Will sixth form colleges say if they cant meet needs

[mebaasmum]

Hi, we have been told to go and view sixth form colleges and get them to say the can't meet ds,s needs in order to get funding to stay at his current school. Certainly when we viewed schools for secondary schools would never admit they couldn't meet his needs. Have anyone been through this
Thanks

I have a friend whose DD is now 17 and at a SN residential school out of county. She had to go through this same process last year. She had to look at the local 6th form college and 6th form at a local school. She did manage to get them to say they could not meet her DDs needs and her DD has stayed at her SN school for a further year (although that school said they could only keep her for 1 year) . She is hoping to get her a place at a SN FE college from next year and the fact that local 6th forms couldn't meet her needs should strengthen her case for funding.

It is a bizarre system - we are going through a similar system for DD now with potential places for overnight respite. We have had to look at places we don't want DD to go to and then write a case as to why we don't consider they can satisfactorily meet DDs needs even though the provider and Social Care thinks they can. It is a complete waste of everyones time!

hi, we've been told the same thing that only route to specialist post 16 was to get mainstream 16 plus provision to confirm they couldn't meet his needs. Even had the sen careers officer say he wasn't allowed to advise on any independent specialist provision even though there is no maintained specialist provision for post 16 in our lea. I do wonder if legally they are allowed to do this?

Yes, we have the same too. The Connections adviser warned that colleges will be very reluctant to say no because saying yes would increase their budget.

In my son's case, they have a support dept set up and a specific person supposed to be ready to help him. It hasn't transpired at all, probably because my aspie son is quiet and outwardly compliant, so they don't see him as having any particular support needs - very, very frustrating, like going back in time to his first school!
So I guess it's hard to say, before the event, which venue can be best for our children, no matter what it says on the box.

Thanks everyone. Its helpful to know others have had to do this. I guess we are off visiting colleges!

Go with a detailed, bullet-pointed list of exactly what his needs are and what they will need to do to meet them, and make written notes of their responses. If they say they can, back it up with a formal email setting out everything and what they've agreed.
It will make them think twice.