What will happen to Statements under new SEN policy?

[LovelyLovelyWine]

I dont understand. Will current Statements still stand?

Also, once again, the savvy, articulate parents will be able to justify bigger budgets and get more 'bang for their buck', while disadvantaged parents will be hung out to dry.

We need some sort of 'levelling the playing field' type charity to empower parents who don't naturally have those resources.

But even WITH resources, articulate parents can't make LA's adhere to the law.

If they could then there woukd at least be a trickling down effect and LA's woukd be less inclined to shit on parents disadvantaged or not, and parent that had fought and won could not need to spend their every waking minute holding onto the won provision but assisting those who need help.

I think that in a year or so's time we will look back very fondly on the current corrupt system of SEN support.

At the moment we just have to fight LAs. Under the new scheme we'll have to take on LAs and PCTs and..... individually. It will just be one big buck-passing exercise for the 'Agencies'.

Severely disabled (and any child with a Statement) received Connexions support to age 25 under the 'old' system. Until they disbanded Connexions

Connexions do still exist. My DS works for them.
They write the 139A for Statemented students going to FE Colleges at 16.

Connexions still exists but only in some parts of england.

Just to be clear the law hasn't changed today. They are going to bring forward legislation in 2013!

The only children getting a Plan before then are in Pathfinder areas and the LA cannot make families take part in a pilot. So everyone can still apply for a Statement.

Agree there will still be loopholes that LAs will exploit. I see 5% of people suggested sanctions be imposed for poor service (one was me ).

I really think charities of lifelong conditions should band together and push for a presumption for a Plan for any child with certain conditions e.g. CP, autism, DS, visual / hearing impaired, SLD, PMLD. I completely accept those on SA+ are screwed - but they are currently as well. If they are saying 3% then they should be able to passport lots of children in that 3%. You shouldn't have to fight for an assessment - it should be if you have one of these conditions it is presumed you will need a Plan unless everyone involved agrees otherwise.

No the law hasn't changed but I bet LAs will pick and choose quotes to justify their stance that they are implementing practice in line with the changes that are coming.

Except the bit that lets them end statements at 19! They won't be queueing up for the additional 6 years of funding in a hurry.

I live in a Pathfinder area and had already been told (by our local SN childrens centre) that the LA won't be issuing any more statements. When I phoned the LA (a few wks ago) to find out if this was true, the administrator almost snorted down the phone and said she was snowed under with statement applications and that nothing was changing as far as she knew, Infact, she'd not heard of Pupil Resource Agreements . She did admit though that they'd changed the criteria by which they considered children suitable for statementing (making it virtually impossible to qualify, particularly if no Physical disability).

I also live in a pathfinder area. The whole issue is a minefield and the truth is that no one knows what's happening, really. The implications of individual funding for children who currently get provision as a result of critical mass (ie.children who benefit from the fact that there are x children who need 8 hours support, so the fulltime LSA can share the remaining y hours between the two children who need support but can't get it in their own right) is catastrophic.

Just seen this on tonight news sounds like a way for the government to cut funding to the schools for all those extra TA that support children with statements. In my daughter class with have three children that have extra support and with that support the class is able to function without them I feel all of the children would be at a disadvantage.

Have to admit it's all stressing me out. DS3 is due to start school in 2013 so caught between the old and new system. I've been told I can still legally apply for a statement, but given the LA's Pathfinder status I'm unlikely to get it. I just feel I kind of want a statement because at least that would legally specify the help he should be receiving and if it wasn't implemented, I would have some come back. I don't feel this would be the case with PRAs.

You can still get a Statement.
If you look up the Pathfinder application process etc its very clear that participation in the new scheme before the law changes in 2014 is optional.

We are appealing the NIL and refusing to issue a statement for my 11 year old son, the tribunal is in June. Reading this and the current state of the statementing system I feel I am just wasting my time, the weeks and hours of providing evidence and report writing, the stress that it takes to fight for your child, the affect the stress and fighting has on your whole family. Makes you think why am I doing this, when I know what the decision will be after the tribunal before I have even gone and that the NIL will stand. This is becuase my son does not have a physical disability and my son has not had any official DX other than Dyslexia. However he has traits of APD as DX by GOSH, he has possible tourettes we are in mid DX now but are about 4 months away from anything official, he has Speech and language disorder, he suffers massively with anxiety over school work. However becuase he does not fit into a DX or criteria for a statement the answer will be no despite months of prep work and stress on us his parents. Its bloody frustrating as he is so far behind his peers, his progress is non existent (only in maths now he is below average), we witness the meltdowns at home over his homework, he struggles to hold a conversation as he has no comprehension over the subject being discussed, struggles to understand complex sentences / instructions, he just struggles every day, his IEPS are not smart, I have provided evidence for all of these conditions but still no statement. So what chance has parents like us got under this current system let alone any revised system in the near future. Do we just give up and accept the fact we are wasting our time or carry on fighting a losing battle and probably end up keeling over with stress, who bloody benefits.
Hate this system and the affect it has on us parents trying to fight for what our child deserves and that is a fair chance of a good education.

Sorry rant over, looming tribunal is winding me up.

Thought the IPSEA resonse that pinkoid posted was very helpful. so difficult to know what this will mean in practice. parts of it (the 0-25 plan and common assessment) sound great in practice but i agree that atually translating that into appropriate help is not so clear.

My child has a statement and has a 1to1 but school also provides some 1to1 or small group work for those without a statement. Just because the gov states that these kids no longer fit the SEN criteria wont make magically their needs lesser nor will it prevent disruption to the other children if those kids are srtuggling and unsupported.

And they can say all they like about how parents should do more to prepare the kids for school but a) problems mainly occurs despite ok or good parenting and b) for the minority of "bad" parenting there is little support given cuts to homestart and surestart.

I worry about a backlash for our kids from the parents of the NTs. At the moment they can see that having children with SEN brings extra resources and a chance to learn that not everyone is the same (and a chance to be friends with my lovely ds ). Will they feel the same if 10% or more of kids with needs in each school suddenly get that support pulled away?