School not meeting needs

[Adhdparent123]

I am at a complete loss as to where to turn next regarding my Y8 child's secondary school. I apologise in advance for the length of the post.

My child has a diagnosis of ADHD and has been referred for an autism assessment at the school request. I believe to they may have ODD but they have not been assessed for this yet. The school acknowledge their SEN and claim to be willing to make reasonable adjustments, but the reality is that they do little to address their needs and focus entirely on disciplinary steps. I believe hmy child needs extra TA support in lessons, which the SENCO agrees with. But they refuse to provide support as they say my child is too intelligent so the school prioritise their funding to "less able" children ( I realise it sounds like I have made that up but two different members of the SLT have said this to me). Instead they agreed to apply for an EHCP and other local funding but are taking months to fill in the form's required for the assessment so this is going no where.

As a result of the lack of support my child has taken to avoiding lessons and being extremely late. This has all now become much worse recently following a poor Ofsted inspection as the school implemented a new rule whereby if a child is more that 10 mins late for a lesson they spend the rest of the day in the isolation room. My child has had only 2 days in lessons since this was implemented, and when I questioned the impact of this on SEN children I was told that it is my childs decision making rather than their SEN that result in this punishment. They refuse to acknowledge the their ADHD directly impacts the decision making.

As if this wasn't bad enough, the schools policy is for teachers to provide work for students to do in isolation (this is completely inadequate for a child that needs additional support in my opinion) but in practice this does not happen. My child receives maybe one or 2 of their subjects per day and not the work they are completing in class and so is now so far behind.

My complaints get listened to and completely ignored. I get told my child has to make more effort to help themselves and that if they just staying in lessons they wouldn't have any issues. Additionally I rarely get to speak to the SENCO, I have rang everyday for 2 weeks, she never answers the phone or responds to emails, I believe she has a completely unmanageable workload. They tell me they are providing support by getting a TA to turn up at the end of the lesson to escort my child to the next, but still refuse to put support in the lesson to address the cause of my child's reluctance to attend.

They did putting a TA in to for a couple of lessons, has great results and my child came home from school beaming about the work they had completed, it was then withdrawn without a reason being given.

This has had a terrible effect of my child's mental health and outlook, I believe the are sinking into depression, I asked for an educational psychologist assessment but was told the school do not have access to the LA educational psychology service (despite previously saying they did and knowing the names of individuals working in the service).

I have tried the governors route in response to a previous discrimination related to a fixed term exclusion and was told that as far as the governor's are concerns if there is no EHCP in place they do not consider the child to have SEN and that the governor's are not obligated to meet me or repo d to my concerns. The school is an academy so I believe the LA have little power.

Can anyone please tell me where I can turn to get the school to meet their legal duty to educate my child, I feel the doors are closed at every turn and despite all the advice telling me the school must do this or cannot do that, in practice no-one is holding them accountable.

First up, you can apply for an EHCP on your own accord. You don't need the school to do that...

Won't the school still need to cooperate and fill in the form's for their assessment or will they be forced to do this by the LA?
I have already filled in the parent and pupil forms and sent them to the school.

The school still have to fill in a form, but not the initial one. The parent view form that you've filled in already is just one element of what school would have to do to apply for an EHCP. You can apply directly instead, which starts the process.

Whichever route, the school is usually required to then fill out another form later with detailed info from a school perspective. There are strict timeframes for this so school would have to respond within these.

Without the EHCP, there isn't really any way you could expect TA support throughout lessons if he is unlikely to be in the same class as children who do have EHCPs already.

You don’t need the school to apply or agree to you applying for an EHCNA, you can request an EHCNA from the LA yourself - IPSEA have a model letter you can use. The LA will then contact the school to get their views. The only way to legally guarantee specific support is via an EHCP.

Without an EHCP TA support in lessons is unlikely to be given, unfortunately there isn’t the resources. Similarly EP time is extremely limited and a Y8 child is unlikely to be a priority especially if they aren’t very behind &/or extremely disruptive.

If the SENCO isn’t responding to emails or phone calls escalate the matter to the HT.


the governor's are not obligated to meet me or repo d to my concerns.

As this was for a FTE, there may not be a legal duty to meet you it depends on the specific circumstances. That was a different situation to the current situation, and the formal complaint process is to go via the HT first.

Rather than ODD have you considered PDA?

There is a world where you start referencing disability discrimination on grounds of ADHD (not saying it necessarily is and them producing a ta to escort might be their defense, i.e. they are making that reasonable adjustment) but that may anyway be counterproductive as it would put their backs up, they could make life difficult in other areas and you would benefit from having as good a relationship as possible for the EHCP.

i would advise to document everything in writing i.e. that they have agreed to apply for EHCP, that they are providing ta some of the time, that your child is missing class and so on as it will be evidence of the need to assess. The priority should be to apply for a needs assessment, not least because the LA will likely refuse and you will need to go tribunal, which will take months.

If you are very concerned about your child's MH, you could seek a doctor sign off on those grounds.

Many thanks for your response, I will apply for the EHCP myself tomorrow then.

I do understand budget constraints, the reason I have previously not pushed for the EHCP was that the school were planning to apply for GRIP funding, but again have taken so long to fill in the forms that this type of funding has now been withdrawn by the LA.

For the EP, he has previously in primary had EP support due to low mood and concerns around self harm due to struggling in school which is why I wanted intervention. I have told the school SLT I feel he is slipping down that path again. But I guess if there is no funding we are a bit stuck with that.

With regard to the SENCO, I cannot get to speak to the head, they literally refuse to put phone calls though. I speak to the deputy head daily and ask them to get the SENCO to contact me but still get no response.

I have made a formal complaint regarding the FTE, the head has passed it to the deputy head, the member of staff that made the original decision, so I will wait and see how that pans out but do not have high hopes, it seems unlikely that they will find that they were discriminatory.

My major concern at the minute not so much the support, in the sense that I understand that will take time to sort, more that due to their new policy my child is effectively being barred from accessing any lessons, is there anything I can do about that do you know? Should I raise another formal complaint? Or is it just a case that they are entitle to do that as my child is technically in breach if the policy, regardless of the reasons behind it.

Is the reason that they provide the TA to help your child get to class in order that they do not miss the class? If so, has it been effective? This is the issue I referred to with respect to disability discrimination

You need to follow the formal complaints process and escalate the matter through that. Don’t discuss matters via phone, stick to emails. If you do have verbal conversations follow them up with emails.

If the LA agree to an EHCNA it will include an EP assessment, so focus on that.

Given the current funding situation in schools without an EHCP I think it would be hard to prove disability discrimination based on the school not putting TA support in place. The school need to make reasonable adjustments and make their best endeavours to meet a pupil’s SEN but given the funding issue they may well be able to prove TA support isn’t reasonable.

Again, thanks for everyone's response.

I have considered PDA rather than ODD and it's entirely possible as I am not an expert, he has behaviours that could fall into both, and also has some signs of ASD. The lines between all the conditions are very blurry to me so I hope the referral will shed some light.

I am concerned about being the problem parent and the school being even less cooperative, but I don't know how to avoid that. I had a great relationship with the primary school but it was tiny in comparison and they had the time and resources to deal with each child and parent as individuals.

I have considered getting my child signed off by the doctor but worry that it would make it an impossible hurdle to get back into school. Also, they do want to be in school and learning, despite skipping lessons. Their attitude is so contradictory but also typical of their behaviour since toddler age.

Yes, that was there plan. It has not been effective as of course the TA inevitably gets delayed as they have their own lessons supporting students in between and then my child is late to the next lesson and is put in isolation for the whole day or takes the opportunity to wander around the school.

I think you are correct about getting everything in writing, I will try and do this, they do tend to respond to emails with phone calls though.

The main issue is not that they have not put the support in place (that is an issue but I understand there is a process to be followed there) but that when my child responds to the lack of support by skipping lessons as he cannot cope, the punishment is to withdraw him from lessons for the day and provide no appropriate alternative.

Surely the school cannot say we agree a child has unmet needs but will punish if these are displayed? Or maybe that can I really dont know.

I have asked that as a reasonable adjustment they put him in isolation for the rest of the lesson but return him to the next lesson so he is not getting further and further behind. I was told they will not consider it as they must treat all children the same regardless of SEN. Again by phone so I have no proof of this.

Schools shouldn’t punish for behaviour that is a result of the child’s disability. However, I am not sure you will be able to meet the burden of proof for disability discrimination, especially as the school are likely to argue there was a legitimate reason for placing DS in isolation as DS skipping lessons is a safeguarding and/or health and safety risk.

I wasn't so much thinking that they are being potentially discriminative by not providing TA in and of itself, but by treating DC as the same as other child despite diagnosed disability which impedes executive function with the result that significant schooling is being missed.

But this is not my area and I wouldn't encourage to go down this route

Ideally they would respond via email but a email from you recording what has been discussed/agreed with no written response from them is still helpful evidence. Document everything that shows that DC is struggling and what the school is doing to support

Yes, I see, I don't really agree with that reasoning and think it will disproportionately and adversely affect many SEN children, particularly as it is applied for lateness as well as avoidance. But I can absolutely see that this is the stance the school will likely take.

Is it instead worth pursuing the need for appropriate work to be set and teaching given in isolation. I realise this is on the one hand completely impractical for teachers, but on the other if my child will be spending all their time (80%over the last two weeks) there do they still have the right to formal teaching from subject specialists?

Note I wasn’t saying the school’s, potential, stance was right, but legally it is likely to be their argument and may well be successful. It is often the argument used to successfully defend disability discrimination cases involving exclusions, so it isn’t a stretch that the school would use it for an internal exclusion.

I would focus on the EHCNA as that is the route to additional support, and in the meantime as you say push for appropriate work to be set in isolation and further support in school to prevent isolation.

If the school phone follow up with an email. Finish the email by asking them to reply if they dispute the content of the conversation.

Many thanks