how can I speed things up?

[HarHer]

Hello,

I have two sons and neither is in full time education or training. My eldest is 16 and has Asperger syndrome and mental health difficulties. My youngest is 14 and has a generalised anxiety disorder. My eldest has had no full time formal education for two years, since he went to a CAMHS unit for seven months in 2014 and he is waiting for such time as the local authority feel it necessary to try a Personalised Learning Programme. My youngest receives four or five hours of home tuition from the LA and that is it. My eldest has an EHC plan which states his need for a supportive educational environment and my youngest is supposed to be undertaking assessment for an EHC plan.
My problem is, this situation has been going on since the end of the last academic year and my sons, although they are bright boys, are falling further and further behind educationally and have no contact at all with peers.

I try to contact people e.g. the educational co-ordinator at the PRU that my youngest may attend; the Local Authority SEN Reviewing Officer and so on to see what is happening but they keep saying ity is a mental health issue or that I have to liaise with Children's Social Care (both boys are on protection plans). Yet, the boys are not going to make progress unless they start engaging with some sort of education or training.

Pleaser can you tell me how I can speed the process up?

Have you tried contacting IPSEA for advice?

I have 2 sons. Both diagnosed with ASD & ADHD / PDA. Both attend independent schools funded by our LEA. Both boys were excluded from mainstream by Yr1...

Firstly contact your local Parent Partnership.
Contact IPSEA.
Start emailing & cc EVERYONE involved including head of childrens services.
You need to be thrir biggest pain in the arse.

They will leave as you are & very soon your boys will reach the magical 18 & all dupport & services stop...

Get on that phone & emailing, start demanding the education your children are entitled too.

Good luck.

Thank you. I am going to contact IPSEA. We have a Review of the Child Protection Plans next week and I am pretty sure the plans are going to be ended and the children will be placed on the less formal, Child in Need framework. This may mean they get less support than they have at the moment.

I am angry today as well. My youngest is supposed to have home tuition from the LA on Thursday and Friday mornings. Last Friday I was told that his tutor could not come because she was sick. Today I have been told his tutor now has another job and so my son will have no formal education this week. He was looking forward to going to a workshop at the PRU this week, but the Education Co-ordinator now says this will not happen until my son has built up a relationship with his new tutor. Can the LA really do this? My son is 14 and they have just failed to provide education for two weeks and put his plans to integrate on hold.

Could anyone help me formulate a complaint. I really think the local authority do not care about my boys and this is making me terribly angry and sad.

I can educate them to some extent on my own, but they need more than I can give.

This situation is seriously unlawful. Your children are entitled by law to full time education and all the provision set out in their EHCPs. I would strongly recommend that you contact SOS SEN, who may be able to draft a pre-action letter for you threatening court proceedings. That will get things moving much more quickly than a complaint would.

Hello,

I apologise for 'bumping' my own post, but I did not want to repeat the background information. I contacted IPSEA and SENDIASS (the Special Educational Needs Advisory Service) to see what else I could do.
IPSEA suggested arranging for an interim SEN Review for my eldest son (who has an EHC plan) and so I got in touch with our Reviewing Officer. We agreed that my eldest does need to be a little more stable before we think about a review. Currently, he is working towards meeting a befriender for coffee. Once my eldest can interact with someone without panicking, I will arrange for the review.
SENDIASS advised me to apply for assessment for an EHC plan for my youngest. I made the application and fully expected the LEA to tell me that an application was already in progress. However, they did not. I contacted the PRU and asked what had happened. My husband and I signed consent forms for an Educational Psychology assessment for my youngest in November and at two Child Protection review meetings we were told assessment for EHC planning was underway by the PRU. However, the Head Teacher for the PRU contacted our social worker and said that no referral had been made for an Ed Psych. assessment nor has any application for an EHC plan been submitted by the PRU because it was the responsibility of the school where my son is still on roll to make such referrals and assessments.
I was very angry. For three months we have been told that the PRU was arranging assessment for my youngest, but nothing was being done. Furthermore, I have been told that the PRU is probably not the best place for my youngest to progress to. Yet no alternative has been identified.
So, after seven months on a Child Protection Plan under which lack of structured education outside the home was named as a risk factor for my youngest; nothing has been done. He still receives two morning sessions of home tuition and we have no idea what this is leading to. The sessions are just ended if the home tutor changes and sometimes half an hour or so is lost when my son runs out of the room if the tutor coughs (he has a health anxiety) and he has to be coaxed back. Furthermore, due to CP reasons, the sessions take place in my house with his brother (who is a source of my youngest's anxiety) hiding upstairs because he will not come down when the tutor is there!
I have asked the social worker to arrange a meeting between me, the Deputy Head of my son's school and the head of the PRU so we can see what is happening. This will take place after Half Term.

I am sorry about the rant. I am just angry.

That really is appalling. I would have thought the PRU could have made the rquest for an EHC assessment, but even if they felt they couldn't they should have told you and advised you to make your own request. I would suggest you do that without waiting for the meeting, so as to start the clock ticking on the process.

You could certainly push for more education for DS2 and for it to happen outside the home - though I suspect that if you do they may well go for the PRU option. Whether that actually is best for your son is probably something you're going to have to work out after going to see it (unless you have already, of coure) and having a very frank conversation with the head.