Speech Delay/Autistic Traits - Borderline SEN no statement - Please help!

[mumtomytwoboys]

Hi, my youngest has severe speech delays and many autistic traits. He was born with severe glue ear, the audiologists thought he was deaf until he turned 18 months old. His glue ear has now gone and he can hear, his language is severely delayed. He's now 3 years old, he's an August child and due to start school Sept 2014. I really need help trying to work out what to do:

1. Should children with speech delays have an SEN statement? I've been told he's borderline SEN, but because of budgetary cuts and the fact he's borderline he won't get one (i'm not exaggerating this, this came back from his Imag meeting via his portage worker!). What's your views on speech delays having SEN Statements?

2. His portage worker wanted to go back for an autism statement for him, given the number of autistic traits he has. She asked the council / child development centre and they have advised to wait until January next year to see if he "comes on". I'm concerned that I have to apply for school in January and won't have a statement.

3. Schools. Our local school has class sizes of 30, it's quite a loud environment. I feel he needs to be in a smaller quieter environment to encourage his speech. But I think he would enjoy being in the same school as his older brother. I'm sooo worried about what to do with his school, I really don't know what to do. Can anyone help advise me on whether children with speech delays are much better in smaller classes?

4. How do I get him into a school in a different catchment area without a statement? Should I get one of these education lawyers?! Help! No idea how to go about this. Schools round here are massively oversubscribed, any advice on how to get him into another school? Should I employ private speech therapists etc to write a report on him? Will this achieve anything?

Any experience you have would be greatly appreciated, I'm really lost as to what to do. Thank you mums xxx

polter goose, many many thanks for your help. basically he's had a diagnosis of speech delays. They may assess him for a diagnosis of autism in January, particularly if I push for it.

Looking at our local authority admission arrangement he needs a school to be named in a statement or education, health and care plan, to be admitted under social and medical reasons. I'm not going to get either of these currently. So I'm not sure if an opinion from a health professional would help. None of his health professionals will do me a report naming a school as this would be advising on a school, and they're saying they're not allowed to do that! agh! Any views on this again, really appreciated!

I'm confused. Why do you need him to be admitted under social or medical reasons? Can you apply for a school place as normal?
You should be able to apply as normal for an out of catchment school. If they have a place available then you should be given it but it will be your responsibility to organise transport.
I applied for an out of catchment school for DS as i knew we would be moving before he started. I had no problems at all. Granted this was 5 years ago but it shouldn't have changed that drastically.

I want to go to your school! I'm thinking a smaller school might help care for him more. He won't just be a number in a class hopefully. I'm going to see a smaller school that's coming out of special measures locally, I get the impression they may turn it round while my sons at school PLUS if I don't get a plan / statement thing it's about the only school I would be able to get into as i'm out of catchment!

I'd need him admitted under social / medical reasons to most schools around here as they're all way over subscribed. They won't have places available unless I go for the school that's going through special measures.

Oh ok. I'm sure there was a poster on here a few weeks back who applied under medical need but without a statement but I can't remember the thread or what she did. I think she applied as normal and appealed on medical grounds.
If nobody comes up with an answer then there are 2 posters on the education boards who are experts on admissions. One is called tiggytape and one is called prh or something like that so if you get no joy here pop over there and they might be able to help.

fairgame! brilliant, thank you ever so much. seriously just to talk this through with you ladies has lifted a weight off my shoulders, i've felt so alone mulling all this through!