Can you still flexi school if you have a statment of SEN's

[mummyloveslucy]

That's it really. Our daughter is home educated at the moment. We'd like her to do 2-3 days a week at school, but she's very likely to need a statment. I'm just wondering if it's possible to have both.

Thanks in advance.

Bump

I think you'd get more answers if you asked in home ed and education tbh. I would imagine that in theory it's possible only many schools don't like flexi schooling and I would think that with a child with a statement you would need to provide evidence that you could meet the statement at home because you wouldn't have the same freedom as a home schooled child would.
LA would only fund a proportion of the support on the statement if your child wasn't in school full time. So if you got a statement with fifteen hours support but only attended for two days, LA would only fund 6 hours
Have you requested statutory assessment? You know it takes six months from your initial request? You could ask the LA for schools in your area that are happy with flexi school.
Why would you prefer to flexi school rather than exclusively home ed or exclusively school ed?

It'll all depend on what is in the statement (if she gets one) and what is viewed as being in her best interests. If it is agreed that school x days and home x days is best and that's in the statement a school has no choice but to honour that.

I wasn't aware that any school really allowed a flex approach but it'll be on a totally personalised level if she gets a statement.

The only way you'd know the answer to this is by applying for a statement to your LA and going from there. Ring their sen team for a chat they're generally bery knowledgeable and helpful.

Yes I'd agree with Pineapple, I think she worded it better, if after assessment they felt that it would be in dd's best interests to be flexi schooled (ie what you provided at home was essential to get her needs met) then school would have to comply. My only concern would be that you would have to provide something quite specific rather than because you quite like home schooling.

My dd started nursery very part time with a statement in place. So initially she did two mornings a week and LA funded support for the two mornings. I had made my intentions clear from the request for assessment that I wanted part time attendance because my dd was doing a home based intervention programme. LA were happy at that but because attendance until after her fifth birthday wasn't compulsory they wouldn't really have been able to object. Dd attended nursery and school part time until after her fifth birthday the HT would have preferred ft but had to suck it up.

Flexi schooling is totally up to the HTs discretion.

My one 'encouraged' me to flexi school DS until they had support in place for him.

So you really need to discuss it with your HT. they may well be very happy with it - or they may have never even heard of it.

Thanks everyone! That's really helpful. I didn't realise it took 6 months for a statment!! She really needs support from the moment she starts. She's unable/willing to work alone. Reluctant to work even with someone helping. She can't read at all or do basic sums. She also has bladder and bowel issues and soils many times during the day.
I'm actually really worried about viewing the school tomorrow as I'm not sure they, or any mainstream school would take her. My other main concern is bullying, due to her problems.

The school has no choice whether to take her if they have a place available. A statement would mean she gets priority for a place as you can have a specific school named.

Actually, with a statement the school can turn her away if they can't meet her needs.

But without a statement a school has to accept her.

if the statement names a specific school then they woul dhav e to take her though

The school can object to being named.

Doesn't often happen, but it can.

they prob wouldn't though would they? because they can turn down a request to flexi school anyway, it's totally at the heads discretion

what can they use as reason to object to a statemented child?

School would have to provide evidence that the admission of a staemented child was an inefficient use of resources or would be to the detriment to other pupils there or that they couldn't meet the terms of the statement which would be an option if for instance a child had mobility difficulties and they were in a multi floored school without a lift for example or if the statement specified hydrotherapy or an on site SALT but for a more typical statemented child ie learning difficulties/lack of progress it's unlikely a school could refuse tbh. Our LA induce schools to accept regardless of their concerns tbh.

I am a SENCO and sit on my borough SEN panel. It is possible BUT the school/ panel will decide on merit. I have recently been involved in a case where this was introduced in the lower years of primary as part of intergration. tbh the swing was funding...

Vini which way did did it swing? When dd went part time with a statement LA were happy because obviously they only had to fund a proportion of the statement, school were less happy because her TA was only there when dd was there and so wasn't available for the small groups that she would support with dd when she attended.
Dd went full time once she had to through choice I'm not sure that HT would have been supportive had I chosen to continue part time although I'm in no doubt that LA would have insisted dd remain in the school tbh.

Good luck viewing the school mummyloveslucy. I hope you find somewhere that'll meet your DD's needs and flexible too.