SEN unit mainstream

[Lifelife]

Is anyone’s child in a unit attached to a mainstream like a Sen unit? If so can you tell me how they work? My sons in a mainstream but he has just been issued a ehcp after I made a parental request, I would like him to go to a Sen unit his school has one but it’s girls only so he will need to move schools can someone tell me how this will work as I was told they are expected to be in mainstream class 80% of the time? Which seems odd to me I thought they spend the majority of the time in the Sen unit?

In our county we have SRP (specialist resource provision) units attached to mainstream schools, unfortunately there are 80 places in total across a county with several hundreds of kids needing a placement. My DD is on a long waiting list for one but I doubt we'll get a place.

What kind of provision does his EHCP state? You'd need evidence that mainstream can't meet his needs then you'd need to get the EHCP caseworker to send your DS's EHCP to the provision panel (or whatever they call them where you live) and hope they agree.

ThonSRP I visited did say that the aim is for the students to spend 80% time in the mainstream classroom, but the reality was that most did the opposite and spent 80% in the base. The base itself was absolutely lovely but it was already full and no chance of getting in sadly.

They need to build a load more of these but unfortunately there isn't enough funding.

Sorry I should have said I am waiting for the draft but I want to know whether it’s worth fighting for or not as it will mean a change of school which he is reluctant to do so I want to know if it will be worth fighting for or not before I do that but I am still waiting on the draft.

Does the unit in his school only take girls or is it that there are only girls there?

My child is in an ASD unit attached to a mainstream school. She’s in Reception. She spends nearly all her time in the unit and just joins mainstream for PE, but is supported to do so.

Ive been told that by year 6, children decide what they want to do. Some spent just about all their time in mainstream. Others split their time between the two.

Not all work the same. How they operate varies. Some expect 80% of the time to be spent in mainstream lessons (and for some there isn’t flexibility in that). Others don’t. They work for some, they don’t work for others.

For most units, the mainstream school is named in section I and the unit provision included in F.

They only take girls

Oh that’s interesting I don’t think any primaries have them in my area. He coped ok in primary but secondary has been a nightmare

Oh ok thank you

Yes the two near us work very differently from each other. Both are excellent and massively oversubscribed, but different set ups and USPs.

Agree with others - they all work differently. I've never come across a RB / SU that only takes girls, for example.

As a rule, when the SEND system wasn't completely broken, Units worked like a pp said - the longer they have been in the school, the higher the % of time they are likely to spend with their mainstream peers.
In my LA however, the SUs / RBs are now stuffed full of children who really need a special school place, but can't get one as they are very, very over subscribed. So dc who would really benefit from the support of a SU / RB to help them cope with mainstream, no longer get places and get shoved into mainstream.

But, as pps have said, he can't 'just move across' to a Unit (even if it took boys), the EHCP would have to state he needs a SU / RB place, and then there would need to be a place in one.

I worked in a school with a resourced provision. It was an SLCN unit, but the students there had a range of need additional to the speech and language provision. Speech therapists were in school twice a week and the students in the unit had timetabled sessions.

It was a 20 place unit, 4 places per year, allocated by a panel and all the students in it had an EHCP. They spent the majority of time in mainstream lessons, but in smaller classes with a lot of TA support.

My daughters in a Specialist Support Base atta he’d to a mainstream primary, she has ASD and is non verbal but she’s only 4, she is staying in the SSB when she starts school in September and they spend all of their time in the base and don’t mix with mainstream

the EHCP would have to state he needs a SU / RB place, and then there would need to be a place in one.

If the provision was included in the EHCP, it would have to be provided. It isn’t a case of getting the EHCP right then waiting for a space.

I’m going to be appealing for unit either way regardless of what the ehcp says as he wasn’t actually ever visits in school the Ed psychologist was a phone call so I’m not sure how good the ehcp will be in that case but will be appealing if it states mainstream, he wouldn’t go to a special school ive spoken to him about that and he’d prefer a unit within a mainstream.

I disagree with that PP saying the EHCP needs to state he needs a place there. LA Ed Psychs round here absolutely will not state what type of setting is required. You need an EHCP with provisions such that the RP can meet need, but all the mainstream settings consulted cannot.

Has he actually looked round SEN schools? Until he does so I would think he doesn't have enough information to rule them out. This is too important a decision to rely on prejudice. Some RPs operate quite like special schools anyway - they may not be right for him, but to rule them in and special schools out would almost be a technicality. You need to be looking in more detail at their individual offerings.

He wouldn’t want to look around one, special schools are extremely difficult get into here anyway so I don’t think he meet the criteria for one anyway. I think a unit is a good in between

I would say that the absolute key thing is to ensure the EHCP is well-written. That means the support your DS requires, is detailed, quantified and specified in Section F. That way the Local Authority (via his school) must provide it, regardless of if he's in a unit or not. You say he's reluctant to move schools so if you can ensure he has a good EHCP then that may not be necessary.

You don't say WHY you want to move him though. Has the relationship broken down with the school? Is he happy there but not achieving academically/socially? Is he miserable?

I don't know how old your DS is but as I'm sure you know, units attached to mainstream schools only take them until end of Yr11. You will need to start thinking of post-16 from Yr10. A specialist setting may not be right for him but many of them take DC up to 19. A 'special school' and a 'specialist setting' can be different things. There may be independent schools that you could also look at but the rules around getting a place in those are more complicated.

Ipsea has some good info about your rights when choosing a school with an EHCP here:
https://www.ipsea.org.uk/choosing-a-schoolcollege-with-an-ehc-plan

Also if you do need to appeal Section I to get his setting changed, I believe the wait times at tribunal are currently around a year (although they are prioritising phased transfers eg Yr6 into 7, Yr11 into Yr12).

Just fyi ARP units are much more common in primary schools than secondary schools

These basically don't exist anymore. All the SLCN ARPs in my borough have been changed to ASD bases.

He was extremely miserable in mainstream lessons, struggling to cope, he struggled with transition and moving between classes, the other children, how busy the class was and the class size. He isn’t actually in lessons at the moment he is in a sort of Sen club in the library (not a unit) but it’s temporary and he will be expected to return to lessons at some point.

However since he has been in there he is much more happier, he is coping better and prefers the smaller class size and the ratio of teachers as there is a lot of staff and enjoys going to school now. This is made it clear to me I’d rather him be in a unit I don’t want him returning to mainstream lessons but as I said his school unit is for girls only so he will need to move schools.

For some children, units don’t work because they are ultimately still part of the mainstream school that is too overwhelming for them. This is especially the case if it one of the units who expect a higher level of attendance in mainstream lessons. If DS finds mainstream lessons overwhelming and the unit you are considering expects DC to spend 80% of the time in mainstream lessons, do you think it is going to work?

@Toomanyminifigs there are some who cover sixth form age.

It’s fair to say, that, although the unit was SLCN, the students in it were generally ASD. It was a question of finding strategies that offered support for a range of need.

Sorry it wasn’t the school that said it I was speaking to someone about it so just wanted to double check as I was under the impression they spent the majority of time in the unit.

Yh it's frustrating though as there are a lot of kids with significant SALT needs but no ASD and there's basically no provision for them anymore:(

@perpetualplatespinning Thank you. I wasn't aware that ASD units were available for post 16. That's interesting. Sadly there are none in our borough.

OP - my DS is in an autism resourced unit attached to a mainstream secondary. He attends all his lessons - with adult support. He's KS4 now. When he was KS3 there were some subjects he didn't attend though (eg MFL, drama) but he was still expected to attend all core subjects.

The unit does allow him to have a place to go when he gets overwhelmed though and he can go there at lunchtime to decompress from the pressure of being around 2,000 students.

His school does have 'nurture' classes for students working below a certain level which are much smaller but they're available to all students, not just those in the unit. They're only in maths, english and science though.

You mention 'small class sizes' and 'ratio of teachers', to me that sounds more like a specialist setting than a mainstream secondary, even if your DS were to get into a unit.

I would also say that you need to consider the profile of the other students in the year group if your DS does join a unit. Units tend to be very small - maybe 4/5 students in each year group. You will need to make sure he would have a peer group.

As others have said though, every unit is different and there are some in my borough where students do spend most of their time in the unit. I would be doing some research though to find out what those DC are doing all day and who is actually teaching them. I would want to know what their outcomes and destinations are. I know it is very difficult to find staff for these units and turnover can be high.