statement for a child

[McHappyPants2012]

what does this mean, my son really struggles in school and he is also Austic.

A statement is a statement of educational needs and it means the school has to provide what is in it. It may be support or additional exam time, we have one student who has to have a special chair.

It will be individual to your child and once done the school has to act on it. As your son is on the austistic spectrum it will depend on his needs.

It also makes it easier for the school to get the funding to pay for extra support.

These do still happen in some parts of the country, but are being phased out. They are obsolete around here.

OP, try posting on the SN Children's board, you will get more help there from parents in a similar position.

A statement is a legal document which sets out the support needed by a child with SEN and the provision needed to meet those needs. But it's very important that the statement is worded correctly in order for that support to be guaranteed. You can get advice from charities like IPSEA or Contact a Family, or your local Parent Partnership.

asiatic what part of the country are you in? Statements are gradually being replaced by Education Health and Social Care plans but that is only being piloted in a few areas, and any current statements should be maintained.

Yep, head over to the sn board.

Loads of experience over there.

Krystal I teach in London, no new statements have been issued fro some years, some of the older students still have one from when they were younger, but they don't carry any weight, We don't have to pay them any attention, although having said that, we normally woud do, as it is a helpful tool to have. There is no extra funding assossiated though

asiatic how to the children with severe and complex difficulties access the provision available in special schools then? I've never heard of anyone going to a special school without a statement.

Statements are legal documents and if you don't pay them any attention then you are in breach of the legislation and acting illegally.

they don't carry any weight, We don't have to pay them any attention

. I'm speechless

I can't believe a teacher is so ignorant misinformed regarding the status of SEN statements

A Statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN) is a legally binding document drawn up by a Local Authority that sets out in detail a child's Special Educational Needs and the required educational provision relating to those needs. The purpose is to ensure that the child receives an adequate level of educational provision in support of his or her needs

www.cafamily.org.uk/pdfs/educatio.pdf

asiatic - statements have not been phased out
OP look at IPSEA for advice on how to apply. You will also get lots of help from the sn board from posters who have been through the process.

There are all sorts of dodgy things being done by Local Authorities though. In ours, huge policy changes mean statements with 15 hours or less carry no attached money and school is supposed to fund support out of general SEN budget (based on postcode/SATS results etc so less 'deprived' schools get much less funding). Not sure how a 'posh' village primary school of 70 kids where three are autistic and have statements for 15 hours each is supposed to fund these 45 hours out of a £4K pot...I tried at the parental 'consultation' to point out that incidence of autism or cerebral palsy etc is not linked to how 'poor' a parent is but apparently I'm wrong:-(

Whether there is funding attached or not the terms of the statement must be met by the school and I'm not sure how "posh" is relevant.

Because in our authority they calculate the general SEN pot to the school based on house prices/levels of FSM/postcode/SATs results etc etc (my shorthand for 'posh', sorry) and there are some schools with NO SEN POT AT ALL cos they have no FSM/all level 5s etc! It's disgusting that they think only poor kids can have disabilities, but as we can't change the council policy I've tried not to be one of those awkward parents but a helpful one, accepting that my ds's 1:1 is helping other children too. They cannot afford 3 TAs on £4K! (Total school budget less than £200K - this is a rural authority so funding is generally very low for all schools; I believe it's the lowest in the country).

We have school action Plus, which is a letter of agreement from county (Denbighshire, north Wales). Statements are almost unheard of now. My son has ASD and is going to statementing panel but I don't think they'll issue because it won't give anything above the school action plus agreement.

As for the comment about needing statements to stand a chance of a special school place, that was absolutely the case in years gone by round here, but as they have issued no new statements for years, you can now get a place without one, because, IYSWIM there are now more places than children with statements (providing of course it's the right match and in younger year groups, obviously).

And I know for a fact (dh and I both work in separate secondary schools) that my ds will not get his hours honoured at state secondary or any other attention paid to his statement (and we can see why: he's level 5, there are lots and lots of children at the local school below level 3) which is why we're opting for indy secondary where the structures and procedures he needs are in place as a matter of course. Yes, we're lucky we can (just) afford it.

regardless the school must ensure they meet the needs of all pupils and it often a case of taking from one area to fund another regardless of whether the school is "posh" or "bogstandard"

I find it shocking that so many schools seem to be working illegally.

Again, I really think it's LAs who are working illegally and the schools are hamstrung by this:-(

mrz you are so right, but it's such a shame that the LA does not fund accordingly. Our primary virtually only can afford the teaching staff and that's it. There really are huge variances in funding across the county. The head of provision at the Council kept repeating to me: 'Schools with wealthier intakes don't have as many SEN children'! Of course, 'cos autism really knows parental incomes when it decides to strike a child!

A friend with a pre-reception aged autistic child was advised informally by LA to go for a place at a 'more deprived' village school because they have much bigger budgets. That is social engineering.

ehhh??? I'm in London and both my boys (Y10 and Y7) have statements and they both have pots of money (fairly hefty in ds1's case) attached to them and both have support from LSA or SENCO in the majority of lessons (ds1 in private, ds2 in partially selective state). No-one has ever mentioned to us that their statement is obsolete or wouldn't be taken notice of

You are very lucky, especially in secondary. One high performing school near us had developed a well-deserved reputation for being good with SEN, especially autism, and had over 30 children (out of 1000) with statements. But when the council removed the funding overnight two years ago, how is the school supposed to pay for 25 staff out of general budget when their SEN pot is tiny because low FSM, expensive houses, good GCSEs etc etc? (And they would never have let money follow a child to an independent, despite what the law says about entitlement). In summary, it seems shocking how different the provision is across the country. There is no provision in this county for high functioning autism at all and they have now removed funding from mainstream schools unless they are very deprived. Don't get me wrong, my ds's school and I'm sure, most others, take notice of the statement very well for the things that don't cost money (extra time in tests, pastoral support, filling in home school planner etc) but they really can't afford to pay for the hours stated in the statement out of whole school budgets. They just can't.

Isn't the per capita spend in London something like double that of the lowest-funded rural counties, and we have transport to pay for too?

Sorry OP for contributing to this going a little off thread! :-)