School not providing what is on IEP.

[FatherSpodoKomodo]

DS1 is year 1 and nearly 6. I was shown his IEP in October and was told he would be doing Narrative therapy (continued from Reception) and would also be doing a Motor Skills programme. I didn't see his IEP at the March parents evening.

I found out last week that he has only done one session of the Motor Skills programme.

What happens when a school doesn't give the child what they said they would on an IEP? What is my next step?

[StarlightMcKenzie]

You're right about consistency.

My ds would probably have been considered low need because for a long time his needs were ignored/denied and covered up by selective and inappropriate assessments chosen to give a more able picture.

When we were looking for a school for him many refused to even see him as on the basis of his statement he looked more severe than he was. That isn't to say that his statement didn't accurately reflect his needs, but the REASON it did so was because his family had the resources to make sure it did.

If the were presented with version 1 of his statement no doubt they'd feel more able to meet his needs.

A school has no idea just from looking at a statement, how many drafts it has been through or how fastidious the child's advocate has been, or how detailed the assessments or how competent the recommenders.

And when all is said and done, neither the child or the parent has any control over the quality of the provision that the statement secures even if it tightly worded and specified.

[daftdame]

Starlight I agree with you except I have no idea concerning levels of need nationwide, except that the level of need required for a statement varies from county to county. Thus I'd question the Low Level & strong advocate outcome. (Our family might be the exception to this rule).

I agree with you regarding effectiveness of statements for raising attainment.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

If the child is particularly disruptive I think that the school would more readily play the advocate role if the parent doesn't.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

IMO A statement is indicative of a high level of need AND a strong advocate, usually parent.

High level of need + no advocate = no statement
Low level of need + strong advocate = no statement
Low level of need + no advocate = no statement

I think it is worth bearing in mind however, that a statement itself does not raise attainment levels and more often than not they go unread and are pretty useless for the child anyway.

[daftdame]

mrz The point I am trying to make is that spend varies hugely from LA to LA. The % statements in our LA is the same as yours, yet your school spends more than most mainstream primaries in our LA.

Obviously your demographic is different, hence the difference in spending.

Yet the % of statements is the same, could it be that the children who receive these statements have vastly different needs in terms of severity?

Hence a statement is not necessarily indicative of a high level of need (as it usually is perceived.)

[StarlightMcKenzie]

DS got a statement because we killed ourselves proving he needed one before he got into the school system of hierarchy, misinformation, undertrained SENCOs etc.

We were continually told he wouldn't get one until the day he got one which wasn't worth the paper it was written on. Indeed when we began the appeal against the woefully inadequate provision, the parent partnership (who were supposed to be supporting us but shared and office with the LA SEN bods) told us that there was no POINT in appealing the statement because we were lucky to have one at all given that everything in it could be delivered without having one at all .

My ds would most likely have been one of the children Mrz talks about being in her school but without a statement if it wasn't for the fact I had a lot of inside knowledge into how the system works and also how stacked against parents and their children the SEN truly is.

Indeed, the provision we were asking for was not what the LA 'provided' so they threw inappropriate SALT and OT at ds despite him not needing it (he did need both, but a special type and not as many hours as they were offering), because they had already purchased those services in block contract deals, thus depriving a good number of other children those services in order to win a tribunal against a parent that was challenging their lack of appropriate provision.

That provision failed him, and he is now in an independent special school, which didn't take much of a fight given how much he had deteriorated.

What a waste. His life chances are now at risk, a good number of vulnerable children lost their SALT and OT for a year or so, and he is costing the tax payer substantially more that he needed to.

Direct Payments are supposed to be introduced that would technically have enabled us to purchase the provision ourselves (Thus allowing us to have our cheaper but outcome-based provision) but Local Authorities are refusing these to parents on the basis that services they might chose aren't being independently evaluated and that it risks parents being exploited.

What they fail to acknowledge is that their own shambles of holistic, non-accountable, make it up on the spot provision is also not ever independently evaluated and thus risks parents, children and tax payers being exploited.

[mrz]

Yes EPs can recommend schools as part of the statementing process but they can also recommend schools based on their personal knowledge of the school to parents who have failed to acquire a statement or indeed to parents who haven't tried to get a statement for their child

and yes I know insanity's daughter has a statement but that doesn't mean there aren't many children like her who don't

[daftdame]

mrz Don't EPs usually recommend schools during Statutory Assessment? They do recommend mainstream schools for pupils with SEN in our area.

[daftdame]

insanity's daughter has a statement.

[mrz]

I'm not talking about children with statements daftdame I'm talking about those children who need support but have been refused a statement. Often children like insanity's daughter

[daftdame]

^have

[daftdame]

mrz They are. Most of the mainstream primaries in our area has the same % of children with statements of SEN as your school.

[mrz]

Perhaps the mainstream primary schools in your area aren't recommended by EPs to parents who have children with SEN

[daftdame]

Most of the mainstream primary schools in our area only have an average spend of approx 4K per pupil.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

As a mother of a child with SN, I couldn't give a flying fig about the accounting. I'd be happy if my child had no funding at all if he had a decent evidence-based education.

If that required a TA, I would give a toss if it was someone volunteering from a local childcare course provided they could follow good instructions from the teacher who was themselves trained in good sound evidence-based practice techniques.

I am worried that outcomes for children are getting lost and mixed up with number-crunching.

[mrz]

In September 17/26 of my class required additional support (excluding child with a statement) in June only 2 still require high levels of support (both being assessed by the EP but unlikely to get statements) but 3 new children arrived today who from first impressions may well need support and we have a similar picture in other classes ... Then I have a child who has attended 10 sessions since Easter ...

[mrz]

yes daftdame they did

[daftdame]

mrz The majority have additional needs?

Did your school participate in your LAs consultation which determined how to designate which schools would have more delegated funding?

I know our LA was hugely disappointed in the response for the consultation..they had little information with which to decide the best formula.

[mrz]

because over 50% of our children have educational needs not covered by a statement daftdame. As I said it is extremely difficult to obtain a statement even for children who have been identified by numerous outside professionals as requiring support.

[insanityscratching]

*to and not at

[insanityscratching]

But accounting won't make for better provision it's just another hoop to jump and another stick with which to beat the schools.I'd say the only difference it will make will be that the schools that keep the best records regardless of the quality of the support given will secure the most funding and to do this they may choose to hire an accountant at the cost of quality teaching and support staff.

[daftdame]

insanity Sadly the accounting is needed because some schools and LAs have been misappropriating the funds at worst, scandalously inefficient at best.

[daftdame]

mrz If less than 1% of the pupils at your school receive additional funding from the LA, your costs are less than a special school, as you have said in a previous thread you are a single form entry school, why would it cost you £600 000+ to map provision of the initial 6K for those who required top up funding?

[insanityscratching]

Dd's school is good at what they do and so as a result parents who can express a preference choose to transport their child to that school rather than their local school. As a result 20 plus students have statements in a 300 plus school so quite a high number compared with the schools surrounding it. It's the support they offer that draws parents to them and not the reassurance that the school keeps meticulous records of the cost of the support given. I worry that these records of cost will come at a detriment to the support offered because will the cost of all this accounting of SEN budgets come from the SEN budget itself

[daftdame]

mrz Not the same in all schools...