Sarah Teather, Minister of State for Children and Families, live webchat TODAY, Monday 16th July, 10.30am to 11.30am

[FrancesMumsnet]

We're pleased to announce that Sarah Teather, Minister of State for Children and Families, will be joining us for a live webchat on Monday 16 July at 10.30 am. When elected to Parliament, Sarah was the youngest MP in Britain. She has previously served as Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Community and Local Government, Education, and Housing.

As part of the biggest reforms to SEN provision in 30 years, the government has recently announced the Children and Families bill. Sarah is specifically keen to get Mumsnetter's views on the proposed changes to SEN and statements. Further information about the changes are available here:www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/sen/b0075291/green-paper/progress.

Ms Teather also has responsibility for policy areas like childcare and early education, and the Children and Families bill will also deal with care proceedings in family courts, children's welfare in cases of relationship breakdown, and fostering and adoption arrangements.

Do please join us on Monday; if you can't make it on the day, please post up your questions in advance here.

I get very angry when I seen the SEN budget being spent on helping children to learn English when my ds isn't getting help the EP has recommended BUT if money isn't spent on helping them, these children who don't speak English are being failed. Similarly if you don't use the SEN budget to help children who are failing because of bad parenting etc, how WILL you help them?

Thankyou Sarah for answering my questions.

Just one further question: will the government strengthen the role of Ofsted with regard to SEN?

In my experience as a parent, Ofsted questionnaires have never asked about the experiences of my children with SEN. Also, the resultant Ofsted reports of my children's schools (mainstream) had little reference to disability or SEN and what the school was doing well (or not) with regards to this group of children.

Thankyou.

Developmental disabilities are diagnosed in the NHS but passed to LAs for 'treatment'. Why?

@CouthyMow

As a mother of two DC's with SEN's, I have a few questions :

1. In a town like mine, where all Secondaries will be Academies, as part of an Academy Consortium that share the same addmission criteria, how will you ensure that a DC with statement will have a school place in their town if the entire Academy Consortium refuses to admit them, and the Academy Consortium cannot be forced to admit a statemented pupil despite the SEN COP?

Hi CouthyMow -- I know that you have been an avid poster this weekend, so thank you for giving up so much time. I will respond to some here but we will read everything else later I promise and it will inform our thinking!

You raised some points about academies. We are determined that children in academies should get the same rights as in any other school. The new bill will make clear that parents can ask LAs to 'name' any statefunded school -- ie the process in a current statement that forces a school to admit a child. There have been some issues with some old style academies, but thankfully, the tribunal has recently ruled that they have to abide by the rules too. I want the bill to make things clearer for parents.

Please could you clarify whether or not children with medical needs will be supported in school? Thank you

@DebJay

Thankyou Sarah for answering my questions.

Just one further question: will the government strengthen the role of Ofsted with regard to SEN?

In my experience as a parent, Ofsted questionnaires have never asked about the experiences of my children with SEN. Also, the resultant Ofsted reports of my children's schools (mainstream) had little reference to disability or SEN and what the school was doing well (or not) with regards to this group of children.

Thankyou.

We have already done this actually - the new Ofsted framework makes clear that schools will be inspected on how well they support children with SEN across all inspection criteria. I have spoken with the CHief Inspector on this and he is very keen to improve performance in this area.

Can you answer what Hothead asked at 11.11? Thank you.

@LeonieDelt

At least with the current (terrible) system, you know what you're going to get - delay tactics, waffley proposed statements, being forced to appeal, LAs who will pull out at the last minute, cos there's no incentive for them to do it "right".

I dont think i could cope with trying to manage a budget too - i've had to fight so very hard since 2008/9 for provision for both my kids, that needing to manage who is coming in to deliver my children's supports seems a very very daunting task - what about cowboys? The LA are often cowboys themselves, how are we to know who is and isnt any good, who will deliver, who to choose from etc?

Will the LA handle it if a parent doesnt feel up to it? Most parents of autistic children I know of are too tired to deal with sourcing and paying for the expertise their children need in school, they're already stressed to the max because of the cuts, cuts to their personal money thanks to slashing the benefits, no support, cuts to respite, etc etc etc...

I know that many parents are very anxious about change. This is completely understandable. If you have fought the system for years to get help any change is worrying. But I ask you to remember how awful the journey was for you. This is what we are trying to make better for the parents who come after you. This is not about taking away your current safeguards, it is about making it quicker and less stressful for all those who would otherwise have to fight tomorrow.

Your point about personal budgets is exactly why I don't want to force anyone to take one up. We will be training keyworkers to support those who want this choice, but otherwise the LA will have to make provision as they already do.

Well, Ditto HH. My daughter is partially paralysed, cannot run, climb, jump, feed herself, toilet herself, communicate in any way (not even functional sign language) has diminishing use of the one hand she can use, etc. etc. etc. Signed off from Physio, OT and SALT as "having no needs".

Thankyou Sarah. It shall be interesting to see how Ofsted perform in this area of SEN and disability.

At the moment the only 'help' we seem to get from the Local Authority is regular refusals and/or denials in relation to funding services that are out of county, even if they are the nearest suitable services.

I am wondering whether the new system will make it easier for people to cross borders to other counties to access provision, as necessary. Otherwise it's tough on people living on the borders.

@HotheadPaisan

What redress will there be if they don't work together quickly? I agree the penalties for delaying and denying provision have to be greater than the cost of just getting on with it quickly in the first place.

The law will be clear. Health professionals and LAs will HAVE to work together. The missing bit is often the bit you don't see at the moment -- that drives what you as a parent experience. The missing bit is that the services that are commissioned often bear no relationship to need. Then everyone gatekeeps because there isn't enough speech and language therapy for eg. If you get the first step right, there is less gate keeping and less need to pursue redress.

you have just got time to answer my post Sarah!

I live in Brent, and my son has ASD. I have been less than impressed with the whole statementing process so far: it has gone over the statutory 26 weeks by a huge margin, and SENAS have been unhelpful and unresponsive. We have struggled to find any school which will accept him, as there seems to be a paucity of ASD provision in the borough for the Primary age range. Also, he has not had a session with a SALT since last December.

Now, before you say 'oh yes, the new system will get rid of all these issues', my concern is that many of them stem from a severe lack of funds. How this they are accessed does not change the core issue: there is no money.
SENAS - despite an increasing case load, their staff have been halved from 28 to 14.
Schools - I have been appalled by the attitude of some local schools, and the ones which are welcoming to ASD are so over-subscribed, that someone like me slipping in after places have been allocated doesn't stand a chance.
Salt - DS had a wonderful SALT. Wonderful. She went on Mat leave and wasn't replaced. We got transferred to SN Salt team, we had one meeting in February (no work took place with DS, no strategies sent home for me), and since then he has been seen 'in nursery'. Except that he hasn't, yet. He has four days left at his nursery.

I wish I could put this more coherently, but my question is about SN funding - I worry that whatever the set up, if there isn't the money or appropriate provision available, it is pointless.

What happens if parents want provision through personal budgets that a LA doesn't agree with or want to provide?

What happens if the personal budget allocation by an LA is inadequate to meet the child's needs?

@LeonieDelt

Round these parts (huge LA in the midlands) its not health who are the problem, its the LA, full stop. They seem to want to do the right thing but are told categorically to refuse statements, ignore evidence, let timeframes slip, forget to book statement medicals (twice), etc etc.

Our paed desperately wants to help but is told his hands are tied, he can do no more, everything is "in the hands of education".

Why??

We are looking as part of the pathfinders at how w can make the journey quicker -- it is a very big chunk of a young child's life to wait half a year to get the support that they need. And LAs, health services and schools and colleges need to be providing some support before the plan comes in. The zero to hero approach is part of the problem. That is why we are going to legislate to make sure all LAs have a local offer in place, and that they talk to parents about what should be in that offer.

Oops, I can spell constituents, I namechanged in a hurry.

What about mainstream independent schools? They can be very good at kicking out kids with SEN. Any plans to bring them into line?