Any Cornwall mums of SN children out there?

[crazycatlady]

We are moving to Cornwall next year (Wadebridge - probably) and trying to get a feel for what the community services and school situation might be for DS. He is only 10 months, and has no diagnosis, but suspected genetic syndrome - currently severe developmental delay, mild dysmorphic features, slightly impaired vision and hearing.

Where we live at the moment his community services are all easily accessible and excellent - physio, hydrotherapy, OT, with SALT to come. We have been referred for Portage and Homestart and have v supportive HV. There are wonderful SN playgroups and the school situation (both mainstream and special schools) seems good.

I'm worried that in Cornwall we will have to trek miles to find what he needs. Also v concerned about his future schooling as I really don't want him to have v long car journeys to school and back. I am struggling to find info online, and it could jeopardise our move (years of dreaming and planning argh!) so am hoping some lovely MNers can fill me in!

We are not completely wedded to Wadebridge BTW and would consider elsewhere in the county if better suited to DS's needs.

I'm in Exeter on devon and I've found the services here very good. The CDC in Exeter takes children from far and wide and the hosp here is good.
North devon also has good services.
Sorry no info on Cornwall but I do know kids that have had second opinion at Exeter hospital from Cornwall.
Schooling down here is pretty good I think they have lots of SN schools and the provision in mainstream is good also.

Perhaps see if there's a Wadebridge forum? See if there's a wadebridge group on facebook and ask there.
Good luck

I am from cornwall way down the other end though :)

And no down here there is very little.

Plus side beaches and green fields are wonderful excercise for kiddies. Schools are more of a close knit community base.

Downside is lack of funding for pretty much anything which leads to a lack of resources. Low wages dont tempt people this way either.

Yes you have to travel and if you are looking for private assessments or diagnosis or even OT/SALT the nearest was Plymouth the next after that was Exeter I think.

All in all its a lovely place to live but the NHS side is lacking. However Wadebridge is North Cornwall so you are not far at all from Devon and its services there. The Plymouth Hospital is lovely, friendly and I have found to be thorough for some of my extended family and my eldest DD. Truro........not such a good experience so if you want or need to state a preference for any treatment etc go plymouth or further x

See I have heard that services in Devon, particularly around Exeter are really v good! V impressed to find an actual prospectus on the Devon county council website for special schools. No such thing for Cornwall, which has made me wonder if there are any at all?

Good advice re hospitals coff33pot, thank you.

The beaches and lifestyle will be wonderful for DS. The first time he was in Cornwall aged 6 months he just came alive. He was a different child when he was on the beach listening to the waves. It did something to him. Something wonderful!

The sea is an amazing thing :) Cant get my DS out of it!

There are special schools but few and far between and you have to travel for them so it is good to visit each one prior to considering where you are going to move too. The closer you get to the Tamar the more the schools :) I would stay up that way to be honest. You still wont be far from many beaches!

I think on that basis we might extend our search to Callington and Saltash way to be close to Plymouth, to give us another option if we don't find what we need further north. My heart lies in Wadebridge, for all sorts of reasons, but a life permanently in the car isn't the one I want for DS (or me).

Is Truro really not great shakes then for SN provision and NHS services? We were also considering the Truro/Falmouth area, we have seen some wonderful waterfront homes...

www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=7625

There you go that is it on the cornwall council site I am afraid. As you see not many.....

Falmouth is out of this world property wise but they cost a LOT of money. Some lovely dream homes there.

Truro great for shops and convenience and yes close to the hospital but their afercare is lax, understaffed etc its not necessarily the people in it but the NHS itself.

Ah, brilliant thank you. Now why couldn't I find that! Not many, but I see there is one in Penzance... our original 10yr plan involved being in Wadebridge for 6-8 years and then moving further west in time for the kids to start secondary. There is a great international school in Penzance that we had considered as an option for DD in years to come, so we might look for DS at that special school that's listed...and perhaps go back to our original plan rather than just staying further north...

I know a lot can change in 10 years but I'm also a planner

Shame about Truro hospital. Love that stretch of water between Falmouth and Truro. We could just afford it by clubbing together with family.

So much to consider... thanks for the pointers, very much appreciated.

My friend is a deputy head in a state comprehensive down country from Truro. She has a very low opinion of the SEN services in the county. We compared Gloucestershire to Cornwall, and while Glos isn't great, it's so much better than Cornwall. Stay as close to Devon as poss.

Sorry, crossed. I love Cornwall, but I would be wary.

Ohh . Thanks for the honest advice. Tis as I feared.

Well there you go then! Either A) move to wadebrige or anywhere close to Devon and still get good services and the seaside. OR B) Move to Penzance (I would suggest nice house on outskirts really city area is a bit blah) Have shops to hand, rubbish services, and as I am only a short drive away you can moan like hell to me over a coffee on the beach

Seriously go for A x

Either sounds good tbh!

I can think of no finer place for a coffee and a whinge than the beach . We would settle closer to Lelant I think if we were to move further west, and do the short commute to Penzance for schools. We have friends who do this at the moment and seem to think it's not too bad a run. I've only ever driven it outside tourist season though!

Now looking at website for the special school in Par which looks good to my uneducated eye. Too far to commute from Wadebridge but not necessarily from the southern tip of our designated North Cornwall search area (Lostwithiel). (We'd like to be within fair striking distance to Bodmin Parkway for trains...)

I think we can make this work. I just need to visit some schools when we are next in the area (March) and make a plan.

Lelant is lovely and not far from two good softplay places either.

Good idea to check the schools out. Fingers crossed it goes well for you!

Make sure you bring him surfing grin

We're in Plymouth where for complex needs I think the services are actually pretty good (choice of two SLD schools for example and ds1 gets a good care package now). It's not so great for those who are higher functioning. I'd advise you really when you're looking to talk to people who have a child similar to yours if possible as they'll be trying to access the services you need and their experience might be very different to that of someone else with a child with a different disability accessing different services.

I was thinking along similar lines about moving down to Cornwall.

My DS2 has ASD and I've heard a lot of good things about things like surfing and horse riding which are apparently great for ASD kids and much more accessable in Cornwall.

Currently living near London and I hate it with a passion. Can't afford anything reasonably sized living here, can't afford a house with a decent garden and a separate bedroom for DS2, it drives me mad!

I want to be close to the sea, I want to look out the window and see fields instead of roads and more (terrace) houses, I want to live somewhere that if DS2 starts screaming in the middle of the night we don't have the neighbours banging on the wall to get him to shut up

Only thing that puts me off is said provisions for SN children - we were looking more towards St.Austell/ Mevagissey area?

Awesome blog jimjams, thank you so much for linking to that. I'm having a low moment (DS is having surgery tomorrow at St Thomas's, and we had his neurology appt this week, as well as having to do his CAF forms which was no fun...) so seeing those wonderful pictures and reading such positive tales of life in the sea was just what I needed.

extremepie, we are staying near London at the moment too (Surrey). We have only been here two months, and hope not to be here long . It's an OK port in a storm but we face all the challenges and dislikes that you mention.

Maybe we can help each other get to where we want to be? I have been in touch with the rep from Contact a Family in Cornwall to find out about local services so I will let you know what information I get. And we are doing a 'research trip' in March so I'm happy to share what we find...

We moved down from London. Ds1 and ds2 were both born in SE London and we originally tried to access services there. What a disaster - waiting lists were just massive for everything.

We've been lucky here I think in that we landed in a place that has good services for his level of disability (it could be better of course, but it's not bad now SS seem to have sorted themselves out a bit) and we moved from an area which had almost nothing for his level of disability. It was more luck than judgment though as we didn't really understand how severely affected he was until after moving here.

The sea and moors are a real bonus. I would never have predicted that ds1 would want to surf, or that it would be a possibility or that I would end up falling in love with surfing, but now I have to live near the sea for evermore. . We're off surfing tomorrow. A lovely young man will take ds1 out the back and because he's completely in love with all the coaches now and doesn't mess around anymore because he just wants to surf, I'll get an hour to concentrate on surfing as well. There's just no way I could live in London again. I couldn't be that far from the sea and I couldn't take ds1 away from here either. Financially, moving down here can be a disaster in terms of earning potential, but I wouldn't swap it for anything. We've never regretted moving.

Thanks crazy, that would be brilliant!

We went on holiday to Cornwall last year and I honestly can't remember a time when we were all that happy - DS2 loves sand so when we were on the beach he would just sit there happily playing with the sand.

I'm not sure if it was something to do with the sea air but he even slept well (and that was before melatonin!).

It is absolutely my dream and goal to move there now - fortunately (or not) I am just about to complete my training so I'm pretty sure that whatever job I get to start with will be close to minimum wage - the difference being that in Cornwall we could actually afford to pay our own rent and bills even on a minimum wage salary, where we are not we've got a snowball's chance in hell of being able to meet even basic living costs without relying on benefits :(

I want the boys (especially DS2) to have a life which consists of more that watching TV in their free time

Mission 1 - learn to drive
Mission 2 - get a car!

Oh I didn't realise you surf too jimjams! That's brilliant. I am absolutely terrible at it and am yet to master standing up even...

Argh, I can't wait to get down there now. Thanks to this thread and some serious googling over the weekend while in hospital with DS I have found that between Liskeard and Tavistock is probably going to be a good place for us. Being that bit closer to Plymouth (and Exeter) will be easier for my DH who will need to travel Tues-Thurs every week. The school situation seems to be better for DS's needs and we can actually afford the sort of 'forever' home we would like, whereas further towards the north coast we'd have to compromise on house and garden.

And I think we can figure it out with community services better closer to Tamar valley too. We had nothing in London either jimjams. GP referred us to St Thomas's for paediatrician when he suspected severe developmental delay, and loads of tests have been done (MRI, chromosome etc) but we never got any community support, no physio, nothing in Lambeth at all... We moved to Surrey to rent for a while, be near family for a bit and get ourselves sorted to move West, we've been here for two months and already DS has physio every week at home, hydrotherapy, a great HV who has done his CAF forms, sorted MAP assessment, done referrals for Homestart, Portage, audiology assessment... but we both grew up in this part of Surrey and it's not for us, so we need to get our acts together and move to Cornwall. DH is a homeworker but travels a fair bit so he can still do his job from Cornwall, albeit with a bit more travel. So there is v little holding us back...

So we will investigate Wadebridge area and Liskeard/Callington/Saltash area properly when we are down in March.

extremepie - booked your driving lessons yet?

Have a look at Gunnislake as well - and maybe Calstock

I didn't surf until one of the coaches persuaded me to have a go. Had first lesson last November, caught and stood on first wave (took ages to catch second!) and was completely hooked. Am still completely crap - but love it.

I have seen a house on rightmove that I have completely fallen in love with. It is in that quad of roads between Liskeard, Saltash and Callington.

Excited by the prospect of househunting!

Jimjams (or others) do you know how it works with community care when you move areas? i.e. will we go back to the bottom of the waiting list for things that DS is already getting, like physio?

I'm not sure. When we moved down we had sort of fallen between gaps in London so we were rushed to the top of the list here after an initial meeting with ds1. So we arrived in march/April and muli disciplinary started in may.

If you move with school sorted you should transfer onto the same sort of deal. SS seems more variable.