ARGH. Finding a specialist school shouldn't be this hard.

[StiffyByng]

I've had splendid advice on here before. Please tell me what I'm missing.

DSD has a degenerative illness. She has gone from being a 'below average' 3 in Yr 6 SATs to having complex physical and mental needs at the end of Yr 8. She needs one to one support to get through the day, and the allocated TA is finding it too much. She has finally (don't get me started) got a statement, at least it went to panel yesterday and we're waiting for the proposed statement, but we know that her present school, the ed pysch and the neuropsych all think she needs to be taught in a specialist setting.

So we have been trying to find a school in our local area (Southwark) or around which would meet her needs. There are only a few that might be suitable and all are full. Obviously this is the worst time of year to be talking to them anyway. There are no independent schools within reach that would be suitable. Residential is not an option - she has a life limiting illness and we are not prepared for her to be away from us for what may be her last months/years.

What do we do? Parent Partnership isn't particularly helpful. Her statementing caseworker has never once contacted us - all communication has gone through the school SENCO, who is awful. What on earth are our options here?

hi
I,m not sure what your daughters needs are but I have heard good things about linen lodge or children with multi disabilities

If you look around a school and like it and it could meet all your daughters needs then ask the LA to name it they have to make this availiable and put in place whatever the school needs to make this possible. So sorry to hear about your daughter though as well. xxx

Is there a support group for the condition your daughter has? Friends of mine had children with MPS and had great support from the MPS Association, one of their workers helped them through statementing and getting adaptations done at home.

Cwitches, there is a support group - she has a mitochondrial disease - but she has a rare version of a rare disease. Lots of kids with her illness don't survive over five, so she is a peculiarity.

So if the school is right for her, a place has to be made? Parent Partnership said that if the schools were full, we needed to look at private ones. But all the ones within 15 miles are for autistic children and more than that in London would be far too long a journey for her.

I'll look up Linen Lodge.

I'm having a thoroughly shitty day. My FiL is furious that I mentioned this on Facebook.

Just to say that rules for what constitutes the pupils admission number for a special school are different to mainstream. In MS they consider whether the school as a whole is full, in SS whether the class to which the child would be admitted is nominally full. Even if nominally full, they can still be instructed by LA or sendist to admit the child, providing reasonable adjustments can be made and you can demonstrate that your child's admission would not be prejudicial to the welfare of other children in the class. link her to sen code of practice www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/0581-2001-SEN-CodeofPractice.pdf - see especially chapter 8 and these paragraphs in particular:
"8:85 The LEA should also consider carefully whether the admission of the child to a maintained
mainstream school would take the school over the number fixed as the number of intended
admissions for the year, which must not be less than the ?standard number? or ?approved
admissions number?, in other words, whether the school is already nominally full. Admitting
children over this number might be incompatible with the provision of efficient education or
the efficient use of resources. In some schools an additional child in a class would be
incompatible with the efficient education of others as there might not be enough physical
space, especially if all the children require particular aids that take up a lot of space. LEAs
must also comply with the class size legislation in infant classes (see paragraphs 1:33 ? 38).
A local education authority shall, before specifying the name of any maintained
school in a statement, consult the governing body of the school, and if the
school is maintained by another local education authority, that authority.
The LEA must serve a copy of the proposed statement or amended statement,
or of the existing statement and the amendment notice to the school(s) whom
they are consulting, and if the school is maintained by another local education
authority, that authority.
See Schedule 27, Education Act 1996
111
Special Educational Needs ? Code of Practice
The LEA should consider these points very carefully in cases where they are not the
admissions authority for the school in question: that is, another authority maintains it or it is
a voluntary aided or a foundation school.
8:86 Admissions over the number fixed for admissions in special schools may be more
complex because the admissions number is expressed as a global total rather than per
class or year group. In such cases, the LEA should consider the number in the class to
which the child would be admitted rather than the total for the whole school."

You may not want residential, but don't advertise that fact. The odds on the local special school getting the extra teacher to increase the admission number and take your dd, increase if council knows you've identified the perfect (but very pricy) independent residential option.

Thanks for both those messages. I laughed at the second. The fees at our nearest independent are £35k p/a which is just the day rate. I can imagine even that would focus minds!