SEN Green Paper Pathfinder Schools

[Peaceflower]

www.education.gov.uk/a00198359/20-pathfinders-to-test-out-proposals-in-the-special-educational-needs-and-disabilities-green-paper

Well, well, well, I can see my LA is among the list of pathfinders.

Each pathfinder authority is to be given £150,000 to help them pilot the proposals. I wonder when the pilot will start, and what it actually means for schools and parents .

I am considering applying for a statement for my ds and wonder if I should try to get it in before the pilot starts, am very dubious about personal budgets .

Oh fuck. Mine's there too.

But mine does always chase the money and their expertise is form filling and meetings.

I suspect we now need to submit a bunch of FOI requests to find out what they think they are going to do with that money.

Actually, I can quote them now. Quote that they have signed up to the pathfinder which means they are at least interested in a model where parents get to choose the provision and how it is delivered.

Mine is going to be a Pathfinder too!

Hope it may improve things, their SEN provision and attitude to parents is truly dire, and it is institutional, coming from the very top.
Since I won my Tribunal, I have been treated with undisguised contempt and labelled as the worst sort of "sharp elbowed, pushy parent"....

stealing resources from poor little disabled children with complient grateful parents no doubt....

I read somewhere that parents do not have to participate in the pathfinder projects - they have an option to keep to the existing system. That's not to say of course that LA's won't tell parents something else.

Will see if I can dig it out.

Found this which helps:

8.1. During the period of engagement as a pathfinder, the SEN statutory framework will remain in place, which means all existing parental rights must be maintained, and statutory duties complied with.

media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/s/single%20plan%20and%20assessment%20pathfinder%20itt.pdf

Will keep looking for it.

discodad that's very helpful. I hadn't wanted to be bounced into applying for a statement before I had finished gathering my evidence .

Crap...mine too.
TTW we are treated that way too - what d'ya know
If the pathfinder pilot requires disclosing parent feedback then I'm guessing they won't want me anywhere near it.
I have a hunch that PP sift out the more satisfied parents for the LA to randomly sample each year for feedback

thanks for this - mines on there too. Considering they are making the asd family support worker redundant in October and she's the ONLY one within their much vaunted child development centre (called child destruction centre by friends and family) who seems to have any knowledge about HFA this is scary stuff.

My PCT and council are stuffed to the gills with lazy "yes men" types who love the "glory" of a headline but fail so many kids on the ground it's hard to quantify. The first thing many familes would do in real life if presented with a personal budget for their child's health needs would be to spend it with an alternative PCT. Particularly those whose kids need CAHMS, (though other disciplines aren't much to right home about).

The general record for education isn't great either - middle class familes cross borders into neighbouring authorities as a matter of course for secondary if their kids are "normal". I'm not sure yet what happens to SEN kids in comparison with other LEAS at this level but suspect so many have been let down by the poor health provision that by 11 it's too late to do a lot for them.

TTW - applying for tribunal unleashed a level of nastiness directed at myself that if I hadn't lived through would have found hard to believe.

Thanks for the info and yup mine is there too.............hmmmm nearly decision yes or no time for my statement. Dont know if this is good or bad so guess we will have to be guinea pigs and wait and see....

Interesting: London boroughs are all south-east ie not where many solicitors bring up their kids

Doubt I'll be asked. I suspect parental choice will only be given to those vetted to prefer the LA model.

Thanks discodad, that's very helpful, I have saved a copy to refer to in the event of any "funny business" from my LA about my rights changing because they are a Pathfinder

Trying to read the info indepth but cant help but read between the lines negatively.

ie Personal budget so parents can decide and choose which available care etc would help their child.....

I read it as "This is what is available, you can choose what you think will help, but remember you can only spend X and so cant have it all" If your child needs 1 to 1, salt, ot, physio then obviously you wont have enough even if its all required so you will have to pick which one that he needs the most irrespective.

This leads me to think that out will come the private insurances for SEN etc

2 Volountary and Community based organisations getting involved in the assessment process to me reads "CHEAPER" and may not be fully proffesional people.

Linked to the NHS paper well thats heading to future privatisation in my book anyhow.

But thats just meeee lol

Mine's on there as well. Trying to wrap my head around what it will mean for us, but am way too tired this evening, so feeling very uneasy.

How can you have 20 pathfinders across 31 authorities anyway?

O

Honestly, - personal budgets.

I did a FOI request for the costs of my ds on people's caseloads. £20k a year he was costing them apparently.

I'll happily take half of that and do it myself. If we all did it we'd have enough for a super free school.

Wheee! We're in!

I realise this isn't good news for everyone, but the Head is keen for us to be a pilot school and the GB agrees because the paper is so damn vague that unless there are some decent pilots to actually do the government's job for them work out the details, the finished system is going to be a disaster. So we're first in line and gagging for it.

We're also gagging for personal budgets. Not sure what it means for mainstream schools, but for SN schools we're hoping it means: "we can employ our own SALT who will actually spend more time working with the kids than in NHS meetings."

ummm, just suggested you ask for an ib on your other thread star! Thats an intersting foi request, did you ask each agency seperately?

So basically, it is just vague nonsense to get random and meaningless things happening that the government can later interpret to mean whatever they want it to mean to support policy decisions!?

Sounds like my LA.

Pointless.

Don't suppose anyone has any clue how the success or otherwise is going to be measured? Professional Opinion anyone?

I guess they will probably guage parental views by asking the allegedly independent parental support services? we could probably write their responses now in advance to save time given they are reliant on the LAs for their funding. Maybe some of us need to test out the changes and give an opinion as a group of parents without that agenda.

Would there still be an appeals process available? If so they may use the over all count of appeals and tribunals that were done over the trial period to measure the differences.......

Ours is there.

Desperately worried that the very good residential respite services we have will be unaffordable with individualised budgets. I can just imagine the battle those are going to involve...?

I am assuming the individualised budgets cover social care, health as well as education since budgets are meant to be pooled and departments working together...? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

I wonder if there is anything behind the joining of some authorities together as star points out there are fewer pathfinders than there are authorities, could it be about cross fertilisation, are they linking poorer performing authorities with better performing ones?

My la, where ofsted forgot to put the in before adequate, is linked with a higher performing authority. Is this the same for anyone else's authority?