SEN Green Paper out next Tuesday

[Peaceflower]

Only just saw that the long awaited Green Paper is out next Tuesday, await with interest

www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6071809

That's worrying. Not that the law is fab ATM but at least I know it pretty well. Thanks for the info Peaceflower.

I was one of the contributors to the consultation (apparently 40% of contributions were from parents) and was really looking forward to the changes.

Now I await with some trepidation, it seems all the good intentions may now be blurred. Hope I'm wrong

Thanks Peaceflower. It's been delayed several times so I'm keen to read what they've finally come up with.

The TES has other articles on their site indicating what might be in it, and the Guardian has a few articles on their website as well.

This article: 'Wrongly labelled' special needs children to get more pastoral care is interesting.

It would be great if they took all the kids without SEN off the SEN register - then maybe they'd have time / resources to support the kids with SEN!

I was in a governors meeting last week where the SENCO herself said there were too many kids on the SEN register who didn't have SEN but were just summer born.... ( She said it in a 'I'm addressing it' kind of a way )

The problem is, it's not always clear who is a kid with SEN and who isn't. DS was on SA for a long time and it wasn't clear before his dx, exactly what his problems were (later dx with ASD).

I'm sure many teachers initially thought it was just down to the family situation or parenting . There is a frightening number of children with conditions like ASD, ADHD, SPD etc who will fall through the net because the emphasis will now be on pastoral care rather than a different teaching style.

There are also a lot of children who have social problems, come from care etc, but have ADHD and other conditions as well. It's already the case that many of their problems are assumed to be down to their home lives (I've seen lots of children with clear symptoms but undx). Their developmental conditions might never be investigated, especially without a parent to push for a referral.

Yes, it's not easy to find out what the problem is. And in a lot of ways it doesn't matter. I mean if a kid is 2 years behind in reading because they don't attend school very often, they are still going to need extra reading tuition...

And I have no idea how many children are on the SEN register that shouldn't be. I suspect the number varies hugely depending on how good the SENCO is.

But I think at the moment there is a perception that it's too easy to get on to the SEN register, and if the perception could be changed that might be a good thing.

Thanks for letting me know Peaceflower - I also contributed to this paper so will be very interested to see the outcomes. Whether anything gets done after this is of course another matter.

It's Tuesday, and no sign of the Green Paper

Or am I not looking in the right place (have googled)

....maybe the press release is embargoed for later in the day (hopeful emoticons)

lol Peace, they are all still in bed
Seriously hopefully someone will come along soon with a link.
I also contributed, I have/had a child in special school who was desperatly falling through the net and not receiving the correct help.

Looking forward to this one.

...Sorry just got a message, its tomorrow now.

OK seems like its been delayed by one day - is there some scandal due to make the headlines tomorrow and they are hoping to slip it through unnoticed I wonder!!

Interesting, suggests they are doing some last minute redrafting, or they need the political brownie points ("caring for special needs kiddies") tomorrow rather than today to cover something?

Being really thick but can't find anywhere on the net to order a copy - can anyone point me in the right direction?

Found it!

SEN green paper

OOoh, looks exciting.
For those who can't stomach the whole thing in one sitting, go to the 'Executive Summary'.

Thanks :)

The school business manager has just printed it off for me so I will be having a peruse during the day .

Very concerned at the mention of the involvement of the voluntary sector/charities. Hope this is not just about saving money .

Thanks for the heads up on what to read Moondog. Can't say that i'm 100% with this. There's a lot of civil service drivel in the wording - and i should know, i have written plenty in my time!

Ah yes, obviously one has to ignore the weasel words.

Haven't had a chance to read through all of it yet. But remember it's a Green Paper so not all of it is set in stone. You can respond to the proposals at the [[www.education.gov.uk/
consultations DFE Consultations website]] until 30 June.

There was a pretty big response from parents for the initial consultation, we need to keep making sure our voices are heard.