home tutor/keyworker

[devientenigma]

Quick gist, DS has always been scared of (special) school, since 2 yo, and has always been a battle to get him there. He's been out of school over 2 year and had a tutor for the last year and a bit. Anyway the tutor is now changing to a keyworker who is going to build up gradually to full time with hope to get him into school. I asked to be part of the process in finding the keyworker which hasn't happened. The SW heard the keyworker was a male who instead of loosing his job was redirected to this post, whereas the home tutor has stated it's a lady who was on the supply register. The keyworker is acountable to the SW and I and the SW is accountable to the LA ED which seems a good deal. I have a meeting with the keyworker and SW on Tue to discuss plans, times etc, what else do you think I should I be asking?

morning dev

am i correct in reading that you've been given 2 very different 'descriptions' of your DSs new keyworker?

i'd be asking for the real story 1st off, before the meeting!

then asking if they have a 'timetable' for getting DS into school, are they setting timed targets or will this support be client-led?
is there to be any tutoring alongside the 'coaching into school' and most importantly what are this keyworker's credentials? background? special interest?

thanks unchartered, it will be client led and the emphasis has been taken off education and the timetable, according to the last home tutor, should be more social skills and social settings rather than education. The home tutor informed me Thur am that it was his very last day and there is no tuition alongside keyworker, which is fair enough as she is building up to full time. He's had 30-40 mins home tutoring for the last year and she is starting with 3, 3 hour sessions.....................dreading it, when 10 mins creates big problems!!

meant to say morning

social coaching sounds great, maybe they are planning to go out and about during the session?

3 hrs sounds a long time to me

thanks for the - fancy a top up?

the 3 hours could be OK if it's more being in your home and watching how DS is, than trying to "work" with him. As the other posters have said, I think the important things for first meeting are finding out what her expectations of the job are, both in terms of what she knows about your DS and his behaviour, and whether she thinks it's a case of x months then he'll be back in school, or whether she has been prepared for something more open ended. Obviously yes her experience will also be useful to find out, particularly whether she has experience with children with challenging behaviours and LDs.

What specific skills does this key worker have to coach? Qualifications?
Is it someone ABA, CBT or 5P trained? Do they have previous success stories on their CV they can tell you about?

How will the session be structured?
What targets will be set?
Do they have a timetable
How will they measure success?

I suppose I'm trying to say this is a job for a real expert, not someone who has done a 1/2 day awareness course & thinks that makes them all-knowing.

With someone who knows what they are doing 3 hour sessions sounds fantastic as it allows enough time to gently pace things at your child's rate & not against the clock iykiwm.

I've had one too many clueless caring carrots from our local cahms come into our lives, not even knowing what they don't know, & creating real problems in the process. You are entitled to answers to all the queries above.

thanks everyone, need to get everything together now in preparation for tomorrows meeting.