Governor's complaint

[lordbingham]

I know I can research this for myself, and I will, I just wanted to know if anyone had any experience of this.

I have recently become a Governor. My son is autistic and has been on SA+ for over a year. We are going through the statementing process.

It has been a battle to get any provision from the school, although the LA tell me they pay for 5 hours 1:1/small group work for each child the school has on SA+.

The school do not follow the SEN pathway. They do not give out IEPs or discuss whether children are on the SEN register unless forced. A friend of mine with a similarly autistic child has chased his lack of provision for months only to have the school say he has actually been on SA+ for the last two years. This is either a lie, or very poor practice as she was not told and they have never shown her an IEP.

I spoke to the head today about my son's lack of provision after a couple of incidents I witnessed at school. The school have had medical visits and lots of reports confirming his problems and detailing what needs to be done to meet his needs. Her view is that 'he seems ok in school' and they will wait to see if he gets a statement before allocating resources.

I think this is unacceptable as the LA say they have an obligation to pass on the funding. I want to complain. How does that sit with my position as a Governor?

Your role as a parent is separate to your role as a Governor (unless you are the Governor for SEN).

You should, and must complain about the lack of support for your ds.

As a governor, you can raise the general issue of SEN provision within the school, as described by other parents (without naming your ds).

It's very awkward. I am in a similar position to you and do not feel enough is being done for my ds. Have been in to complain about IEP and poor targets but nothing's changed. I have just obtained a statement with quite a few hours support so am very interested to see what support they will put in place. Is the Senco any good? Does your ds have an IEP? If so support should be quantified.

We have a stand in SENCo for a day a week as teacher who is usually SENCO is at another school.

They have put down what provision he should get on the IEP but he doesn't get it.

I think the only way is to leave schools to be honest. I'm sick of being lied to and I'm sick of them not caring.

Did your friend complain? Can you speak to the SEN governor or will that be difficult? As a governor can you raise this as an agenda item at next FGB meeting? I would be asking if they have experience of ASD and how many staff are trained in dealing with children with those difficulties.

No she didn't complain but I think she could be persuaded to.

They doon't have experience of ASD. They have send two TAs on an Early Bird Plus course but they don't work with the children. TAs do catch up literacy/numeracy and that is all the head is concernd about.

I brought parent communication up at last FGB and that went down like a lead balloon!

I am on a subcommittee where it might be relevant to raise

If you are considering moving your ds, then you are in an ideal if somewhat uncomfortable position as a governor to bring this issue out in the open. From what you say the school is not fulfilling their responsibilities. Having these issues raised and minuted may make the head sit up and take notice. If the other parent makes a complaint then this is easier to bring up. As far as your ds is concerned, you may have to start being a PITA to get him the help he is entitled to. This might be easier if kept separate from your work as a governor. I would wait to get your statement first as you don't want to give them an excuse to halt the process on the grounds of a new setting.

I've been in this exact position (school governor with ASD child not being adequately helped etc etc)

You can't raise any of these concerns as a governor. You need to raise them as a parent as a formal complaint.

Do this, however also move school. This is what I did and my only regret is that I didn't do it years earlier.

There is no way to change a school that doesn't 'get' SEN. Your child will never be adequately supported there - no matter what his IEP or statement says.

At my new school my DS and DDs IEPs are almost identical. But the difference is the staff. My childeren are properly helped at the new school. The written documents don't mean anything....

You are right Indigo. I have known that really foor a while.. We have been having the exacct same arguments for over a year and eventually forced school to apply for a statutory assessment because of recommendations in the diiagnostic reports. But this head really does not see there is a problem.

He has a diagnosis and experts reports with lots of recommendations but she keeps on saying 'we don't see these things att school'. I think that doesn;t matter. No one is asking her to diagnose, just follow the advice of experts.

It's like saying 'he doesn't look deaf to me'.

The problem is that the schools in this area are all very much the same - llarge classes and driven by league tables. Would anywhere else me any different? I sort of feel that no one wants these kids

Choosing a diff school is the hard part. There was no way I could tell my new school would be better than my old school. But we were just at the end of the line with my old school, so we decided to move anyway (on the theory it couldn't be any worse).

New school has worse league tables, same size classes. It just is a better school.

When we went for a look round, I noticed clases were much quieter, and HT told me they had a lunchtime club for kids who needed 'extra support' at lunchtime.

But, it is totally the staff that makes the difference.

I guess that is why it took me a year to move from when I first wanted to. Because I didn't know the other school would be better....

Thanks. I have thought about HE while looking round. I have a younger child who has just started too. He is NT but every day he says 'I don't want to go to school'.

I think to myself - it shouldn't be like this. Where did my happy boys go?

Would HE for a bit be diisruptive? Soemtimes I think DS1 would cope much better if he was a bit older so may be he needs a break from the syste,m

If you can HE then I would say go for it. I have often thought it would be great for my ds but circumstances make it impossible. It would certainly be a lot less stressful for the whole family. When are you due to hear about the sm? From memory it must be quite soon I think

Within the next few weeks, then I will inevitably have to go through the bother of getting it enforceable as it's bound to be so wide as to be useless. The head has already said we will have a meeting after the decision (she will ask other agencies involved) 'to see what we can do with the TA hours'. I'm not wuite sure she understands how statements work

The statement should tell her exactly what needs to be done and be enforceable. She clearly just thinks she'll just get a few extra TA hours she can use if she feels it apppropriate.

It sounds terrible doesn't it? I have to take the boys out really.

Once you get the proposed sm I would go looking at other schools. You may find one with a great attitude very willing to support your ds. We have found a great school and the Senco there is really understanding of his isses. Whereas now ds walks out of class if stressed and gets into trouble for it the new Senco understood that if that was his way of coping rather than lashing out and will work on strategies to help reduce these incidents. They seem really caring and ds can't wait to get there. There are good schools out there it just takes a while to find them. Tbh it doesn't sound like HT knows a lot about SN but I feel like that with ours at times and she's an ex-Senco! Don't know why it's so hard to get decent provision and why schools just don't 'get' how to help our dc's.