School TA support

[chocolatebaileys]

Hi, my DS has ADHD and autism. His TA is off sick for a few weeks. The school are covering her with a staff member who as far as I am aware is not ASD experienced as per his statement. What is the legal position here as I am not happy that the cover is not as per his statement.

They can only do their best. You say you don't know that the person isn't trained - ask if she is.

It's very hard to get temporary cover for a post like that.

They have options of moving staff around and this person is not even a TA! She does other roles in the school

Perhaps moving other staff would cause even more disruption to other children. I would hope they've done the best they could in the difficult circumstances.

Special schools use temp agencies when their staff are off sick.

As usual, if you want a quick result, it is best to take the admin out of their hands, and then tell them how you know how busy they are and how it must be so hard with all this austerity going on blah blah.

And not to worry, you'll sort things so that they don't accidentally fail to comply with the law....

So for a quick result, ring your nearest ASD/communication Special School and see if they will tell you what temp agencies they use.

You need to make an appointment with the senco asap in order to find out what they are going to do in order to ensure your sons needs are being met.

I have contacted the head so will see what she says.

Ultimately though where do I stand legally if the staff they are providing are not qualified as per the requirements in his statement.

Does the statement actually say the TA has to have ASD experience? Some of the best staff I've worked with in SEN have had no experience but were amazing with all the children.

If the school can show that they have made every effort to provide temporary cover then you'll get nowhere legally.

They are supposed to comply with the law, and if your statement says 'experienced with ASD' then they must be experienced. The trouble is that your statement may not say how experienced. If they are a TA who started last year in a class with one ASD child, then they have 'experience'.

It is pretty rare these days for a teacher to qualify without one of the pupils that they come across having ASD.

The only way to enforce the terms of the statement of needs through the court is via JR and by the time you had filled in the form your 3 weeks would be up.

So I think you should work on the quickest way to get to what you want.

The first question is what experience of ASD the person has.

If you would like it to be greater experience, then suggest that you do some research to find a temp who would like to do the job and who you are happier with. Obviously, (you can say) if you can get a regular temp it minimises the disruption for the school staff, other pupils in the class and DC. Sell it as a win-win-win.

They get cover teachers from somewhere, so ask for that source and see if they have useful TAs listed.

Fair point polter. Also if person they choose didn't have experience when they started, they will certainly have experience by day two - of your DC - but still experience enough to comply with the statement if 'experience' is all it says.

The main thing is to see if they cannot do a bit more to get a regular back up person who fits the job title better, maybe by giving extra training to someone on the staff. I'd concentrate on workable solutions. Your rights are gong to be hellish hard to enforce, so being hugely helpful and charming is more likely to do the job