SEN POST 16 COLLEGE- EXTENDED STATEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

[luckystarshine]

Hi everyone, my soon is due to leave his mainstream secondary school this may and i would like him to attend a specialist college for children with asd, am i within my rights to ask for this or does my son have to attend our local mainstream college?
any help would be most appreciated!!
diagnosis asd, slc, social comunication disorder and currently attends a specialist speech and languge unit attached to a mainstream school..
Thank-you

This is complicated. The college you think is suitable might be able to advise on how to ensure your ds gets there. LAs like to 'cease to maintain' the statement at the end of year 11. However, if your ds needs it, the statement should remain till he is 19y old. This is a summary

Thank-you so much for the summary information, MariaNoMoreLurking.
It seems like a bit of a grey area. The college is our local special college which are peaditricain recommended we look at when he gave ds the diagnosis of ASD and they are happy for my ds to attend, but have said that they would need the college name on the statement which i thought would have been straight forward. but when i contacted my LA she said no straight away because my ds is taking 3 foundation GCSES, which is predicticed he will get Es and he has a reading and spelling age of 25, but he is hyperlexic and although he can read well he cannot remember what he has read. The college i am looking at say they take children that are academicabilly capable but are not socially ready for mainstream college, He has 1:1 PE lessons and 15 hours speech and language in a unit each week, and he really does not cope in the mainstream part of the school.

My daughter is staying at her special school post 16 and her statement will continue. Had she been going to a local FE college, it would cease.

We showed that the local FE colleges could not meet her SALT needs as detailed in her statement.

The specialist college, school and connections should be able to help you. You need to visit the FE colleges to strengthen your case.

Has your son got his career's review coming up?

Yes he does, his transitions officer had moved the annual review forward to amend his statement with the college name on it.
But when i spoke to his teacher she thinks he would be better at a mainstream college as all the other children go there, my problem with the school is until august this year my ds only had SALT needs and SCD, and was then diagnosed with ASD, so unfortunatley they do not understand his other needs, inability to use public transport, will not take part in activities, and has tics and obsessions, he really needs life skills.
But the school are agreeing with the LA, i just feel they are not really listening to my concerns, when he was assessed again for ASD the teacher said you dont want to label him for his future and when they were asked to complete a CAF form they said it wont really help much, i ended up getting his targeted youth worker to complete one for a tier 2 but we have an appointment for next month with cahms for a tier 3 assessment.

Go and talk to the local mainstream college, they will need to identify a course which is suitable and to assess your DS's needs.

IF they feel that they can not meet his support needs then the LA will have little choice other than to consider him for the specialist provision. IF they say that they can then you will not be able to access the funding for the specialist college.

I deal with this in work.

in relation to transport, if he get's transport now, this may still be able to continue to the mainstream college.

In all honesty, IME most mainstream colleges provide very good support to ASD students, the main concern will be around safety. Is your DS likely to run off?

The way it seems to work here is that local colleges receive a profile of each student and then state if they can meet the individual's needs. We visited the local FE colleges we knew that the LA would suggest and in our case my daughter would not have had access to SALT (currently sees SALT twice each week). The colleges then agreed with some prompting that they could not meet her needs and said so at the 'panel' meeting. School also agreed with us. My daughter will hopefully stay at school until 18 or 19 and then I hope, specialist college.

Parental choice is not considered . Transport seems to be tricky here too, some get it post 16, some don't.

Specialist college is big bucks compared with the local FE college but I think the funding come from other sources.

I am going to look at the local colleges next week to see what they offer with regard to SALT and ASD.
He has had transport since the age of 8 and refuses to use public transport can not cope with noise, crowds and shakes and goes ridget with extreme anxiety. I can not even get him to enter a shop at times- his youth worker has to meet him in a small room 1:1 to speak with him each week as she was meeting with him in a quiet library but suggested somewhere else as he was too stressed. she has also said that she feels he would find it very difficult to cope at the college as from what she has seen of him it wouldnt be the right place as his needs are quite severe and that was when i told he i was going to visit the college, i hadnt mentioned that i was considering a specialist college.
Saftey wise he has no road sense, stranger danger, and is very vulnerable, but the school are suggesting a travel trainer.
but he does not have a good memory, forgets things easily and steps out in traffic at times, and shows impulsive behaviour.

mention all of these things to the mainstream college when you see them. Tell them how he is likely to behave when his anxiety peaks.

Thank-you headlesslambrini,
I will let them know at the college, its a stressful time and hard to know which one to choose which will be better for him..

Definitely mention all your DS's difficulties when you visit the local college.

My DS was very much as you've described your DS - couldn't travel, no independance skills, high anxierty etc.

After a battle I got him into a specialist independant Priory FE College.

Ignore school, ignore teachers - they don't have to pick up the pieces when your DS can't cope at local college.

Talk to the Priory and see if one of their colleges would suit. They shold be able to help you apply for a place.

Wetaugust, where does the funding come for for specialist college? Is it from the Lea's budget?

I don't know.

It used to come from the Learning & Skills Council after Connexions had made the case to them for funding.

Now the L&SC and Connexions have been abolished I thought the funding was now held by LAs?

Best thing to do is to find an indie specialist FE college and then ring them and ask who to apply to for funding - they'll definitely know as they do this all the time.

If it's a college the statement will come to an end. What should be happening at the moment is a Learning Difficulty Assessment to decide where he goes post 16. You're absolutely entitled to ask for the specialist college but if the LA refuses it's more difficult to challenge.

The silly thing is that probably the new law will come in a few months after your son leaves school, and that will entitle him to an Education Health and Care Plan until he's 25, if it's accepted that he needs to stay in education. But I suppose you'd have to reapply for that which could take some months.

If by any chance there's a specialist school with a post 16 unit near you it could be worth looking at, because the statement would stay in place if ds went there.

these might be able to help you with the processes involved

Thank-you wetaugust,

I will talk to the Priory and see if they can help. It is reasurring to know that someone has been through the same battle and got through it. When the school are not supportive it makes it much more difficult and you feel like you are on your own.

My thoughts are exactly as you put it. Who will be there at the end when he can not cope with the local college.
I am not sure how the funding process works, but i have just read nennypops thread- which talks about a specialist school with a post 16 unit.
The college I am looking at is an extended part of that school-post 16
would funding be different for that provision?
any help you can give would be much appreciated.
Kind regards.

Thanks for the info headlesslambrini. Thats really helpful.

Hi nennypops,
Yes it will be an LDA to replace DS statement, but the post 16 college has said they need a named statement from the local LA, who has made it very clear the statement will end- thanks for the info regarding the post 16 unit- that sounds like the college i am interested in. I am just trying to find out if the funding process would be different/easier if that makes sense.
many thanks.

I have been reading about the new Education Health and care plan, which could work out much better for families as all professionals will be involved in making decisions as Ds peadiatrian who made the diagnosis recommended the college in question and my LA said he had absoloutly no right in suggesting a college as that is down to the them and the school.
This seems unfair as the peadiatrican was only trying to be helpful as the college offers both Education and life skills which my DS really needs.

All those people should have been involved during Year 9 when a Transition Plan to determine your child's post-16 is supposed to be agreed by all the Agencies involved.

It seems from the amount of posts on here about post-16 education that the Year 9 Transition Plan is not being drawn up. It's the Head's responsibility to ensure that one is compiled. Also, with a Statement, Connexions used to retain responsibility for the young person right up to age 25. I don't know if that responsibility transferred to LAs when Connexions was disbanded.

Statements end when a child leaves school. If the child stays in school post-16 the Statement remains in force.

However, if the child leavs school to attend a FE College the Statement ceases. You can appeal against cessation of the Statement.

It's a (was and probably still is) a very grey area with LAs saying they have no responsibility for the child post-16 when they have completed their statutory education. The school leaving age is to be increased very soon, and I have no idea how that will affect things.

However you also have specialist school that will accommodate sudents up to age 19. You also have sixth forms within schools that are not actually classed as schools but are actually FE provision. So you need to look carefully at the exact status of provision.

There was no way my DS could have got himself to FE College every day and stay there while he was so anxious. Specialist FE College for ASD was the only way to go. You need to speak to your local college to see what they can offer, starting from the momemnt your DS leaves the house - after all, if he can't get there then educating him there is impossible. As a 16 year old you should not be expected to ferry him backwards and forwards - at 16 he's an adult in the eyes of DLA etc.

That's why I suggested contacting the indie FE College of your choice and discussing fuding etc with the, You may well discover that places for next Sept are already provisionally booked - they fill up very quickly.

Post-16 is an issue that is going to feature prominently on this board as children reach 16.

We have just attended my daughter's careers review. The LA representative had no idea what form the EHCP will be in, they are still looking at examples, no idea what it means for parental rights, what parts are legally binding etc. It was all a bit horrifying considering they come in next year.

hi vjg13,
hopefully it will give parents more rights and more support as i do not think it is fair when schools, doctors, LA have different opinions
hopefully they will get together with the parents/children and decide the best outcome for the childs needs.
Heres hoping, it is so difficult trying to look after a child with disabilities without the worry of further education and their future needs.. hope you get the outcome you wish for your Daughter..

Thanks wetaugust, I will definatley be contacting the indie FE College of choice and discuss funding options :)

Hi everyone, Just had annual review, which seemed to go quite well. am looking at one or two possible colleges one of which the LA agrees with i just have to rule out the other one.
Feeling much more positive now, thanks for the advice everyone :)

Could you let us know what teh outcome eventually is Lucky?. It would help other parents who are going to have to negoiate post-16 placements for their children.

Best wishes