What support do you want from your secondary school?

[TeenMinusTests]

Now DD2 is recovering and looking towards college, I have been reflecting on what could have been different with secondary school whilst DD was out of school.

I am planning to write to them with some suggestions for things that would have helped us, but I am wondering whether our experiences are the same as others.

So things I would have liked but didn't get:

• a named contact education teacher with knowledge of MH issues, senior enough to make decisions that wouldn't be overturned, with good pastoral skills (Heath Education Teacher, HET)
• The HET to arrange contact every half term to see how things were going, to discuss issues / suggestions and to agree way forward
• The school/HET to be more flexible and to listen to what would / wouldn't work

We really only managed because

• I was already well informed about details of education
• post adoption support got involved, and they involved ed psychs

What good things did you get whilst DC were out of school for MH reasons, or what would you have liked?

By far the most helpful thing for us was applying for and getting DS1 an EHCP that meets his needs, and includes therapies.

I would have liked staff to have more training on trauma. I feel we may not have reached a point where DS1's MS placement brokedown if staff had more knowledge on how to handle his MH difficulties that were rooted in trauma.

More generally, in England, LAs have a statutory duty to provide education to CSA pupils unable to attend school for medical reasons, including MH reasons. This is the guidance. If the LA refuse you can force the matter by beginning, or threatening to begin, Judicial Review proceedings.

Parents should also consider applying for an EHCNA (or statement of SEN in Wales & NI or CSP in Scotland).

Regarding your points schools must have a SENCO, SEMH needs are consider a type of SEN, so it would be reasonable to expect the SENCO to be the contact.

The school sound terrible not keeping in contact. I wonder whether part of that problem is because DD was Y11 and, disappointingly, there wasn't an incentive to keep in touch because she wouldn't be their 'problem' much longer. Sadly, they wouldn't be the first school with this view. If this was the case it is infuriating.

Education for those unable to attend school is the responsibility of the LA, not the school, so your last point would be best directed at them. The LA's offering must meet the needs of the pupil, so a different arrangement should have been offered. The provision should have been more than what you got if DD could manage more, even if it was 'just' a maths lesson each week rather than alternate weeks.

We didn't apply for an EHCP because

• all this was happening in a pandemic
• DD's situation was changing monthly
• my own MH was broken by everything, I had no capacity
• it was y11 and after that she'd be in college

but primarily

• because no one from school / Ed Psych service suggested it at all

We had no contact from the LA at all...

my own MH was broken by everything, I had no capacity

I think this is what too many professionals rely on. Parents not being able to chase everything, push for support, challenge decisions, or not knowing what the LA/school/CAMHS etc. should be doing. LAs in particular require parents to constantly be on the ball.

EHCPs can last until 25, so it would still be worth applying if you can. IPSEA have a model letter you can use. The relaxation of the rules regarding EHCPs ended a year ago, although even after this many LAs have been using it as an excuse not to stick to statutory timescales and duties even when it is nothing to do with it, LAs often broke the timescales and failed to meet their duties before the pandemic. DD's situation may have been changing, but it still sounds as though she has underlying needs that an EHCP will help with.

Schools etc. often don't apply for, or prompt parents to apply for, EHCPs. Many go as far as incorrectly telling parents their child won't get an EHCP, either intentionally or because they are misinformed. Unfortunately, there are many parents on here whose school have refused to apply for an EHCP and told parents they wouldn't get one, but the parents applied and they did get one. Was it an LA EP? They are unlikely to tell you to apply for an EHCP either.