SEN and independent schools

[henryhsmum]

I am just wondering what happens in regard to entitlement to SEN support if you have a statemented child but you choose to send them to an indepedent school (paying fees yourself). Often independent shcools will take the child but will charge extra on top of their normal fees for one to one support the child needs. If in a mainstream school with a statement the child would get a teaching assistant assigned to them for x hours a week. So would the LA still provide one to one support assistant for the child if that was in an independent school setting? I am not suggesting that the LA pays the private school fees but that they pay for the extra support that child would ordinarily have in a mainstream setting.

I think it will also be interesting to see if the direct payements in the green paper can be spent on one to one support for a child in an independent school

Our LA pays for a 1:1 assistant for DS, who is at an independent school. He was at a state mainstream primary when he got his statement, then we moved him to independent (paying own fees). I think it's quite rare though, most other parents at the school have to pay the school directly for help and the HT says ours is the only case she has known where this has happened.

So I shouldn't get my hopes up then! I think if I had to pay for support on top of fees there is no way I could afford it. I am curious as to how the proposals for direct payments/individual budgets for children could change this though. I know they are controversial but in a situation like this I think they could work well.

How have you found mainstream vs independent? My DS is in a special school at the moment but he is academically bright, it is social skills he finds difficult. He is only 5 at moment but I suspeect that when he reaches secondary age he may not be able to cope with the large classes in mainstream. But if he stays in the special school they can't do qualifications like GCSEs. Hence why I am thinking as private school may be a compromise but it is so expensive!