Moving back to the UK with SEN child

[Mamma35686]

Hi, we are moving back to the UK, probably staying in Scotland, with my summerborn 6yo SEN child. He has been well supported up to this point and have been attending a specialist pre-school and therapy.

I understand there may not be any spaces at this point for primaries, and also the strain on educational resources in the UK at the moment. We will apply for an EHCP as soon as we move - our kid has communication delays and delays academically, as well as having sensory issues so he needs a lot of support. The limited advice I've had from other parents with SEN kids is that the situation is so dire, it's better to homeschool than attend mainstream while waiting for an EHCP/CSP. But my kid resists learning from us, but he really thrives and learned so much from his peers (with support). I was wondering if some compromise is possible such as attending a couple of hours a day, maybe over activity time and lunch, so that he is used to the classroom environment and can make some friends.

Any general advice would be helpful. We are not committed to any part of the UK at the moment and are only initially settling in Scotland because of family.

Your suggestion is unlikely, attendance is a big issue in education so your dc needs to attend school on a regular basis. Are you sure you want to move back to the U.K.? Otherwise look at private options too.

He's never done more than half days of preschool. ☹️ Going into full on school without any support is such a big step. Is there really no option other than home schooling?

We've had to go private in our current country out of necessity but we can't afford it anymore which is why we're coming back.

My child does get more support here but we don't have any choice because of my job, we have to come home.

Firstly, I would decide which country you plan to settle in longer term because each country has its own SEN system and their statutory SEN plan isn’t transferable, you would have to start the process again. Depending on where you decide have a look at the websites of IPSEA and SOSSEN (England), Enquire (Scotland), SNAP Cyrus (Wales), SENAC (NI).

Schools have to provide SEN support even without a statutory plan, but it won’t be at the same level, obviously. Even if schools are oversubscribed the LA will have to provide education. If attending mainstream isn’t suitable whilst finalising the plan the LA should provide alternative education. Personally, I wouldn’t EHE, by doing so you relieve the LA of their duty to provide education.

Flexi-schooling would be at the discretion of the individual school (unless written in e.g. an EHCP), it is unlikely they will agree to what you suggest. Short term, they may agree to DS attending mornings in order to facilitate transition, but there is no guarantee and it is unlikely to be agreed longer term.

Is he 6 now, going to be 7 this summer? In Scotland his peer group are in primary 2, then p3 after summer, there's only about 6/7 weeks of term left so its likely he'll be straight into p3 by time you're here. And I do unfortunately agree with pp that for mainstream school only attending playtime is unlikely to be something school would offer.

Thank you for the replies. He'll be 5 going on 6 this summer. So he'll be in P2 from next term.

I really don't know what to do. He has one-to-one support in preschool at the moment and he can focus for only a few minutes. It's difficult for them to encourage him to do tabletop activities even if they are tailored to him - he prefers to do his own thing. His teachers are very flexible and try different ways to interest him in the activity. I don't think home educating is a long term answer because when he is regulated and engaged, he learns so much from being around peers. I think keeping him in a structured classroom environment is better than say a forest school where he can be very hyper and deregulated, but if he can't be supported then I don't know how he's going to cope in mainstream.

I didn't know EHCPs were not transferable between LAs. That's really disappointing.

The ehcp is supposed to move with you but will be tweaked when you move areas (review) I think. The SNChat board will give you detailed advice if there’s someone who’s done it. The school will pay for support till the ehcp is in place (my son had full time 1:1 while they sorted his ehcp). Find a school and go and talk to them. What you CAN do is get all our reports together plus written details from his teachers now (and ask them if you can pass on their email to LA/school to inform the process). He will probably need to see Ed psych and salt etc again here but it will help.
Help the school do a good job and they will if they can.

There is often a mechanism eg interim funding, available from the council for a school when a child arrives suddenly with additional needs and requires extra support, in advance of EHC needs assessment. For Scotland contact https://enquire.org.uk for further info - an impartial service that should be able to advise you. All local authorities in the UK are required to have a SEND info and advice service by law, so depending on what part of the country you end up in, get in touch with them (eg kids are the organisation widely used in London).

The school needs to evidence the money spent to get an EHCP, so he needs to be in school for that. EHCPs will transfer if you move, but best to be in one location whilst completing the application process.

Once he starts, school will identify what support he needs and what they can provide (which may not match unfortunately). They may assign him some TA time with an existing TA. Some schools may include him with a different class for part of the day if they feel he needs that level of teaching.

Also, be aware that age boundaries for year groups and transitions are different in Scotland to England, if you think you might move out of Scotland.

not all primaries are full, you may get a space quickly.

Scotland don't have EHCP's and where we live there is space in every primary school. Definitely work out where you're going first and take it from there

EHCPs can be transferred across local authorities but not countries

I'm an English senco and we've had a couple of families move from Scotland and getting provision is place has been a battle

Choose where you are going to live and then look at process that is relevant to that country

Attendance doesn’t matter when it suits a school, I’ve known of lots of Sen children that were forced onto part time timetables by schools as the schools couldn’t manage their Sen and didn’t have enough funding/staffing. Some being allowed in for as little as half hour a day, Legally this isn’t allowed but sometimes parents don’t know any better and accept it.

EHCPs don't exist in Scotland. You don't need to be in school to get an EHCP. Gather all the evidence of his SEN together so you can demonstrate he needs assessment.

Schools do allow slow transition to school if necessary. Special school places are allocated by February of each year in England, but they don't have a Published Admission Number (PAN) for each year. They have a global PAN, so there is slightly more flexibility in numbers for each year group.

When we were considering moving to Scotland, the SEN team were very helpful and pretty much said that they would arrange a special school place for DD1 when we got there. But that was about 12 years ago.

EHCPs are transferable between LAs within England (although the new LA will review and potentially reassess, amend or even cease to maintain), they are not transferable between countries because Scotland, Wales and NI have their own systems and plans (CSP, IDP and Statement of SEN respectively).

The school needs to evidence the money spent to get an EHCP, so he needs to be in school for that.

Children don’t need to be in a school to get an EHCP.

Ehcp doesn't exist in Scotland.

An individual education plan will only be granted if the school is on board.

Most likely your child will go to mainstream.

Flexi school is rarely granted.