What do you think?

[nappyaddict]

Do you think children with severe emotional and behavioural problems should be in mainstream school?

depends on the problems and what other provision is available

if their needs are met, then yes.

Same for Special school and same for Home Ed.

I mean if they are regularly being badly behaved, shouting, agressive etc.

Depends on many factors. NA if this is about a child you know you could try the SN board for advice.

I put it here because I am talking about people with emotional/behavioural problems due to upbringing, abuse, being in care etc not due to a medical diagnosis of SN.

If their needs can be met without disadvantage to other pupils then definitely but not if there will be significant disruption to others' learning or there is not sufficient staffing/training to ensure that they can have a positive experience. The staffing/training should be considered before the child is given/accepts the place and not as a catch up exercise once the child is in the school.

If proper support is available and/or if there is no better way of catering for them.

Also, let's remember that emotional/behavioural problems because of trauma could happen to any of our children any day- any of us could be killed or be diagnosed with a terminal illness- what in that case would we like to happen to our children?

I visit a lot of special schools as part of my job and I've seen some amazing special schools for emotional and behavioural difficulties. They provide therapy on site, have small class sizes and focus a lot of self-esteem. I also visit children who are in mainstream with BESD issues and I know many of them would be better off in the specialist schools.

Unfortunately most Local Authorities don't run their own BESD schools and the special schools are often owned by private companies, so they are very expensive - one I saw recently cost £170,000 a year, although it was a boarding place (and many of these pupils need to board because they need extra support).

Paying the costs in the short term makes far better sense than having to deal with the fallout from illiteracy, crime and mental health issues later on, but sadly most children aren't given the opportunity to receive adequate support during their educational years. It's very hard to convince a Local Authority to fund a residential place for a BESD child, and the family often aren't in a position to appeal against it.

on self-esteem.

CharlotteShoes Can you get a statement of SN for BESD due to trauma, upbringing, abuse rather than being part of a SN like ASD, DS etc?

If so can you get funding for a day place at a BESD school or funding for 1:1 support in MS?

Yes you can, although it would often still be considered a SN by being labelled as attachement disorder or a conduct disorder. ADHD is also a common dx (not that all children with ADHD are BESD of course).

You can get funding if it is named on the statement, but Local Authorities often resist naming a BESD school on a statement or 1:1 until they've exhausted all other possibilities. This often means the children have often gone through many mainstream schools, multiple exclusions and truanting so they're completely disengaged from education by that stage.

Do you think attachment disorder, conduct disorder and ADHD are appropiate labels for children with BESD for the reasons I mentioned or would it be better if they had a label in their own right? Is it easy for children with BESD for those reasons to get a diagnosis of attachment disorder, conduct disorder or ADHD or very difficult?

I would have thought diagnosis of attdis would come before diagnosis of besd... can you give us specifics or is this a general situation you're looking at?

Is everything okay?

BESD isn't really a useful label though, it just describes the behaviour but gives no reason behind it. A child presenting with ADHD needs to be treated in a different way to a child with attachment disorder, even if some of the behaviour is similar.

A full diagnosis (made by a psychiatrist or paed) wouldn't normally be of BESD but of some kind of psychiatric or behavioural disorder. On a statement, a child's 'primary need' is named, which could be BESD.

I wouldn't say it's easy to get a diagnosis of those disorders just because BESD is present - any medical diagnosis would need a full investigation and assessments. But a child is more likely to draw attention from the relevant authorities if they have BESD, which of course makes it more likely they'll get a diagnosis.

Ah right, I think I misunderstood. I thought you were saying children with BESD were sometimes given labels of ADHD, conduct disorder and attachment disorder to get them some help but actually didn't really tick the boxes for those labels IYSWIM.

Are children with BESD but no diagnosis still considered as SN? Would they be able to get a statement or not without some sort of diagnosis?