Resourced Provision Units - how does it all work? No statement.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

My son is in Yr 5 of MS primary and I am appealing refusal to assess for a statement. We are looking at our local MS secondary schools, two have resourced provision units. One of their webpages says that most of the children in it are not statemented. However the one up the road says they must be statemented (same county).

I am a bit confused about how it all works. Apparently the primary school has to apply in the summer term of Yr 5 (i.e. now). I had previously ruled it out as the one that specialises in DS's specific needs is the one that requires a statement (I looked this up a while ago). I assumed it was true for all of them so hadn't until yesterday considered the other one. However the details as to what it specialises in are vague.

Anyone got any experience of applying for or getting a place in one of these without a statement?

I have a lot of questions, but no one seems able to fully answer them (waiting for calls back from Primary and secondary SENCos and SEN dept). If you apply and are accepted for one do you have to take it even if you are allocated one at the other end of the county? It's a big county and the other end is an hour's drive away. How does it affect the ongoing statementing process? It could be bad if they were placed in one which was local but had pupils with very different needs but also not great if they were in a suitable one over an hour away.

Hi in our borough you have to have a statement to access a resourced provision , which is annoying as I would live ds to attend one but he isn't statemented

same here as well - you would have to have a statement - do you know how many children are in the unit without statements? the places are usually at a premium so I would expect a lot of parents with statements would name the unit so they would get priority over non statemented children - I know im not really helping much am I!

Bjk don't worry I haven't helped much

In my area you dont needs a statement to access resourced provision. Details of children who have applied go to a panel and a decision is made whether they will get a place based on their needs.

If you don't have a SSEN how do you know what the full range of needs are; if you dont know the full range of needs how can you or the unit be clear what they need to provide; if you dont know what provision is needed how can you be sure its the right unit and how can the unit be sure that they have the right resources.

Get a statement.

Good point nigel my LA dont really care about meeting needs though sadly. It is all about money and resourced provision is a cheaper option than SS.

I agree though OP just put in a parental request for a statutory assessment.

Thank you all, as I said in my OP I am appealing a refusal to assess, so am doing my best on the statement front. I have had independent EP, OT and SALT assessments carried out so I do have a pretty good idea of what DS's needs are. But the application date for RPU is this term and if there's an opportunity to apply as well as pursuing the statement I wanted to explore that avenue. I will hopefully be able to speak to my SENCO on Monday about the exact procedure for our LA. Still waiting for all the others to call back.

I haven't been able to find data online as to how many non-statemented pupils there are in the unit, or indeed how many places there are per year. I will follow up all my phone calls again next week.