Provision of education for long term sick child

[Gsr06]

Wondering if anyone else has had experience with child missing months of school with illness?

My ds is 11 and not been in school since May 2014. There seems to be no opportunity for us to get help with education pre him hopefully going back to school at some point. He is under camhs care but limited treatment so far as he is very reluctant to talk to anyone.feel school still totally unrealistic he will be back soon as he also has a sleep disorder. Essentially if I want to get him learning again it's down to me. Feeling pretty overwhelmed by this as it's hard enough trying to keep the family going, have a younger son and a job I'm trying not to lose as well. Anyone been in similar situation ?

Normally the Home Hospital Service would be involved if a child has long term absence for medical reasons.

www.gov.uk/illness-child-education

this is the govt stance - what is your school offering?

They are only offering hospital teaching staff as 1 to 1 for a couple of hours a week once he is phasing back and that would be in school building.

But we don't even have a proper diagnosis yet and given its mainly a mental health issue its really hard to predict when he will be 'well' enough to do this.. They have just recently given me project topics that we could research at home but that comes back to me again to be creative on how we do that. Hate to say it but can't help thinking we might have had a different experience with a physical illness, they just don't get it, for months now he might only leave the house once a week in a good spell. Social work are involved too from the school side and no one seems phased that educationally he is missing his last primary year. Doesn't add up, especially when on the other hand my youngest has to do extra work over the weekend that he didn't finish in class.

Is he still on the school roll? Schools in England are under a new statutory duty to support chikdren with health conditions. There is related statutory guidance that they have to follow. Your poor son. What a shower.

Yes hes still on roll. Think I will cahllenge them again on this. Thks.

The LA do have a legal responsibility to provide education for "sick " children even if this is only one hour a day tutor. His current school really should be helping you with this alternatively the education welfare officer at the LA might be a good place to start even if only for information on who to contact to get support.

If the school is contributing to the mental health difficulties then another approach would be to apply for an EHCP plan so that he can be supported in school. Not saying this is an easy or a quick strategy but it has helped us get support for our ds's who were finding it difficult to cope in mainstream despite being academically able. ds2's mental health has certainly improved since he has been at a specialist school so there is long-term hope.