Question about a child with a statement

[kid]

I was just wondering, if a child has received a statement, does anyone check if this child is receiving their full time allocated to them?
The reason I ask is, I know a child that has been given 20 hours per week but is only receiving around 5-7 hours a week. This has been going on for a few months now but I just feel it is unfair.

do the parents know this is happening, why is it happening, it is always a battle to get the hours my DS gets 20 hours which we fought hard to get i would be livid to find he didnt get his hours, there have been times when others kids in his class who dont get any hours but are disruptive have taken my DS assistant away from him and this makes me cross

This child hasn't even had an assistant employed just for them. I think the funding meant for this child has been used to pay wages for someone else in the school. The hours the child does get, is given by assistants already in the school. I'm fairly confident that the parent/s have no idea.

I am a teacher and I know that the way hours are allocated has changed. A child is assessed on their level of need and the level of incidences that occur. A child is given hours but this may be used to either give child one to one or to enable the teacher to teach the child by using the support to work with other children (to 'free' up the teacher so to speak). If a child has high need and high incidence the time should really be one to one. But if they are low need high incidence or high need low incidence the support may be used differently. I am only speaking from a text book here. I personally believe if a child has been given hours they should recieve the hours!!!!!

golly I am a teacher and I can't even spell RECEIVE!!!!

It is unfair on the child. Our son (5 and profoundly deaf) gets 20 hours LSA a week. We keep in touch through a home-school notebook and read in there every day what the LSA writes she did with him and also ask our DS what they did together. We also know when she has days off due to sickness. Nosey parents, I know. But we too fought hard to get this and it's because he needs it. He's in a mainstream school, in a busy, noisy class. He wears hearing aids and it's very difficult to hear in background noise. We are just trying to level the playing field for him. (He's doing very well and partly it's thanks to the LSA.)

Hi TB, I think that's an excellent use of the LSA's time too, freeing up the teacher to work with the individual child.

In your situation your ds should def get his hours!!! Am glad to hear you fought for it... so many parents give up when faced with the brick walls. We are a very inclusive school and had a girl who was deaf and took her right through her primary education. She had one to one support throughout KS2 and whenever she moved clasrooms her soundfill system moved with her. Staff got used to wearing the little microphone thing and even in assembly! Has your ds school thought about anything like that.

Message withdrawn

Hi TB, yes, he has a radio aid and it's part of the LSA's task to make sure it gets passed on between the teacher or vicar (he's at a CoE) for assembly etc, that it's charged up at all times, that it works properly etc. She's also there when the speech therapist comes to work with him and gets ideas of language work from her. They often work with more than one child so DS has someone to model good example (for speech, let's say) and that works great. The important thing here is the other child is not another child with special needs, though. It is working very well. DS is 5y 3m and is top of his class at reading (stage 6 of ORT), sociable etc. I know he's a bright little boy but I credit part of his successful inclusion to the Statement he received and the school doing their best with it.

Its really nice to hear a positive story on this subject... i have 3 children with SEN and though they all have statements they have not been allocated any hours from LEA. School get given a pot of money for SEN and these 3 kids are obviously not a proprity.

Must be time for bed ... my spelling is getting worse!!!!

Tiredbunny,

If this is indeed the case you urgently need to talk to IPSEA (www.ipsea.org.uk). If the children have a statement with a set number of hours they have to receive these hours. A Statement is legally binding and the LEA cannot forego their responsibilities.