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.

As a percentage, the spend on education (which encompasses SEN) has actually gone down since 1978-1979. So all this talk of rocketing costs is just rhetoric.

I wouldn't hold your breath. There are 513,000 teachers in England. The £200 million for 'making sure every teacher has the expertise to teach children with SEN' equates to about £390 per teacher. What sort of training do you think £390 will buy?

I would as a bare minimum expect it to be introduced in all teaching degree courses and TA courses.

I’d also expect far more focus in This area whilst undertaking cpd ( currently for many it’s only a small part )

He's just greedy @ExistingonCoffee. That's his trouble. Not content to sit in his box, hey?

DD1 doesn't fit any of the categories, either. Honestly, though, can you imagine if the Government actually does any of that stuff? Right now, with our 'overblown' system, a child who gets SaLT from an actual SaLT has won the jackpot. Now, they will be deploying export support from all these professionals.

Do you know what's going to happen? Parents will demonstrate that their children meet the criteria of whatever categories are made, then in 10 years time, the Government of that time will say 'We didn't expect so many children to meet the criteria and we need to overhaul the system so less children get the support they need.' Then we'll all rumble on again.

Just bear in mind that the last Statements of SEN only ended in 2018. So we've lasted 8 years with the current system in place. That is the waste of money. The reality is that they are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

The more experience I gain in SEND (personal and professional) the more I'm inclined to agree.

True inclusion could only be obtained by schooling looking radically different for everyone (e.g. more like learning centres, with a lot more choice) and the majority might not agree that's what would be best for their children.

Besides, when ministers etc talk about inclusion, they really only mean including children with broadly average IQs and reasonably manageable behaviour. They go on and bloody on about inclusion and yet nobody is fighting for my nappy wearing non-verbal child to go to mainstream school (for obvious reasons, but point stands - we can't say 'everyone is included except you').

The term inclusion is meaningless and I'm rapidly thinking the ideal is often (not always) bad for everyone involved.

Thanks. Some plans are already in place, I've been recommended a school by his SENCO and his physio and OT will do an assessment to see what may need to be put in place for him. I do know that one of the teachers is a wheelchair user but you are right in that I believe changing places toilets will be the main issue and building work may be necessary.

Of course, this is assuming he still has his EHCP.

I agree. However, if schools were required to have a really good standard of Quality First Provision, then it would be so much easier to separate out the children who really do need more specialist provision from those who just need good, high quality teaching.

If all teachers used talking pegs (voice recorded pegs with task instructions), WALT/WILF (What am I learning today/ what am I looking for) cards for lessons, activity boards to give visual reminders of what is happening through the day, clear timetables with 'oops' cards to signal a change of plan, clear language, stepped lesson plans to adapt to the differing abilities within the class, etc., there would be less children who slip through the gaps and fall behind.

Thanks. I've just seen this and fingers crossed, he would fall under the last category.

I have to say, I'm pleased they are acknowledging that packages need to include evidence-based interventions. So much guff out there that has no research to back it up.

If only DS1 could get in a box! Maybe that is the answer. We should put him in a box and he would be unable to climb out. Or maybe not. DS1 is likely to turn to self injurious behaviour and simultaneously sound like he is being murdered.

The proposed reforms have hallmarks of the old system. Targeted, Targeted Plus, Specialist. A rebranding of SA, SA+ and SSEN. No doubt reforms at some point in the future will return to something more aligned with the current system.

Absolutely. I’m old enough to have taught under the previous incarnation of ‘stages’ as well, prior to 2001!

So I’m sure after this particular ‘once in a generation’ reform, we will get another one fairly soon. Probably one that will say, ‘7 areas of need was FAR too many, we now need 2/3/4 etc’.

Thousands of teachers will leave, hundreds of SENCos will have breakdowns and countless children will be failed in the process.

As to the £300-odd training each teacher will receive, it will be very interesting to see which (MAT-supporting Edu-celeb) gets the gig! Tom Bennett? Paul Dix? Probably organised through someone like Capita so they can be bunged a few quid as well.

I am very glad I am leaving education!!

Inclusion was never supposed to be about treating all children with SEN as a homogeneous group that could all thrive in mainstream. I'd agree that level of need probably can't be supported in a mainstream environment. The reason we have this scenario is because specialist provision has been cut back. But at the moment, even those with less obvious (but still very real) needs - those who could thrive in mainstream with appropriate support - are not being met. That's why the number of EHCPs has increased so much.

Those children (lots of them) are already in mainstream, with no hope of a special school place and no chance of that changing. They are not getting a good education and neither are the pupils in their classes.

This is a public forum and I don’t need your permission to answer @Playingvideogames post on SEN funding.

Your second sentence doesn’t even make sense? “There’s a devolved, …..” Devolved what? It’s an adjective and needs a noun.

IMO, it’s a pity posters who clearly have no direct experience or knowledge of children with SEND, don’t spend more time, looking at the facts and figures first, rather than making ludicrous assertions, with no basis in reality.

Sorry, my post was in agreement with yours, and was intended to suggest that the PP poster you were responding to doesn’t like facts and figures, because it doesn’t help their hyperbole.

The noun was LA, however 😂

I quite agree that posters without a clue should look at facts and figures, and not post things that aren’t reality, however (admittedly sarcastically!) I was agreeing with you.

This is the reason why I have just handed in my resignation. I have been a TA for 13 years and the number of TAs at my school has doubled in that time. Everyone is now working with SEN children. The mainstream children do not get any additional support anymore. I have 2 children in my current class with EHCPs. Both have different and in some areas completely conflicting needs. They both also have medical needs which require staff to have additional training. Both, have been refused places at special schools. Both are working academically at pre KS1 level and are expected to go to mainstream secondary schools in September. If it was just a question of making reasonable adjustments to enable them to access the curriculum that would be one thing, but they both require a bespoke curriculum and would be better off learning life skills not academic study. We do not have the facilities, budget or staff to bespoke the curriculum so these children are not getting what they need from the education system and neither are the mainstream children who fall behind. Everyone loses under this system and is the reason I am leaving.

Yes I know exactly what you are saying. Why are there so many nowadays

The severity of the needs has increased massively. My school was always good with SEN so we always had higher numbers than any other local schools but it was manageable because it was making adaptations to ensure inclusion within a mainstream class. The severity of the needs had made life impossible in some cases. We have children who are non-verbal, in nappies and who are at the developmental age of 18 months.How are we supposed to include them in a mainstream classroom. It us only you g to get worse under these proposals.

Sorry for the typos. Trying to do 2 things at once.

As a parent of a disabled child I don’t know the over all answer as the why are there so many more these days.
I can tell you in our case years ago she wouldn’t of survived to make it to school.
she would of died at birth.
she has a generic condition that includes her being autistic as well as health and movement disabilities but if you saw her down the street you would never know why this girl would need 74 k a year in education and 52,000 a year in home healthcare.
she is one of the many that wouldn’t fit in these boxes.
but the reason why there is more of her is because they are now able to survive ❤️

My son wouldn't have survived years ago either.

He wasn't born disabled but became disabled as a result of complications from an illness which in the 70's was considered terminal.

We have several children at my school like this-non-verbal, in nappies with no awareness of having soiled/wet, attempts to smear poo, developmentally 1-2y in a year 2 class. They have EHCPs (not providing full time support) and have been refused special school places. This is only going to increase by the sounds of it.

The issue is is parents can’t win really
people don’t want money spent on our children because “ there is no money “ although let’s be honest there is other people they could target than disabled children but then they also don’t want Sen children disturbing their own children’s education …. Families like ours will always be the problem.

My son was this child.

He was shoehorned into an EYFS mainstream placement and spent most of his time hiding in the cloakroom or attacking those around him. We were told multiple times a week he’d bitten, scratched, kicked either an adult or another child.

He’s 9 now and still has limited communication, he’s currently in his bedroom shouting the letter E. For no real reason. He’s still in pads, still smears, still bites.

There’s no way mainstream would have coped with him long term, and there’s no way children like him should be kept there or sent back.

"The issue is is parents can’t win really
people don’t want money spent on our children because “ there is no money “ although let’s be honest there is other people they could target than disabled children but then they also don’t want Sen children disturbing their own children’s education …. Families like ours will always be the problem."

Someone will be along in the minute to say there is no point in educating some children and their parents should just keep them at home.