cope with leaving the house and interacting with other people for a few hours each day without burning out, it doesn't matter what she's trying to learn. She's had this struggle since age 4 and is now 18. This is the first time a school has tried to work on the core problem.

DD3 is at the same school. She gets a taxi to/from school. She's doing maths and English GCSEs (already has her Functional Skills 2). She is largely on site except for when she goes sea glass hunting or to the allotment for movement breaks. She's going to be having some trauma therapy which hopefully will mean that in 2027 she'll feel able to go to a college.

It just screams of their prejudice towards children with Sen, in particular hidden disabilities. Sen children are already at a disadvantage in every aspect including education, they deserve a right to the same education as their peers

Yes, I imagine if Reform get in, no one will have to worry about their EHCP being reassessed because they’ll probably just be scrapped. Their policy focuses on reducing unnecessary (their words) EHCPs for overdiagnosed things like ADHD (again, their words), and to stop parents abusing the system (also their words).

If the Tories get in - will they make a change on day 1 to remove this new policy?

So I’m not sure banking on a GE is the answer.

This is laughable. There are 28 children in DDs' special school. Not one of them would meet those criteria. They have a young person who needs 2:1 provision at all times and still causes chaos on a daily basis when they get dysregulated. Other young people who need careful management. Some students need to be kept away from each other. Some students need lunch time meds. Every teacher turns their class around between students - some need soft seating and music, others need dim lighting, etc. DD3 finds overhead lighting stressful so her English teacher bought a book light and they sit with the lights off and read or do exam practice.

In DD1's special school, only a handful of the children would have been classed as SLD or PMLD. The majority would have been MLD. Do you want your mainstream classrooms flooded with children who have moderate learning disabilities? Because I can tell you that 'moderate' is pretty hard to manage day to day.

I think there needs to be an urgent enquiry into why so many children are ‘dysregulated’ that the only way they can be managed is 2:1. There was a special school near our secondary in the early 2000s, all the children were visibly and noticeably disabled (in wheelchairs, Down syndrome, etc). Now the majority are able bodied children. What’s going on? We can’t pretend this isn’t the issue.

This. Unless the next government is the Greens (not gonna happen), Labour’s proposals are the best it’ll get. Reform would be brutal, and the Tories not much better. I think they’ll end up in a coalition together.

Why? If they struggle with going into school, they get overwhelmed just by being in the presence of others, and want to do everything in a self lead manner, wouldn’t an online package be the best and most financially viable outcome for everyone?

I’m sorry but I don’t believe an able bodied person of average intelligence is disabled. I just don’t. They may have a personality/mood/MH condition, but they’re not disabled. I think my opinion is far from radical, we’ve become so used to ‘disabled’ meaning anything other than completely 100% healthy and happy that it’s become meaningless. I didn’t say they shouldn’t receive support, just that they’re not ‘disabled’ in a way anyone would recognise.

How well would you learn from an online package? It simply does not equate to teaching by an actual person. Plus there's the question of having to have someone around to help them get online and supervise, so that is likely to mean at least one parent being economically unproductive and dependent on benefits.

There is no doubt that SEND education needs an overhaul. It is naive to think that making the change from y6 to y7 means that there might not be the need for support. I have seen pupils have support in KS3 and then in KS4 it's inexplicably gone. Simply saying we are going to make schools more inclusive does not mean the infrastructure is there. I say this as a teacher of 30 plus years. The money spent on transporting pupils is not sustainable. The explosion of parents (amateur diagnosing) that their child has SEN has probably added to the crisis.