Is this an illegal exclusion? Nursery

[MumTeach88]

My 3.5 year old son was kicked out his nursery. We have been working closely with the nursery throughout and he has additional needs. We have a SEND support arrangement in place as well.

We were called in for a meeting and they informed me they don't feel they can meet his needs and that he isnt coping and is "impacting the other children". My hand was metaphorically twisted and I said "is this you saying I need to find another setting?" Long story short, yes, this was what they were doing. I agreed i would and they agreed they were happy to have him until I found one.

2 weeks later (him having only been back a day and a half as we were on holiday), they called me. They were beating around the busy and I said "so you're kicking him out?" They tried to say words around it and that it wasn't they were kicking him out, I asked "So he can come in next week then?" They said no. My husband then called them later and they confirmed they were terminating his place immediately.

I have documents with that they have done (or not as the case was) against the Support Plan. Their main issue is he was impulsive and where he has SAL issues, he can grab and hit. Now, I totally understand that's difficult, but having received rhe behaviour logs under an SAR and shared with someone working in another nursery, they feel that it is actually fairly standard 3 year old behaviour to snatch a toy or hit a child when you can't communicate. Obviously I understand this is an issue, and would never want to have my son hurt someone, but we were working with them (so we thought) on this with social stories, support plan etc. Among other things, they have issues that he cant sit still for 20mins, can't use cutlery proficiently and needs his suncream applied 1st due to allergies. They also take issue that he is not potty trained (despite us trying twice and working with them on this).

The long and short of it, is this a legal exclusion? As far as I am aware they have not submitted to LA. The nursery is independent but under OFSTED. Thanks

How did you find out?

and from May to when he left…. You didn’t enquire as to how it was going? Or they lied?

Oh, I did. We were told (until July) he was doing well. As far as I was aware they were implementing it.

I found out as I asked for written review against it as to what was implemented and how it went.

Unfortunately, a lot of the support children with SEN need to thrive in a mainstream nursery just isn't realistic to achieve on minimal staffing and no funding.
Even finding time to sit down and have a meeting to review the support plan is often impossible as there's no one available to cover, so reviews that should happen every 6 weeks happen every 12 or not at all.

Absolutely. Was the legality around kicking him out. Thats all.

So they suggested one action amongst others,
and then in the review they didn’t implement that one action because the concluded not suitable.

sensible 🤷‍♀️

We have established that you established that this morning

you have persisted because you have wanted to tell us repeatedly how you think they SHOULD be legally required

I am now checking out the post so I thank people for their responses but I dont think there is anything further anyone can add.
Thank you to those who have been understanding and kind, getting why as a parent with a child with additional needs i would ask this question.
Those of you who dont understand why I would question it, thank you for sharing if it added to the understanding of the legality.
Those of you who have just been unkind? Do better.

No one has been unkind

It is an emotive issue. For parents of SEN and for parents of non SEN children who have suffered day in and day out at the hands of SEN children

Exactly

Agree with the 121 not always being enough, sadly. My DC was bitten (skin broken) by a child who had a 121 member of staff. It all happened too. The child had additional needs and a horrid horrid home life and upbringing…I felt genuinely awful for them. But it did it stop me from raising merry hell when my DC came out pale, shaking and bleeding from a bite? Did it fuck… I’m going to advocate for my own child all the way

I agree 1:1 cannot possibly prevent every incident.
A 1:1 could be stood right next to a child and they could lash out unexpectedly. A 1:1 can reduce incidents but there is no way all incidents can be prevented.

"Unkind"= expressing opinions the OP doesn't like or agree with🙄

No, expressing said opinions unkindly.

’I think it’s probably best, as he sounds unsettled and it must be hard for the other children and staff’ - not unkind.

’poor other kids suffering at the hands of your DS’ - unkind.

But goading the parents of disabled children is unfortunately a long established game on here.

Get in touch with your early years dept at the council and see if they offer a portage service https://www.portage.org.uk/about/what-portage. This is a really fantastic service and will def help you on your ehcp application, but also will help your child learn about sharing, sitting still etc for when they start school .

I think you should concentrate on finding a suitable placement for your child. It won’t be an illegal exclusion if it’s a private nursery and they have been honest that they can’t meet his needs. I will say that if my 3 year old was being hit by another child at nursery I would not be happy and would be looking to remove him if the child responsible wasn’t moved.

Interesting point to join a discussion.

Oh, I’ve read. I’ve read that you only started using this name this morning but promptly laid into this OP, some fourteen pages in.

There’s nothing wrong with name changing. That’s different to being banned then re registering and returning to the same threads you were on prior to being banned.