Is this blanket policy and how can they usem them if they are illegal?

[babiki]

Ds saw recently ed.psych from our LEA (Essex) for the first time..she was quite nice but as we are appealing LEA decision not to asses soon, I was trying to remember she might be the potential enemy :) It was really hard tbh not to blab out everything, I'm not cut out for these silly games :( She was showing me at the end how they asses the SEN needs in Early Years (DS is 3), she had framework with the usual coomunication/selfcare etc and the levels of severeness..She kept saying ds is probably not even moderate (except for self care) but she will endorse the moderate in order for preschool to get the funding..hmmm than I asked who made the framework and it is Essex LEA, it looks as it's designed to ensure the minimum amount of children can get a statement..or am I being paranoid? I tried to look for some kind of national framework of assesing SEN, but can't find it, is the SEN code of practice the only national guidelines?

Well the criteria for a Statement would be 'severe' or 'complex' SN, so it's not unlawful to decline a Statement if the needs are not 'severe' or 'complex'. What would be illegal, is to declare that no child with, say, ASD could have 'severe' or 'complex' needs.

Thanks that makes sense, but from what I saw, complex and severe were on the physical side only non walking children and on the communication side the non verbal... Maybe that's only for the early years stage.

Was this it?

Yes!!

Ok, so there is scope in those documents for a child who is mobile and verbal to have 'severe' or 'complex' needs behaviourally, for example.

DD1 still would have scored as complex under that criteria, severe in one or two areas.

In medical terms, 'severe' needs usually refer to a 'delay' of half the chronological age or more. So for a three year old, development classed as having a severe delay would be 18 months or less.

DD1 was deemed to have 'moderate' LDs once she reached school age.

Thanks Lougle, ds is at the moment at half his chronological age, well we'll see what the report looks like.

Also, the younger the children are, the more dramatic delay can seem. For example, a child who should be developing some words, being 'nonverbal' isn't as bad as a child who should be speaking in sentences being 'nonverbal'.