Read something worrying about SEN funding cuts as of March 2013, is this right?

[moosemama]

I read on another forum that all schools are going to lose SEN funding for all children with less than 20 hours support as of March 2013. Even the HTs and SENCOs on the forum seemed totally confused by it.

Does anyone know anything about this and what it actually means?

Ds has a 15 hour statement and the school has obviously already had his funds for this year, but does this mean his statement will come with no funding after this school year?

Apologies if I am way of the mark and panicking - would love someone to put my mind at rest though.

no, I don't wish to underplay your DS' anxieties, and make out like in the holidays he is absolutely fine. How far would it take in a taxi/minibus to perfect school do you think?

moose I must admit to - I would walk over hot coals for a rejection like that. Oh, the irony.

I didn't think you were underplaying his anxieties TLP - I totally got what you were saying, it's fine.

Fastest possible, via RAC route planner is half an hour and that's not taking into consideration city rush hour traffic. It's 20 miles each way, but basically right across a major city centre.

KeepOn I know, it's really perverse isn't it.

If the indie school was closer and I thought I had a cat in hell's chance of persudading ds, I'd feel exactly the same. As it is, I suspect that if he doesn't get into the academy he will refuse to go anywhere else and I will end up home-schooling.

God this info is panicking me about DD, who is still only on SA+ despite really needing to be statemented. Even the school say she should be statemented, but can't get the LA to even assess.

Most DC's at her Secondary (an Academy as of this September just gone) are taken off the 'SEN list' at the end of Y9 unless they are statemented. This year, DD is the ONLY DC in Y10 that is still on the SEN list without a statement. Out of 270 pupils in her year.

Yet both me and the school are unable to get the LA to even ASSESS for a statement.

It's really worrying isn't it Couthy.

We have been talking ourselves round in circles.

Basically:

If the LA name the Academy and the Academy gives in then he will go there and we will work with it. No longer 100% happy it's the right school, given their attitude on this, but it's what ds wants and he will have the statement so we have some leverage to enforce support.

If the LA refuses to name the Academy and try to force him into any other school in the area we will have to fight, as all the other schools bar one are similar academies and the other one is over-stretched, packed to the rafters with children with SEN and just horrible - fast becoming the LEA sink school for children with SEN and EBD.

If the LA names the Academy and they Academy still refuse to take him - it means a tribunal to get him in.

If either the LA refuses to name or the Academy refuses to take him and we go for the indie school - it's most likely tribunal to get him in there as well.

In the meantime, if we try to do anything to support the LA forcing the Academy to accept him, we would essentially be backing up his suitability for MS, which would undermine his eligibility for out of area indie.

It's a right bloody mess from top to bottom.

Advice from the advocate was to get some independent reports, particularly EP, in asap and then rethink what's the right placement for him and push for that. Great idea, if we had a spare £1,000 lying around. I really understand what he's saying and why he's saying it, it's good advice, but we simply can't afford it.

Well, I'm going to piss the Primary school off - I found out today that if your DC has been under SALT/OT in the past, and you have further concerns, you can self-refer (in my area, don't know if that's national) as a parent.

So I've done it for SALT, Physio and OT, because DS2's syntax is still very odd, hence back to SALT, he is developing scoliosis, so Physio, and his Talipes is worsening without the Orthotic boots, hence OT.

And as he will have outside involvement again...the school will HAVE to put him back on SA+.

Aaaaaaand...I've been told that they are going to ADOS test ALL of my older DC's, given my family history...Mwahahahaha!

I might yet get the statements I've been fighting for for years!

On the downside, I have been told today that DS3 is a year behind with both his expressive AND receptive speech, and we are starting Makaton.

I was on an IPSEA course a while back and they were saying there that it is difficult to prove that a single child with adversely affect the education of the others and that at tribunal that this is very difficult to prove. They have to do it for an individual child for each lesson that they will attend IIRC. That sounds like a lot of work and I can't believe that they would have done this for every child that they have rejected. I would imagine the LEA will be hotly contesting this.

It still leaves you with a decision to make now though as to whether you know think on the basis that the school have rejected your DS, if they were persuaded to take him, how they would actively help when he did get there, or if they would be like the current school and do as little as possible?

I know alison.

Even if the LEA does manage to get them to take him I don't feel I can trust them to support him properly now, but he wants to go there so badly and I seriously doubt we'll get him to cooperate to attend anywhere else.

Dh and I have discussed it, it's not as simple as being just because his best friend is going there. There are 50 children from his school going there this year, 99.9% of whom have always been very supportive of him, even if not directly his friends. He knows about 50% of last year's intake from this school as well and the year after next ds2 will be going there with most of his year and again ds1 knows all of them. So that's a sizeable number of children who will be at that school who know ds1 and he knows them.

The school is academic, but has a lot of focus on science and ICT, which is where ds1's strengths and interests lie and whilst they are strict, the structured way they work is well suited to ds's needs.

One of their biggest arguments was that he would need 1:1 in literature, RE and history, but he has never had or needed 1:1. They are basing that on the bit where the statement says he may struggle with inference and sub-text - but he's predicted a high-5 SAT in literacy - with no 1:1 at all.

The other thing is that there is not one other school in the whole LEA area that would be any different. They are all academies of the same ilk, although this one is the highest performing, but there's very little between them.

I have been looking at the nearest LEA SS this morning and it just won't suit ds academically. Their y7 top set maths and literacy curriculums are way behind ds's current level and the school says 'moderate LDs and ASD' whereas ds has ASD but no LDs.

We did put down another LEA ms secondary as our second choice, but there is no way he's setting foot in that place. Should be easy to fight the LEA if they insist on naming it though, as if the first school can't take him based on his needs, neither can any other ms secondary - which would mean the out of area indie is their only option.

Whichever way you look at it there's going to be a big fight though.

I feel for you.

I know that one of the criteria we used in selecting High School for DS was that they would push him academically as he is very able - but like most ASD kids struggles with inference and open ended questions.
The SS around here are not nearly so academic and DS would have been bored to put it mildly. He may struggle with some aspects of a mainstream school, but overall it is the best place for him I think.

Is it worth a call to IPSEA do you think to see if you can clarify what I vaguely remember about the difficulty in demonstrating that having your DS would adversely affect the other children?

It might be worth calling IPSEA.

I haven't as yet, because we are kind of stuck in a hiatus, as we shouldn't really know he's been refused a place and we won't hear any more until the official 15 February date now.

Might help to talk it through with them though.