Webchat with Edward Timpson, children's minister, on the upcoming SEND changes; TUESDAY 15 JULY at 12.15pm

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

As lots of you will know, the Children and Families Act comes into force in September, and with it some changes to the systems around special educational needs.

We know this is a topic many MN posters are deeply involved with. You may remember we've previously had chats about this with Sarah Teather (when she held the relevant government post) and with Edward Timpson himself a while back.

Edward says: 'We've been preparing for the big changes happening in SEND from September. We've been working with local authorities, parents, children, young people and many of our partner organisations in health and education to reform the systems for children with special educational needs and disabilities. I've been looking forward to discussing these changes with you as I know that SEND is a topic of great interest to many Mumsnetters.'

We hope you can join us on the day; as ever, if you can't please post up your questions in advance.

Thanks
MNHQ

Hi Zara im my area those that join the PCF don't have to attend Tribunals, they get the school they want for their child and that is how councils keep them quiet.

@OneInEight

Ah, but as long as you understand that what makes education "outstanding" for one child does not make it "outstanding" for all. There are an awful lot of schools ranked "outstanding" by OFSTED who fail abysmally to meet the needs of children with ASD for example.

Firstly the good news is we have more outstanding schools than ever before. Importantly the new Ofsted inspection framework for schools has increased the focus on the progress of children with SEN. Also the new progression measures I posted about earlier will help improve the transparency on performance for these young people.

Mr Timpson, why did you pass up the opportunity to bring in genuine reform by making these genuine Education, Health and Care Plans? As it is, we cannot appeal in respect if the health and care elements, we cannot enforce the care elements, and although in theory we can enforce the health sections that won't happen because you have allowed Clinical Commissioning Groups the right to veto the health provision.

I agree Icimoi

Is there any chance of you answering my very serious question about arrangements for over 16s?

Waasup And if they voice their opinions they're thrown off the PCF or not 'voted' into a more select decision-making group.

Not my LA, but one I know.

That's my hour up I'm afraid. Fortunately the loom bands my children have forced me to wear haven't hindered my typing too much! I'm now off to meet the Young Epilepsy group to talk more about the reforms from their perspective. Thanks for all your questions and sorry I didn't have time to answer all of them, but I hope it's proved both useful and interesting. Have a great summer. Edward

My children goto an outstanding school - It is outstanding for NT kids...Not for mine.......

I will watch you debate on Thursday at the HOC - take care, see you then.

Well, that was a right waste of time. A series of totally waffly answers which bear all the hallmarks of having been written by civil servants and PR people. Plus evasion of all the difficult questions and a total failure to get to grips with people's legitimate concerns.

I suppose these things serve some purpose in helping politicians to show themselves up, but that's about the only one.

Wasuup2014 - I appreciate your experience may be poor, but please do not tar us all with the same brush.
I am a volunteer sitting on steering groups, strategic boards, and Co Chair of a local PCF. Within my region your experience is not one I have come across, we struggle just as much as you do to get the best for our children.

Thank you for coming, Edward, and for answering so many questions genuinely without dumping prewritten rhetoric throughout the discussion.

I can't say I'm anything but extremely concerned about these reforms. It isn't the change I mind so much as the lost opportunity to really make a difference and the sheer amount of money that has been piled into what seems like keeping the mouths of certain charities shut and their actions opaque.

What a difference that money could have made in preventative interventions directly channelled to the children and front-line services.

I thought he was okay Ici but I may just have no reduced expectations as I can't see the point of these reforms at all.

"In respect of childcare, from September all 2 year old children with SEN will receive 15 hours free early education."

He did say this to you JadedAngel but actually I think it is only 2 year olds who have a statement and are getting DLA - which is quite hard on the autism front, as often they fob you off from getting a diagnosis that early ("let's wait and see,dear") and with no diagnosis, no statement and no DLA.

"In respect of childcare, from September all 2 year old children with SEN will receive 15 hours free early education."

He did say this to you JadedAngel but actually I think it is only 2 year olds who have a statement and are getting DLA - which is quite hard on the autism front, as often they fob you off from getting a diagnosis that early ("let's wait and see,dear") and with no diagnosis, no statement and no DLA.

I am truly puzzled by how much good the 2yo funding can really do. It took me from the time ds1 was 2yo until he was 4yo before anyone would even LISTEN that there was something wrong with his development. I know loads of people that had the same problem. Just fobbed off by medical personnel and educational personnel. Are there really people out there that were actually listened to when their child was 2yo???

I think the 2 year old scheme is fine with the disabilities that are diagnosed at birth or medically diagnosed and very obvious or visible. But autism and other developmental disabilities, which are diagnosed just by observation and chat, are just so much more prone to delay and prevarication. My boy ticked every single autism characteristic in the book, lining up, flapping, no language, no eye contact, self harm, no answering name etc etc, but I was still advised to 'wait and see' at 2!

I asked a very direct question about the CDC not bothering to respond to questions. It was ignored. How does that equate to being 'transparent'. The contract for their handling of IS had to be pursued before it was put in the public domain and then it was heavily redacted.

And a large number of parents are in PCFs? Are they? Really? What evidence is there to support that?

As icimoi says

"there is NOTHING in this legislation which has the capacity to bring about the culture change you refer to"

Parent Carer Forum. I don't know how they count 'membership'. Being on a mailing list?

I was on the mailing list for mine but didn't get any info about their get-togethers with the LA.

Yet there are statutory obligations regarding consultation with parents and kids related to the Local Offer. Timpson clearly knows nothing about public law or how public bodies are supposed to act.

Also, initiatives have arisen during this reform process following 'consultations' with a select few groups e.g. the Independent Supporters initiative was announced with a fan fare as 'Parent Champions'. Yet the consultation prior to it was not open invite or open discussion, it just involved some hand picked charities, most of whom were not SEN charities.

To be fair to my LA it does have inclusion funding for nursery age and we did access this from 2. From age 3 we got the usual free nursery place and then 75% hours 1:1. To get 100% 1:1 (which is what DS needed) you had to have statement. They said they never gave 100% but soon backtracked on that once we told them we were starting ABA and would be asking for that instead. DS at 2 was a nightmare he was climbing on everything with no sense of danger and constantly trying to escape. It was unsafe for him not to have 1:1 and thats the basis nursery got it. There was a complicated point score system (isn't there always) and it depended how delayed a child was in how many learning areas.

Under 3 the nursery got about £150 a term which for a child they had with physical disabilities didn't even cover the cost of equipment the LA told the nursery to buy. I have no idea what they spent DS money on.

The nursery was given very misleading advice (as were we) about the existence of such funding and I see its yet to make its way into the LA local offer. Once again something you can only get if another parent has told you about it - something the local offer was supposed to stop happening.

It was only when I asked to see the policy & eligibility we started to get anywhere with accessing it.

I would ask your LA what inclusion funding it has for nursery.
There should be something on the LA website.

The funding in my LA only applied to private and vol nurseries - those attached to mainstream schools had to use the school SEN budget.

Our nursery kept DS in the under 3's class (with higher staff ratio) with our permission until the funding came through and in effect they gave him 1:1. The over 3's class had staff ratio of 1:8 which was hopeless.