questions about school action (plus) and one to one funding and other stuff!

[thisisyesterday]

Hi all, hoping you might be able to answer a few Q's for me!

my son has a diagnosis of HFA, he's in year 3 at a mainstream school who are very lovely and do their very best for him.
We had a meeting this afternoon to discuss his IEP and how he is getting on in general and his teacher mentioned that she thought he would benefit greatly from one-to-one TA, but we were running out of time and it caught me by surprise so I didn't question further

my question really is, how does the process of acquiring such help work? would a child need to be very behind academically or can it be needed for other reasons?
I am not sure, right now, how my son is doing academically, they mentioned that he was doing very well in "some areas" and very behind in others, but I suspect the areas he is behind in are more to do with social skills etc.
as far as I'm aware he is not on school action or school action plus- would this preclude them from getting funding for a one-to-one for him?

I hope this isn't too garbled and you can make sense of what I'm asking. basically, if a child is getting by ok academically, but would see improvement (both academically and possibly in terms of social skills and behaviour) with a one-to-one would it be possible for the school to get funding for one? or is it ONLY for children who are behind academically?

Sorry I can't add any info to the thread but i wondered if the school can supply 15 hours 1:1 and additional salt and OT at action plus? Or is that likely needed to be statemented? Thanks

I thought as long as the school could fund it and would not require any additional money or support from the LEA then they could do this at SA+

I think if he was not making progress and needed further help such as SLT and or more 1:1 then that would warrant a statement??

I think they are talking about obtaining a statement for your son.

Statements are not just for those with academic needs, they can and are used for social and communication needs as well.

If there have been any outside agencies involved with your son e.g developmental paed, CAMHS., SALT etc then he should already be on School Action Plus. If he is not I would be asking why.

Not being on SA or SA plus does not preclude your DS receiving extra funding; people can and do go straight to statement.

However, you can apply for this yourself, its a process that is well explained on IPSEA's website which is www.ipsea.org.uk.

I've been considering whether to apply for a statement for my son as he is doing fine academically but is quite anxious. I mentioned to the school that I thought he'd benefit from some one-to-one time and they seemed to think they'd be able to do a bit of that without a statement...is this likely to be School Action then? I'm delighted that they seemed to have an option to do more than nothing, to be honest.

thank you all so much! I have only just had time to come back to the thread and read it all properly.
Outside agencies are already involved (community paediatricians at the child development centre) and he's had SALT assessments and stuff done. He may well be on SA or SA+ , it just hasn't been mentioned. He does have an IEP which we go in to discuss/review termly. We have parents' eve coming up too so that will be a chance to find out how he is actually doing academically and see what the next step is (if there is, indeed, a next step)

thanks attila for the ipsea link, it looks like it'll come in useful!