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 believe anyone here has disagreed about the money side ? It’s the discrimination we aren’t happy about. Of course something needs to be done to help ease the load, but for some people on this thread to say neurodivergence is down to shit boundaries and parenting, how fucking offensive that?! Our children deserve to be taught to the same standard as neurotypical children, asd/adhd etc exist and are defined as a disability, they are not a figment of parent’s imaginations.

I don’t know if jealousy’s the right word, I’d say it’s a lack of empathy for others and thinking their children are missing out somehow.

So you’re happy with children with significant needs not being properly catered for in classes alongside your children without any need?

My DS gets overwhelmed by being with a large group (not just any other children, but large groups of children) and wants to self lead (aka not bother doing any work he doesn't want to do).
The absolute worst thing for him would be online education. He'd never see any other children, and he wouldn't do any work. Plus, he can't be left alone (he has epilepsy) so the country would be without the hefty taxes I pay as a professional as I'd have to be with him all the time so I wouldn't be able to work.
So then he'd be 16 with no qualifications, huge anxiety (because in case you didn't know, anxiety builds if you avoid the things that make you anxious, it doesn't get better) and a burden on society for the rest of his life.
Instead, he's in a 100K a year specialist SEMH school despite having near average IQ and no physical disabilities. But, as long as we can get them to pull their finger out he will be employable.

My DS has epilepsy. He needs way, way more in medical input than other children. Is that also unfair? Should all children have a certain amount of medical money available to them and if they use it up, tough, they die, whereas other children can spend it on, I don't know, 1:1 coaching in a sport or superfoods or going to a spa? Honestly, I have no idea how much his care including inpatients adds up to now but I doubt a well child of his age could possibly spend that much even on sports/food/swimming/well-being groups and under your proposed scheme he wouldn't get any of those.

Likewise, my daughter doesn't have an EHCP but she is quite a poor reader for her year. Should they not put in any reading interventions for her because the good readers in her class don't get them? Or should they spend the school money on her reading, but then buy aaaaallll the books that the good readers could read plus pay for them to go to hear an author speak and maybe to see the play of a book but my daughter DOESN'T get that because her "pot" is spent on extra reading lessons in the library? Also, which of those would encourage my daughter to try harder in reading - just the reading lessons, or maybe the reading lessons for her, plus a cheaper author visit for all the children in the year??

Stop trying the ‘jealous’ thing to shut down conversation

But you trying to ‘shut down conversation’ by saying provision for DC with SEN is unfair, calling parents aggressive, blackmailing, too close, wanting ‘the best’ education, talking of wants rather than needs, etc. and posting irrelevant links you haven’t even read is fine? Similarly, those calling parents demanding, unreasonable, lazy, weak, lacking boundaries and similar.

@Changeusername1989 Hurrah!

Follow up with an email if you haven’t already.

Sometimes LAs wait to see if the parent appeals, then don’t oppose the appeal (before the LA response) or concede later on (after the LA response). It is a way of weeding out who won’t appeal.

Make sure B&F are also settled, so you might want to still go ahead with the EP assessment.

Self-led/child-led/self-directed learning isn’t about the CYP not being bothered to do work they don’t want to do. It is a complete misunderstanding of what self-led/child-led/self-directed learning is and why it is essential for some DC.

I keep hearing people talking about ‘7 new profiles’ for SEN in the document - can anyone tell me what page I can read more about them or point in the the right direction??

@Rinoachicken here.

I will, if you like.

We should have increased taxes by changing the thresholds and tapering increases to cover for vital services such as health, education and elderly care.

And before you start with the “people won’t pay more!!” stuff - I’m everyone’s least favourite SENd parent.

I pay high rate tax, out earn most of the people complaining about taxes on here, and also have the aforementioned disabled kid.

Shake the magic money tree harder, and ring fence it for key services.

I have already received the updated EHCP with the new placement tbh the coordinator has been brilliant (not her fault she is just doing what she is told to do).
The actual content of the EHCP was good and I never had a problem with that, but the independent EP was more for section I as they were going to both placements and reporting on what would be in my child best interests.
It hadn't even been registered yet, but im glad they have conceded earlier on.

I would have thought that teachers who are highly trained in SEN would be able to manage classes better with fewer disruptions. It's when SEN is not recognised, understood or well managed that the problems occur and classrooms become disrupted.

The best teachers I've known (for all children, regardless of SEN) were the ones with direct, personal experience of SEN -because their classroom management strategies and class teaching styles were intuitively inclusive. And i don't mean that neurotypical children were disadvantaged, I mean that all children thrived.

If SEN training was instead pitched at making their jobs easier to do, rather than 'extra work to get the box ticked' it might actually help.

@Kirbert2

Just incase you’ve not seen this, I think your son would fall under the last category, so hopefully if you do have to reapply for EHCP at transition, it would still be granted. Obviously you’d know better, but it’s ammunition at least.

LAs could use the extraordinary amount of money they spend spending indefensible cases they know they are going to lose against unrepresented parents.

Over the years, my LA has spent 6 figures defending appeals I have made to the FtT for DSs’ EHCPs. Barristers, solicitors, paralegals. Including a very nice sum to a barrister to turn up late on the morning of one final hearing and concede. That doesn’t include the money the LA has spent on internal staff dealing with my appeals to SENDIST. That money could have been used for provision.

Nor does it include the costs the LA has incurred when I have pursued JR proceedings, their costs related to my (all upheld) complaints and LGO claims or a small claims court case.

@Changeusername1989 amazing that you have the amended EHCP.

Unfortunately people voted Labour in who said they wouldn’t increase taxes to working people

I would agree with this
The worst teacher for my son walked around the class in circles because it was Aparently the only way she could think

Not realising a lot of kids can’t cope with that. Her focus was on her and not the kids
She couldn’t understand why my DS didn’t ‘hear’ a single thing she said

So the proposal for increased education for teachers in this area is imperative

The schools would love to, if the government would pay!

And I 100% agree the goverment should pay. If all this what they’re proposing then give mainstreams some extra support. When my ds was in mainstream I felt so sorry for the one TA in his class, she was a diamond.

You may want to pay more but generally people are not feeling it. And the tax burden is already the highest in 70 odd years.

This is just it. We’re talking about schools who can’t afford glue sticks finding the money for 4 extra TAs per class.

Not likely, unless this funding is going to stretch to infinity and beyond.

I can think of a few kids who could probably have used less support at secondary than at primary - mainly those with physical impairments of one sort or another, who by that stage were better able to manage, perhaps making more use of technology. I'm not sure year 7 would be the right point to reduce it, as settling into a new environment carries its own problems - so a review during year 7 might actually make more sense.

Inclusion cannot work. How can we have a situation where ‘all children thrive’ when child A rips up their schoolwork, screeches uncontrollably and punches other kids in the face at regular occasions? How can our kids be anything other than terrified?

None of the classes in my primary had a class TA at all-it was just them. The pupils who had an EHCP had a 1:1/interventions for some hours during the day, but it was mostly the class teacher on their own.

Unless these reforms brings enough money for classes to have more TAs, then their ‘training’ can only do so much-it’s still just them on their own, but with extra high need pupils in the class.

Labour’s policies are detrimental to most. Just on every level.

I don’t think DS1 falls into any one package. He has complex physical, medical, psychological and developmental needs.

He has complex physical disabilities - has a whole host of equipment, house adaptations, etc. Needs and has physio, OT, SALT, swimming (hydro/aquatherapy but in normal temp pool for medical reasons) and rebound therapy.

He also falls under the sensory impairment strand - Although he isn’t Deaf and isn’t registered SSI, he has hearing and vision impairments. He receives ToD, QTVI and QHS input.

Profound and multiple learning difficulties - he doesn’t have PMLD because he doesn’t have an LD. But he does have the significant communication difficulties, physical disability, sensory impairment, sensory processing differences, and medical needs mentioned. The LA consulted PMLD schools because in many ways he presents in the same ways as PMLD cohorts.

DS1 has significant executive functioning difficulties. (Although I’m not sure the government understands the term, because you can have EF difficulties and not have severe learning difficulties.) DS1 has a life-long speech and language disorder and has difficulties with speech, language and communication, executive function, social and emotional, motor and sensory development.

He also has elements of the complex executive function and communication profile because in addition to the last paragraph, he can display challenging behaviour and needs support with personal care needs, nutrition and physical development.

At differing points he displays both internalised and externalised presentations of the social emotional development profiles. Has SALT, OT, CP sessions and emotional literacy support. He can cycle from internalised to externalised and back rapidly.

I think all teachers should start by being required to have at least a years TA experience before completing Teacher Training. It is strange that EP’s are required to have at least a year in a school first. However teacher training candidates do not necessarily require a year’s TA experience.
Warnock stated this in her report in the 1970’s all teachers should be teachers of SEND.

It was very interesting being a supervisor for some international students on a masters program for topics regarding SEND education. These related to African countries who have only had mandatory education for around 20-30 years. Yet follow a neo-liberal British system they are trying to learn from the mistakes of the English system. Although have different infrastructures and social structures concerning SEND. The teachers are much more respected as is education. Early years are still more play based although they too are experiencing a move away from play based curriculums.

I cannot understand why EY, Primary or Secondary teachers want to teach if they do not consider that each human has a right to an education. That enables them to develop to the best of their ability and achieve as much autonomy and independence as they can as an adult. For the significantly complex cases they require support to have a safe adulthood. I think the initial EHCP’s were brought into quickly without repercussions for health and social care ignoring their duties. Education is often expected to fund provisions that should be health and social care which was what was supposed to happen. Education does not have a clear and definite definition, it’s very definition dependent on who is defining it. Health and Social Care provisions have a much clearer definition of what their provisions are. Policy takes years to be implemented, then analysed. Reality is you cannot predict the unintended consequences this is what happened with the EHCP system.

The issues are multi-faceted not merely financial, it is health and societal issues that contributes to the problems. There needs to be a return to teachers having more autonomy, play based learning and vocational learning.