Urgent advice needed. Meeting tomorrow.

[Devsmum13]

Hello,

My son is not enjoying T Levels. Not enough people signed up for his original IT course, so sixth form put on a coding course in September. (He should have been told on results day but they forgot). He has moaned non stop to his sixth form tutor and at home. Sixth form have asked me to go in for a meeting with the council tomorrow afternoon. I know they will ask for him to leave immediately.

It is a specialist Technical Sixth form.
The council suggested it because it is small and has the academic.

He would have loved the original course. No where else can meet need, and he hasn't got the grades for a school sixth form. He will be placed at a college for autistic students that requires improvement possibly without the IT element.

Things would have been different if his original course has run.

I understand why we need to have this meeting. My son is very bright. He will not learn if he doesn't buckle down and work but If he doesn't like the course and it isn't something he wants to do, he isn't going to try.

He passed all his GCSEs but with much lower grades due to the crappy Senco not understanding the EHCP at his secondary school. He only got in to sixth form because of his EHCP. He won't be able to cope with a school sixth form, and hasn't got the grades anyway..

Any advice would be appreciated. I feel like a failure.

Many thanks.

OP

I am still struggling to understand your posts. You seem to be saying that the SENCO didn't go to English, but surely that would be your son.

I understand he is not on the course he wanted but no matter what role he wants to do he will need programming for any decent computer science course.

When I spoke to the LA about schools, they explained that they only had one school available for my son. This school is ASD Specific with massive educational success. It goes right up to sixth form and the kids go to University from it. It is the only one of its kind in Yorkshire. Over 500 kids in our city alone need a place.

Yes you can. Foundation course?

I totally believe you, OP.

Stop believing everything the LA tells you. They will tell you what they want you to know and their version of the law.

If the ASD school was your preference and the LA refused to name it, you could have appealed.

Don’t leave researching placements to the LA. You need to be proactive.

There are other options in Yorkshire for academically able DC.

It also sounds like the EHCP needs improving. Things like provision from a specialist careers advisor can be in F. It is part of PfA.

OK, so SENCO fucked up, and it seems reduced timetable was needed for some things but at the cost of English.

what support is written on his EHCP - what is it that he needs help with in an academic setting on a day to day basis. THAT is really the only thing that is important right now in regards where he goes.

You say you are fighting tio change his EHCP, but what is wrong with it - what do you want to change. This is a late point to be doing it in his educational career, and if you are looking at uni, then the EHCP does carry through, but they tend to have their own inhouse disability services, plus DSA. The support for disability at uni is fantastic if you can get there.You may be better concentrating on what you want going forwards, and if he might be better placed elsewhere or sticking to this course, or changing courses in his current school.

And as others say, there is always a foundation year on many uni courses now, to bring your points up. If your son gets PIP and would qualify for LCWRA then its worth taking a year out between end of 6th form and uni, because if they have been receiving it for 26 weeks, they will qualify to continue getting UC at uni and in the holidays, which will relieve financial pressure, which is another potential stress of the uni experience.

EHCPs do not continue in higher education. They can continue until 25, or 26 in some cases, but they do not continue in HE. However, it isn’t too late to be pursuing amendments to the EHCP. Even more so if DS may not go to university at 18.

There is no requirement to be in receipt of UC for 26 weeks before beginning university in order to be able to receive UC. For disabled students, they need to be in receipt of PIP and LCW/LCWRA needs to be established prior to the beginning of the course (this can be done via a credits only New Style ESA claim) but they do not have to be receiving UC for 26 weeks beforehand. Although, for some, the deductions wipe out the UC elements, so the award is 0.

ahh thats good, they must have changed it from when my daughter started her degree (she is in her final year now) as she had to have been LCWRA for 26 weeks before she would have been allowed.
she gets about £181 a month UC,during the academic year and full rate of UC/LCWRA in summer but if she had a housing allowance it would be much more, so it does help alot if you need to pay rent

If DD is still at university and receiving UC, whoever told you there was a 26 week rule gave you incorrect information. The rules for disabled full-time students claiming UC haven’t had a 26 weeks in the last several years. At least 5+ years from the 2020 amendments following a JR case after it was finally picked up in 2018 UC was breaching the 2013 regs. And I can’t remember for certain, but I am pretty sure UC has never had that rule. The rules tighten in 2021 to make it harder for students to claim.

After an incident at school last year, the Senco insisted that I contact Mind mate for therapy. After my online referral, Mind mate came back and said they couldn't do anything as it needed to come from the Senco because was happening at school.

After I emailed this to the Senco, he emailed back saying that Mind mate where mistaken and copied and pasted the initial referral our GP did. I clearly wouldn't get any further so I forwarded the entire thread to the Head of Children's Services at the council asking for someone to sort it out.

Th next day a manager from the council called me, we talked about the problems, the caseworker was removed and they arranged counselling for my son. We went the next week. He saw a councillor for 10 minutes.

She said straight away that it was school. School hadn't understood the EHCP, and that they needed to take responsibility. When he was at school he was in their care. She would try and support as much as possible but if he was going back into the same environment nothing she did would help my son.

She then said that he found school boring which indicated that they were not going enough for him, and that neglecting a student was a safeguarding issue. If he was in Y11 and things like this where still happening even with an EHCP the Senco was the problem.

The LA then sent in a manager to school for a meeting to find out if it was true and it was. They then tried to help the Senco but that help was blocked by a Director from school who thought she new better. It then came out that she was giving answers from Google when he had a problem.

What do you do when you are up against that?

Is that enough information for you?

OP, you are focusing on the past. You need to now look at moving forward.

It would also help you to read more about EHCPs and SEN law, so you understand the system. For example, it would help you understand that if provision in the EHCP wasn’t being provided, it is ultimately the LA’s responsibility and you can enforce it.

I have repeatedly said that it is the LA responsibly throughout this entire thread!

Do you have an idea of what your preference is @Devsmum13 ? What your son wants to do next?

So did you enforce the EHCP, including via JR if necessary? In several of your posts, you have complained about the school not providing provision, which is why I mentioned it ultimately being the LA’s responsibility.

Not sure what you mean?

I mean if the provision detailed, specified and quantified in F of the EHCP wasn’t being provided, you could have enforced it, including via the judicial review process if necessary. I was asking if you had done that.

He wants to do A Levels. I think he would have liked the original T Level. I thought it was a good idea because of the work experience element. He did work experience within his schools IT department and loved it.

But the original T Level isn't a possibility, right?

So for A Levels, do you have a 6th form in mind? Will he manage 6th Form do you think?

Nobody else apart from this current small STEM sixth form could meet need of his EHCP when the LA consulted for 16+. I have said it right through this thread. The amount of people who have made out that I am being picky. Is driving me mad.

So then what are you expecting the LA to do now? This is why I said he needs to be more flexible. If the course he wants to do doesn't exist in the settings which will be most suitable for him then what do you expect the LA to do? They can't run a course especially for him.
This isn't being picky, you have been asked this repeatedly and avoid answering.

What do you expect the LA to do? What outcome do you/him want?
What if the outcome you want doesn't exist? What is Plan B/C?

Previously you said other settings and LA said others couldn’t meet needs, but what do you think? Sometimes just because settings/LAs say somewhere can’t meet needs doesn’t mean they actually can’t or that the legal test for refusing to name them is met.

Have you looked at EOTAS/EOTIS/C?

Forget about the course. They can't meet need of his EHCP full stop. This is the problem.

So if it is inappropriate (in the legal sense) for provision to be made in a school or college, have considered EOTAS/EOTIS/C?

I wanted him to go to a school sixth form to do A levels. IMO it is better to do A levels that will help for IT but not limit him in the future in case he changes his mind. The LA didn't think he would cope with a school sixth form setting due to the free periods BUT he has been fine at the Sixth Form he is in now. He has settled in and made friends without any problem. His current sixth form is lovely. It's the course that isn't right.

Our city only has one. It is for autistic teens and adults but they do not run the A Levels that he wants. The LA suggested it as a last resort if he didn't pass his GCSEs (obviously he did).