Why are the guvornment doing away with IEP's?

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, my 9 year old daughter has severe learning difficulties and is at a mainstream primary school with a full time one to one assistant.
We received a letter on Friday to say that she hasn't had an IEP for this term, as the government has decided to get rid of them. There will be some kind of alternative I think. We're invited in to discuss this, but I'm not sure why they've done it, what the alternative will be or what questions to ask/ points to raise.
If anyone could shed some light on this, I'd be grateful. Thank you.

oh - I haven't heard that. My daughter was supposed to be getting one but nothing has been mentioned recently so that could be why.

I have not heard this specifically, however provision mapping will become necessary in order to apply for Higher Needs funding, under changes to the SEN legislation.

Provision mapping would show the extra provision your daughter would be receiving for her SEN, so can supersede IEPs, sort of I suppose.

Not heard this. Had a meeting on Thursday to discuss ds's latest IEP!

We've just had dd's IEP meeting. It is written in her statement though that IEP's will be written in consultation with parents each term so unless her statement is amended to say otherwise dd will still have IEPs regardless of what the Government says.

That's a pretty wild interpretation by the school of what is happening.

Some schools choose to use provision mapping rather than an IEP, some don't - it's not the government that has made that decision, it's the school.

There is a bill going through Parliament at the moment, from which changes will come into effect from Sept14 - ie 2 terms away which will probably (not finalised yet) make changes, but it's not in force yet, and the understanding of our local authority is that there will still be a requirement to set SAMRT targets for the children it's just that they will be quite likely to revise the format.

I'd ask your school how her targets will be recorded, how it will be recorded what the school are providing specifically to help her reach the targets, how it will be reviewed, how it will be shared with all involved.

IEPs have never been statutory some school have chosen to use them others haven't. As a SENCO I use provision mapping and pupil profiles. However there are changes to SEN code of practice

if you don't use IEPs , how does that affect the parents? do you discuss the provision mapping with them and the pupil profiles? how does a parent know if there child is reaching the targets set on IEPs. a lot of LA in their statementing criteria state that the child must have 2 IEPs before they would consider a statement 0 this is what has just happened to me - she has only one IEP so LA refused as she needs 2 IEPs which is a ridiculous reason given the child is 4 years behind.

We have half termly consultation and they are free to talk to class teachers or myself anytime if they have concerns.

I have to provide much more evidence than 2 IEPs when applying for a statement

Thanks every one. That's given me food for thought. I'll have some questions now....