So, what cuts would you make to SEN provision?

[StarlightMcKenzie]

In light of the Wirral report and the suggestion that the parents they interviewed were 'pioneers', innovative, open to change, outcome-focussed etc. and of these parents a total of 4% listened to the SEN team for advice etc... I was wondering if it would be possible and indeed desirable, to make whole SEN departments 'Big Community' run.

By that I mean, take said innovative open-minded outcome-focussed parents and get them to run the departments in their entirety. Ask them to get better outcomes for the same money. Ask them to get better outcomes for less money in fact.

I am utterly utterly convinced that it could and WOULD be done.

I phoned parent partnership for advice before applying for dds statement. I was told 100% that the LA would turn down a request for SA. I applied anyway and the LA agreed to SA straight away

The PP I used told me that their LA had more complaints and tribunals than pretty much any other LA because it had a lot of affluent parents in it.

Incidentally, that is bollox. It has affluent pockets, and is in the SE, but the reason I'd give is because their provision was shitter than most.

PP where I live is very good.

I vote for no need for paying an out of house contractors to copy and paste statements - just copy and paste from LEA and independent reports please!

I would like my LA to sack the middle SEN managers who have been employed to tell parents that their child doesnt meet their criteria for a statutory assessment and spend the money on just doing the SA which tribunal are going to force them to do anyway!!

^What Zzzz said!

Also, why mediation? How can you mediate a child's needs? They either need it, or they don't. Full stop

The standard refusal to assess letter my LA send out has a typo in it, mediation is spelt medication!! It still hasnt been corrected as far as I know!!

£30m for independent supporters and their training. I'd cut that.

Just think how much £30m could do for training of staff in SEN and the cascading down effect.

Instead it appears to be used to buy personnel to persuade parents to lower their expectations.

I'd have one central electronically available assessment, which would be updated every 6 months (this could be done with ABLLS or b Squared).
A competent person assesses and from this, picks out areas of need. The army of professionals who troop in and out, asking the same basic questions over and over again in present system, would instead refer to assessment and then devise a measurable intervention based on that assessment.

I'd also do away with anyone who 'recommend' and then buggers off.
Unless you are prepared to sit, side by side with a parent, assistant or teacher and demonstrate how to do what it is you want done, you shouldn't have any part in said child's life.

I would not ask anyone to do anything without showing them how to do it first.

Absolutely. You can't mediate and find a compromise on a child's need ffs.

The law only entitles them to adequate yet schools are expected to deliver 'good' or 'outstanding' teaching to everyone else.

So assuming a full tribunal hearing gets the child 'adequate', in what way is mediation and therefore compromise ethical?

I would also do away with this weird outdated compartmentalisation of a child's needs into s/lt, OT, nursing and so on.
If a board certified behaviour analyst was employed by every school, they could quite easily tackle most of these and save £££££.

I'd also remove s/lt from Health. It's an educational issue and patently not a health one in 95% of cases. I would instantly outlaw the endorsement of any intervention that is not data based and based on evidence.
That would mean that 90% of what is offered to kids by s/lts would instantly disappear.

Yay!!!!

You know like that story where someone reportedly told a toothpaste company they could make it millions and when company agreed to fee, told them to make the opening wider so more was consumed?

Well, can we not go to LAs/Government and tell them we can save them millions AND improve outcomes, because we CAN.

I'd also follw Tesco's example and ensure that all meetings take place on the shop floor, with everyone standing and last no longer than 20 mins.

Because most of it is a massive job creation industry, designed to perpetuate the issues it purports to address.

Of all the s**t we parents have to cope with, mediation, for me, is a red rag to a bull.

So my child has broken his leg. Does he need a bandage or a proper plaster cast? Plaster cast = possibly good/reasonable outcome. Bandage = lifelong disability.

FFS This isn't a CD collection that's being fought over by a warring couple!

I would impose financial penalties on any professional who had not read the reports by their professional colleagues in advance of meeting the child with SEN. I would also remove the frankly ludicrous (where I live) and artificial division between mental and physical health issues in children which results in unseemly and costly ping pong between two different foundation trusts.

I have to put DS to bed now. I'm sure more will come to me!

It is no longer fit for purpose.
Everything I think was set up with good intent but it has become a vast unwieldy bureaucratic monster, staffed by people who forget that they are public servants nad their prime purpose is to servie others, and not their own interest.

Time to air Parkinson's Laws once again. 50 years old and as relevant as ever.
The last in particular resonated with me, working as I do in this miserable quagmire.

Parkinson's First Law: Work expands to fill the time available.
Parkinson's Second Law: Expenditures rise to meet income.
Parkinson's Third Law: Expansion means complexity; and complexity decay.
Parkinson's Fourth Law: The number of people in any working group tends to increase regardless of the amount of work to be done.
Parkinson's Fifth Law: If there is a way to delay an important decision the good bureaucracy, public or private, will find it.
Parkinson's Law of Science: The progress of science varies inversely with the number of journals published.
Parkinson's Law of Delay: Delay is the deadliest form of denial.
Parkinson's Law of Data: Data expands to fill the space available.
Parkinson's Law of Meetings: The time spent in a meeting on an item is inversely proportional to its value (up to a limit).
Parkinson's Law of 1000: An enterprise employing more than 1000 people becomes a self-perpetuating empire, creating so much internal work that it no longer needs any contact with the outside world.

I agree moondog, we have ABA supervisor who does everything motor, speech, social, behaviour, academics, eating ,toileting we could have managed perfectly fine without seeing anyone else for the past 4 years. In fact most other people have made our lives worse and caused more stress through trying to persuade us to replace effective intervention with drivel.
Only now are we getting the point with language where a bit of SLT consultancy advice is useful.
I would do away with all sen team involvement, EP, portage, OT, SLT, dietician, LD nurse, autism outreach and just get the paediatrician to write a prescription for ABA at the first appointment where autism is suspected.
I would take money from the free nursery place budget towards ABA and children would only go to ABA centres instead for therapy (and would double up as childcare). ABA would also happen at home. Children would transition into school at ABA supervisor discretion and with ABA trained staff. The centre could act as training centre for parents and schools too.
The only meeting would be a regular team meeting during an ordinary therapy session when therapists, parents, schools etc would get together plan, review, assess etc over cake.

To be fair the new draft sencop is trying to bring some outcomes evaluation into it with set review dates and assessing impact of provision but it will be up to parents to insist / enforce.

New sencop also talks about high quality provision, best poss outcomes etc, I think it's moving away from adequate - in a world where any school not judged good or outstanding by ofsted is inadequate then can't under Equality legislation give our kids less than good anymore. There is a ref to what is 'reasonably required' which is open to interpretation though.

Agree with all that Agnes.
Also with regards to s/lt, a BCBA will do a far better job with small (or even large) non verbal children than an s/lt will.

An s/lt is only really useful at the stage when the child progressing beyond basic repertoire of mands and tacts, to give some guidance on typical language development so that this trajectory can be considered. Also useful with regard to knowledge of Phonetics and Phonology and what sounds and sound combinations need to be tackled and in what order.

S/lts know a LOT about making sounds and how and why to make them. BCBAs are always very pleased to get this info.

I always remember, very early in my ABA 'journey' going to hear James Partington (of ABLLS fame) speak and him talking about coaching his dd's football team, saying 'I know nothing of soccer, but I know how to teach'.

It blew me away and I realised I was on the brink of something very exciting.
A BCBA knows how to teach. Most people, including, or even especially tbh, teachers, DON'T.

And please spare me the obsession with turning behavioural issues into medical and/or pathological ones.
Bog standard nurses advising on toileting and eating issues for years and years, at great expense, with no outcomes.
The average BCBA would sort most of it out in a matter of weeks.