Preschool one to one funding advice

[dwaynej84]

Hi All,

First time post, hope you can help. I'm not quite sure what to do next.

My beautiful son Logan is 31 Months and has a delay in speech (hardly talks) but other than this seems (as far as I can tell) to be a normal little boy...does some things really well and others not so.

Basically due to his delay with speech (and his initial delay in understanding which seems to have mostly gone now, he understands everything, all sort of commands) we were told he would need a one to one in preschool (we call it meithrin in Wales). This was all arranged and we were told he should start his first day today. We took him today to be told that funding has been pulled at the last minute and there is no one to one available to him.

We've been told that unless they find funding from somewhere (meeting going on today) they don't think they will be able to take him in preschool. I'm really dissapointed with this as I think he will benefit from school having been looked after at home up to this point, he needs the interaction with children in school in my opinion.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this, is this acceptable or not (I don't think it's right that he's not allowed to go because of this, surely it's a right for him to go), what are our rights (I know it's not a compulsory age yet)?

We've been told that if there is no funding we could possibly fund it ourselves, does anyone know how much this is likely to be (2 days a week for 3 hours)?

Cheers,
Dwayne

It doesn't seem fair at all but cuts are happening all over. It is getting harder and harder to get 1:1 funding.

As for how much it would cost, it depends who you want with your son. You could probably get someone unqualified for around minimum wage. The preschool would probably get a bit more money than that so they can buy extra resources or make adaptations to the setting. The council would probably give between £7 and £10 per hour dependant on need. That is what my DD's preschool gets.

As far as I am aware in England it is illegal not to take a child who needs one to one, just because there is no funding. I found this out last week as I got my wrists slapped for querying this with the LA. It seems strange to me that he is being offered 1:1 support for a language delay only, maybe my LA are just very tough. and obviously it is probable different to Wales.

Hummm, I would say it is there problem to sort out not yours, he has an entitlement to a pre school education and that education must be accessible.
I don't pretend to know your ds but I am confused to why they feel he needs a 1 to 1 for speech and language delay with no other SEN especially as you say he now has good understanding. My ds started pre school this time last year at 2 years 10 months of age, so similar to your ds, he has a significant speech delay, he had maybe 10 words at a push when he started and those words were very hard to understand although his understanding was age appropriate. There was no talk or need for him to have a 1 to 1. Over the last year we have had a few meetings and extra things have been put in place to help him and help us aid his speech development but otherwise he has been just that same as the other children. We all came to the conclusion that it seemed very much like ds was not hearing very well due to the way he said the few words he had and the slow progress he was making with speaking at pre-school (my elder dd who also has speech and language issues came on massively in he first term of pre school although her speech problems are completely different to ds) by the time we finally got the audiology appointment ds had started to make some real progress and it was discovered that he had significant glue ear in both ears but it was resolving on it's own at that stage and needed no further treatment.
Ds has come on so much over this last year, pre school has been great for him, he had real motivation to work at his speech and he is now using simple sentences, still a long way to go but looking back he is a million miles from where he was, I don't see how having a 1 to 1 would have helped him any more and in some ways I feel it could have been a hindrance as he can be very lazy and having to think about how to make himself understood and how to communicate with his peers has really helped him, having a 1 to 1 would have made his need to communicate effectively with other children less of a need iyswim, it would have been like all the groups I had been taking him to, he had an adult to explain what he was needing/wanting and wouldn't have to try for himself.
I know that all that wasn't the question you asked, it just struck me and strange that they would feel a 1 to 1 would be needed or even helpful for the issues your ds has. At the end of the day though if your ds needs a 1 to 1 to access a pre-school education then he should have a statement of educational needs (or the Welsh equivalent) if he has no statement then a 1 to 1 is a want rather then need and in a private pre-school it falls into a grey area on wether it should be the parent or the setting who provide the funding for this, I am not very up on it all, perhaps try posting on the SEN boards?