why doesn't the gov pay the parents to home educate if they want to?

[tinselwreath]

I just have a question as I'm curious what people think here since there is the obstacle of closing primary schools to keep virus numbers down.

Why doesn't the government offer the pupil funding to the parent instead? This could be completely voluntary but considering there is about £3750 attached to each primary school pupil, they could give this directly to parents at around £300+ per month for each child and not include this in universal credit calculation to make it more lucrative. Plenty of parents would probably choose not to send their children in and it would leave more space for rotas/social distancing for the parents who cannot take the pupil funding option instead. This shouldn't cost anymore money because it is simply taking the money that the school would receive and giving it to the parent.

There’s no online schooling that works for the kind of SEN my children have

May I suggest therefor that you work tooth and nail for your children rather than expecting the rest of us to bend to your way?

You would be far better asking for advice from SEN specialists and parents with children with SEN.

@MaryLeeOnHigh

Thank you! This thread was worth it for you posting that, that actually is very helpful.

@MaryLeeOnHigh

You really need to educate yourself about your children's right to education and support for their SEN. Have a good look at the information on the SOS SEN and IPSEA websites.

This.

You work with the special needs team to find the school that best fits your child’s needs, based on the information in their EHCPs.

For example, our school has a specialist speech and language centre with 20 places. They are only given to children whose primary learning needed has been identified by educational specialists as speech and language.

I have to say, OP, if you managed to get EHCPs for nursery-aged children, you must have found a setting somewhere with a proactive Inclusion Team, so maybe use some of that resourcefulness to move on to the next step for them.

@Mummyoflittledragon

Really? That's mean. I do work tooth and nail for them. I stay up so my son doesn't vocal stim/scream and wake the neighbours. I stop them from hurting themselves. I clean them up constantly. I have been practicing PECs, researching everything that I can and trying to make their lives better on a daily basis. I have paid so much money on educational tools and anything labelled autism is extra ££££.

We have EHCPs but we are still being considered for a place for next year and I have no idea what to do or how to argue any of this."

There are people who can help you with this. There are Facebook groups such as educational equality who will be able to give you advice on what to do and point you in the direction of other organisations who can help.

@SueEllenMishke

I am a teacher who has worked with vulnerable families and children.

Attendance was down to below 50% in some of the most disadvantaged boroughs in the country by November. Is fully one schooling working for those children and families in the same way it is working for you?

I spent lockdown helping my school deliver food parcels and do checks on vulnerable kids. We invited them into school because we didn’t have a lot of key workers.

They got more one to one during lockdown than any other time in their schooling. This is what should be happening. Children who can learn at home should be able to do so. Children who can’t should get the support in school in safe numbers.

If you are a school governor then you should be well aware that schools know who their vulnerable kids are and have plans to support them. Unfortunately, this cannot be done if we are also expected to be providing face to face for all kids, regardless of their background.

What about your schools leavers- who will mainly be reliant on retail and hospitality jobs. Is keeping those sectors closed to allow for full time face to face helping them?

Essentially, keeping schools open FT for everyone further disadvantages the disadvantaged and benefits the children from comfortable homes.

If parents who can took some responsibility for blended learning we could focus more on the disadvantaged.

By insisting that you couldn’t possibly arrange your life any differently you are taking away support and opportunities from those kids.

"May I suggest therefor that you work tooth and nail for your children rather than expecting the rest of us to bend to your way?"

That was unkind.

@Butstilltheycome

I haven't had facebook for nearly a decade. I will look in to it, but I wonder if I would be let in a private group without pictures and all that? I don't want to put anything identifying on there.

[quote tinselwreath]@MrsMomoa

We haven't been given a school place. I guess I could try to do a tribunal but we don't have the money for that.[/quote]
Why would you need money for something that costs £0?

The cover letter with the final version of the EHCP and the cover letter you receive during the annual review details how you contact your local SEND mediation service. If mediation is not a success you then appeal within 28 days to start the tribunal process.

This doesn't work because the government can't actually achieve any savings if you take your child out of school. They don't sack the teacher or sell the classroom.

[quote tinselwreath]@Mummyoflittledragon

Really? That's mean. I do work tooth and nail for them. I stay up so my son doesn't vocal stim/scream and wake the neighbours. I stop them from hurting themselves. I clean them up constantly. I have been practicing PECs, researching everything that I can and trying to make their lives better on a daily basis. I have paid so much money on educational tools and anything labelled autism is extra ££££.[/quote]
So am I right (as there’s been a lot of drop-feeding from you on this thread) in thinking you have children with a diagnosis of autism (you don’t say how many children), they already have EHCPs, so their primary learning needs have been identified, and yet you’re now unable to get them into a suitable primary setting?

Something doesn’t add up. Have you moved to a different LA since their EHCPs were finalised?

Anyways thanks for the chat guys, I get to go get some sleep now so I'm abandoning the thread.

Tribunals are free if you want them to be

What about your schools leavers- who will mainly be reliant on retail and hospitality jobs. Is keeping those sectors closed to allow for full time face to face helping them?

I don't agree with the hospitality sector being shut. However, in an increasingly competitive labour market we need young people to gain decent qualifications- schools need to stay open to maximise this.

Essentially, keeping schools open FT for everyone further disadvantages the disadvantaged and benefits the children from comfortable homes
I fundamentally disagree with this. Do you have any research to back this up because all the research I've seen states the exact opposite.

By insisting that you couldn’t possibly arrange your life any differently you are taking away support and opportunities from those kids.
I'd quite like to keep my job. If you can tell me how I can teach timetabled lectures AND homeschool/look after my 6 year old at the same time then I'll embrace it. You're assuming the WFH means ultimate flexibility but in many cases it doesn't. I still have to teach my lectures at specific times and my DH still needs to attend meetings which take place during traditional working hours.

@FamilyOfAliens

The EHCP hadn't been completed in time really due to the start of lockdown to properly apply for a special school this year. I agreed that they would go to their nursery from the previous year, this year. I got a call from the nursery manager that they would be unable to support them (nonverbal). I say that I will keep them home then until we hear back from special school. Ehcp is done and with special school but they havent got back to us.

Anyways now I go, thanks all.

Op have you been on your local authorities offer page on their website? There should be details on there of organisations working in your local area that can support you with the issues you are having accessing SEN education for your children.
you need specialist advice from experienced people rather than generic advice.

Unfortunately many parents do have to fight to get access to an education their child needs.

Whilst I don’t agree with your suggestions re schooling at hole during covid. With the added info you have given I can understand your perspective.

I have worked with a few parents who have decided to home educate (not linked to covid) after several failed attempts at accessing suitable education that meets their child’s needs. For some children home schooling meets their needs much better than what is available to them through the local authority special needs provision. In that situation I do think parents should have access to come resources or funding given the local authority school options haven’t been suitable.

@tinselwreath

Then the government needs to increase funding per pupil in school temporarily while also compensating the parent who chooses to make the sacrifice and home educate. There were £££'s for all sorts of government contracts, and there's money to pay the parents for taking the hit when their kids are continuously given haphazard education leaving no alternative.

I have an idea op.

Since you’ve decided women must quit their jobs to teach their children, how about the menfolk pay their womenfolk a full time salary to teach their offspring. And maybe a bit extra to cover cooking and housekeeping?

Like an enhanced version of the 1950s.

Mass home schooling terrifies me.

I know many people who haven’t mastered the English language (it’s their first language), whose maths skills are questionable and who haven’t read a novel since school.

How are these people supposed to teach several subjects. And hats the parents who actually bother to try. Many don’t.

Also on the finances, how on earth could the government afford this? Stop paying the qualified teachers?

Is there one EHCP or more, OP? I can’t work out from any of your posts how many children we’re talking about here.

And you can always come back and clarify - or maybe re-post on the SEN board? Because it seems the point you finally got to (that you haven’t yet had confirmation of your child/children’s school place/places and need help with sorting it out) would probably be a more helpful topic for your thread than what you’ve posted here in AIBU.

I don’t see anything mean in what I said. I didn’t say your dcs should go away. I’m talking about you expecting us to agree to the money following the child, every child. If your children are refused an education, it would be a different situation. But there has been no decision and you are nowhere near the end of the road. If your children were refused, the very people, who you have insulted on this thread would be up in arms.

@SueEllenMishke

You mentioned ‘research’ first. Do you have any evidence to suggest that FT schooling in a pandemic is not more beneficial to children from MC households than children from WC households? I’m all ears.

The fact is that schools in Hull were so overcome by the pandemic that they couldn’t even offer key worker places. Is FT schooling working for those families?

You are suggesting that your employer cannot possibly be more flexible so the rest of us need to suck it up and suffer.

To allow your child to be in childcare FT (which is how you seem to be viewing schooling) you are fully prepared to:

1. Ensure that at least three major sectors remain shut at the cost of thousands of jobs. For the R rate to come down it is now either/ or.
2. Demand that the elderly and vulnerable remain inside and isolated OR die in huge numbers. Hey, it’s their choice, right?
3. Insist that schooling work for everyone because you haven’t been affected and are blind to the issues caused to other families and children. But what does it matter if thousands of other children don’t get proper schooling and their parents can’t work if your life is being facilitated?

If you have a final plan you need to apply to tribunal now. The LA will take as long as they like if they think you are accepting things as they are.

They should furlough the teachers and offer it automatically to parents who cannot find suitable child care for their children.

Not threaten parents who want to keep their children at home with fines. I personally know lot of parents who don’t want to lose their children place at school but don’t want to get fined and possibly taken to court.

Remove the stick and watch the amount of school children who physically attend reduce automatically.