Academy status implications for SN / SEN

[zen1]

Our primary school is considering going for academy status and has called a meeting of parents / governors to discuss it. I am seriously concerned about the implications this might have for children with additional needs. I don't think there will be many parents speaking out against it. Just wondered what other people thought about how this might impact on SN / SEN children? (DS with SN not due to start for another couple of years, but other DCs are already at the school).

I have a similar issue with my DS2s secondary where he is due to start this Sept. I chose it partly for it's welcoming SEN dept, but mainly because DS1 already goes there. They have outstanding Ofsted so are hoping for Academy status by June. They had a consultation meeting for parents and out of a school of 1500 pupils only 25 parents turned up! So, you are right, I don't think the other parents will care!

Their main and really only reason for becoming an academy was financial. With the cuts at the moment and the sweetner in cash from the Govt. to become an academy, they said it was the only way to stay still and avoid redundancies.

My main concern was SEN (surprise, surprise) and particularly how it would affect the LA controlled and funded SEN services, like Advisory Teachers for autism, the deaf and blind, EPs etc. They said they would have to buy in these services and at least initially, they would be buying them from the LA as there was no market. BUT I'm sure the market will now explode and I'm worried about losing a lot of experience.

The school were confident that with them in control of their own budget they could perhaps speed up some of the processes and perhaps have their own experts on payroll who they could hire out to other schools! They talked a good talk but I'm still worried.

It is a nice school, what I mean is properly comprehensive and inclusive for all abilities so I'm hoping it will be alright!

Thanks EllenJane, my concern is about the LA controlled services too, and ultimately if the school have control over their own budget, why would they want to give high priority to services which do not benefit the majority of pupils?

Our school is also rated "outstanding", but there is a great deal of emphasis placed upon the academic success of the school so I am concerned that they will want to channel more money into supporing this area to the detriment of children who require extra educational support.

I would be concerned about many aspects one of which would be exclusion, as it will be easier for them to exclude pupils and figures show that academies do exclude far more pupils than other schools. As most children that are permanently excluded have SEN this is a big concern I think.

Mind you, most of the previous govt. academies were to replace failing schools and were in some pretty tough areas so would expect a higher proportion of exclusions.

I suppose this govt. will "improve" that statistic by removing most of the SEN children from the register (see today's green paper) before they get excluded, or am I being overly cynical?

Don't think you're being too cynical. I'm already worrying about whether I'll be able to get a statement for my DS (haven't gone down that road yet as he's only 2)and now worried his needs won't be met by my primary if it gets academy status.

We are in a similar position with the secondary school ds1 was (until this year) expected to attend.

They became an Academy last September and there's been muttering about how they Head doesn't want to spend her funds on SEN pupils, as they have to make every penny count for the whole school etc. There certainly seems to be some evidence for this in terms of their amended admissions policy and school prospectus.

My ds is currently only in year 4 and we were hesitating to go for a statement for him, as we were told that it would definitely go against him when he applies to this secondary. Obviously we have to apply at the end of year 5, so it feels like its approaching us like an out of control steam-train at the moment.

Unfortunately, his one and only friend will definitely be going there, as will most likely his entire junior school cohort. The only other school we would have considered for him has also just become an Academy and the next best options are 5 times over-subscribed as it is, not to mention 2-3 bus rides away and I don't drive.

There is one school with an ASD unit, but they only take 9 pupils a year and then they have to have a statement in place beforehand. I've been told my ds probably wouldn't get in there because he's not 'bad enough'.

Its a huge worry. At this point I can see myself having to home ed him out of necessity from year 7 onwards.

It's a tough one zen1. My DS2 went to the same primary as DS1 which was chosen for the nice big field rather that any SEN considerations! How naive was I? The primary had never had a child with ASD quite as 'interesting' as my DS2 and showed no enthusiasm for having him. It did all work out alright in the end and he's soon to leave Y6, but more down to some great teachers and a nice supportive year group than anything done on purpose! Keep on top of it. I found it really hard to make a decision to have him in a different school to his 2 brothers as it would have meant having to move DS1 probably. It didn't seem fair on DS1 who already had to cope with having a DB with ASD. I couldn't do it.

Oh moosemama. I had a similar dilemma. DS2s nice supportive year group are going to 8 different secondaries. The closest is already an academy and 15 of his class are going there. This big cohort would have been lovely for DS2, much better than just his DB, but the new academy told me "Oh but you do realise we are a very academic school" and "Marginalised children tend to congregate in the library at lunchtimes and the librarian can keep an eye on them, we don't support them at unstructured times"

No way was DS2 going there!

Academy status should have no effect at all on provision for SEN.

They are not allowed to have any different admission policies.

The SEN services still goes to all schools - ie the EP and the ASD team. They are not going to be affected at all by whether or not you are an academy.

I'm a school governor and have researched this, plus participated in numerous threads on this.

Just because some Academies have flouted the SEN law - does not make them any diff to normal schools. But legally they are not allowed to do anything diff to LEA controlled schools.

My DSs school did tell me that they wouldn't have to use the LA controlled services any more, they were allowed to outsource SEN services from elsewhere. They still have to provide SEN services, that's true. I specifically asked this question. They did say that there is no 'elsewhere' though, yet.

All of the SEN services will still be provided by free by the LEA. The law is very clear on this.

They will of course be allowed to buy more from somewhere else....

Ds's school is an academy from 1st March. The school negotiated with the LEA for the unit to remain funded and under LEA control so protecting the pupils' provision in the unit.

There was a long thread about it here

But here is what prh47bridge says, and he is the expert:

prh47bridge Tue 15-Feb-11 13:14:48

I'm not sure what you mean by "Learning Support money". However, the position on SEN is complex.

To deal with the easy bit first, the LA retains funding for educational psychology services, SEN assessments, statementing, monitoring of SEN provision, parent partnerships, individually assigned SEN resources for pupils with rare conditions needing expensive provision, etc.

The complicated bit is what happens with other SEN funding. The previous government encouraged LAs to pass all of this funding on to schools. Many LAs have complied. In those areas academies will be in exactly the same position as LA-controlled schools. However, some LAs have retained some or all of this SEN funding centrally. In these LAs the academy will receive additional funding for SEN compared to the LA-controlled schools.

Individually assigned funding for children with statements is paid to the school through the LA for both academies and LA-controlled schools.

There are concerns about SEN but that is to do with the way some existing academies have dealt with SEN children rather than the funding arrangements.

I think IPSEA have info on this. Early Academies could refuse children with Statements, but ones becoming Academies now are bound by the same rules as Maintained schools.

I understand that they're not allowed to have different admissions policies, but from what I read when they were first planning the new academies for Sept 2010, and it may have changed since then - so I could be wrong - they have simplified the manner in which a school can refuse/oppose a place to an SEN child that has their school named on their statement.

"My ds is currently only in year 4 and we were hesitating to go for a statement for him, as we were told that it would definitely go against him when he applies to this secondary. Obviously we have to apply at the end of year 5, so it feels like its approaching us like an out of control steam-train at the moment".

Moosemama

My son's secondary school is making mutterings about becoming an academy. AFAIK a school still cannog refuse to accept a child named on a Statement doc unless the school provide concrete reasons for doing so.

Re the statement do not wait till the end of Y5 to apply for the statement doc!.

The process re secondary school transfer actually starts in year 5. If there is a statement in place at primary school it actually gets rewritten at that stage as part of the transitional annual review process. I would strongly suggest you apply personally for the statement now and not in Y5.

Also establish some sort of relationship with the secondary school prior to entry; I did this and found that to be a useful exercise hence that suggestion.

AFAIK The criteria for refusing a statemented child is the same is for a maintained school.

prh47bridge is the real expert on this. Ask him on the education board....

Hi Attila

We're not waiting that long, we have a review meeting in less than a fortnight which we have some allies attending - we're going to try and get some answers there.

If they can't give us any more info or tell us definitely either way we are going to go ahead with the SA request anyway. It was always the plan to go a head with the SA as soon as we got the dx and the dx report only came in last Friday and is in the process of being amended according to my requests, we just thought we'd hold off a couple of weeks and see what the general feeling was before we started the process. The actual letter is already written and ready to post.

Its wasn't the criteria - it was the process for refusing a statemented child that had changed when I last read the academy stuff - making refusal a more streamlined process for the school and harder for the parents to fight. It could well have been amended since then though, as it was some time ago.

Indigo - do you know who prh47bridge is? (As in teacher, Head, LEA?)

Hi indigo. I'm going to have to ask the school again about SEN services, as what you are saying about the LA having to provide them for free to academies is not what they said. I wonder why they said that? They said that the LA provide lots of services for which they get money from central govt. but that all LAs were having 15% of this money top sliced from their budgets. Some of this money now goes direct to academies for them to buy in these services. The LA, they said, could charge academies more for these services than previously. They implied this included SEN as it was in answer to my question about advisory teaching service. They are either mistaken, therefore or misleading us.

Thank you for this info. I was a parent governor of a special school myself but these mark two academies weren't around in those days!

Looking again at your quote from prh47bridge he/ she? doesn't include advisory teaching services, just monitoring of SEN provision along with statementing and EP etc. Maybe that is what they can now outsource?

Some of this money now goes direct to academies for them to buy in these services. The LA, they said, could charge academies more for these services than previously - This is true, but it doesn't include services like the EP and the ASD team etc. It only includes central services like payroll and ICT....

The def still get the EP and advisory teaching services for free.

Thanks indigo. Think I'll be talking to the school again...

Moosemama

To quote what Attila says,

'Re the statement do not wait till the end of Y5 to apply for the statement doc!.

The process re secondary school transfer actually starts in year 5. If there is a statement in place at primary school it actually gets rewritten at that stage as part of the transitional annual review process. I would strongly suggest you apply personally for the statement now and not in Y5.'

As a parent of a child who is now in year 6 and finally going through the statementing process after two refusals and a threat of tribunal when the LA finally agreed to assess dd, I can't emphasise strongly enough that you should follow this advise and that now is the time to get the wheels in motion for a statement.

You will almost certainly be refused and if you are, definitely appeal. We didn't first time - the whole process felt so overwhelming, but after a further wasted six months, our dd made no progress and when we applied and were refused again, I realised that things would only happen if we (well me mainly) are prepared to fight her case for her because no-one else will. School will support her as best they can, but they simply are not meeting her needs. We are now in a position where she still has no statement, secondary schools have already been allocated and at the moment we will be having to accept the ms place offered on that basis (ie no statement and no enforcable suport). It is only now we are getting answers as to what dd's needs are, but it's no thanks to the LA. We're pretty sure the school she's been offered will not be able to meet her needs and then we may be faced with another lengthy battle to place her appropriately and it's not likely it will all happen in time for her to begin her secondary education in September!

'follow that advice'!!! oops - should have previewed!

spelling mistake and x-posted!! not my night!