Best place in UK for special needs

[Rizzlekicks]

DH quitting work in London at the end of the year. It has made us think that we don't need to be so near London and pay the premium to do so.
7 yr old DS has ASD and is at MS school whee he is not doing well - loads of exclusions, etc.
If we were to move, which county does well with special needs? We are constantly fighting against Surrey LEA. Ideally we would like our DS to be in a specialist setting as we really feel that our son's ASD is not being properly managed

Have a look at suffolk. Great services LEA is fab, statements issued in conjunction with parents. Large selection of good quality ms small village primarys. For ss have a look at the ashley academy in lowestoft.

Or Cornwall

No such thing, really. Horses for courses. We were on the Surrey/Hants border and had great support.

Mostly it's about picking the right school, rather than LA. I'm pretty sure every area has good and bad settings. What does his current statement say in terms of support? I would be touting it around areas, describing your son, visiting lots of schools and finding out where you get a happy vibe. I assume you need commuter routes for work, so it should be reasonably easy to narrow down possibilities. The new LA will reassess his statement anyway, but it will give you an idea of what you are looking for.

When we are moving, I usually call the Area IncO to get a rough outline of options, and then start calling schools etc.

I would disagree about Suffolk. Small rural primaries cannot always cater for ASD very well.

The Ashley is always 'full' in my experience and tribunals have had to be brought to get kids in, even if they meet the criteria.

We've had good experiences mostly with Milton Keynes over the last ten years, but have heard differing reports from others. It is to do with the schools picked and also I think a lot to do with the personalities and working relationships that you have with the LA and the professionals involved.

It's difficult really to say that any one area is good - although I will say that it is sometimes easier to note that some areas are NOT good.

We're in Gloucestershire, and we've been quite lucky (with some struggles here and there) but I also know of some in our general area that have struggled quite a bit to get support. A lot is down to the LA, the professionals involved (our OT is amazing at getting things sorted for us!!), and the individual school involved.

Agreeing about horses for courses. Durham good at providing statements but are very geared towards support in mainstream rather than special schools. That said, we've not had to fight for a lot. Yet. On the healthcare side, our experiences have ranged from brilliant to downright frustrating.

i can only go on comparisons from our relatively short and limited experience, but with the exception of one SENCO, Northants have been pretty on the ball for us

they are now rolling out a transition support for young adults up to the age of 25 - no idea if this is any good though

Spinkle, I can only comment on my own experience (& friends) my ds2 has been very well catered for at his ms village primary (asd, cp & learning diffs).
we have also had brilliant nhs support, community paed has been amazing etc. The onlybthing we have founbd lacking has been salt.
My ds2's needs are too compkex for ashley so we r looking at other ss for secondary but I have friends with children there who have made excellent progress & are very happy.
Have you not had good experiences then?

Unchartered my experience of Northants was good, but I have heard from the SENCo at DS' old school that the changes afoot are not for the better.
I went to one of those transitions meetings. "Transitions service is the wind beneath my wings" I kid you not. An apt description for a lot of hot air.

Many of the people are the same, Benson but it's true they have changed the 'service'

i trust the practitioners though, they haven't brought in any new bods during the restructure

sorry, it's me U-C

HerOffTheInternet I think it is the devolving the SEN budget to schools that is causing the problems. DS' school has a lot of statemented pupils and they were worried they would not be able to meet the needs of the children in the way they had before.
I have to say I met some really lovely people involved with SEN in Northants.

Not East Cheshire, if my colleague's experience is anything to go by!