Does 1:1 support still exist for SEN children in school?

[Stanky]

I'm trying to get 1:1 support for 4yo ds in school. I was told by a teacher at school today that support like this no longer exists. Is that true? I thought that I would need to present our case, funding would be applied for and ds would be able to have a TA sit beside him at school to keep other children safe and keep him on task. I remember kids in my primary school having this kind of support, I even remember an 18yo lad at my college having extra support like this.

I even offered to support ds myself in school, but the school would not allow this.
Does extra support still exist?

Hi, I just joined to help with this so I have no idea if I can actually post replies.
Assuming I can, yes it is possible to get 1:1 for year R children, but it is uncommon. It is usually done with funding after an assessment where, to be blunt, they label your ds and can subsequently gain funding for a 1:1 LSA.
There are exceptions, I'm an LSA to a child in year R and basically my job is as you describe. I am paid from the school's own budget as no assessment or statement has yet been made in this case.

My understanding is that it's done at the request of the class teacher initially and only as a bit of a last resort. The assessment process can take an absolute age, there is quite the waiting list even where there is severe disruption/obvious issues.
Hope this helps in some small way.

Additional support does, but it is most commonly a lot less than full time.

Has your ds been assessed for and EHC Plan?

It can, if the ECH plan is at a high enough band to give the necessary level of funding. Does your child have an EHC plan at the moment?

Children do get one to one support, but schools are not keen because the first 6K has to come out of the schools budget.

I did not know that ReallyTired, although I'm pretty new to the whole thing. Is that the same in all cases, that the school has to front up the first 6k for 1:1 help?

Thank you very much for replying. :)

He's supposed to have a support plan in place, but I'm not sure if it's an actual EHC.

I am meeting with the Senco on Monday. Back in September 2015 I was lead to believe and under the impression that a TA would be with him to support him all of the time. She was not trained in SEN, and she would be also looking after at least one other child in the class.

But I now see that this hasn't been the case, and ds has been biting other children and almost got excluded again. They only decided not to exclude him because he had a transition day the next day. He was excluded from nursery when he was 3, for violence towards a staff member when he hit the TA in the face. I fail to see how this is supporting him.

He also has a global delay, hearing loss, dyspraxia and speech difficulties.

I know what the answer will be on Monday. I need to make sure that he gets an EHC as a starting point.

He will be going into year 1 in September, and I have been told that there will be one TA in the class in the morning, but not in the afternoons.

You need to get going with the EHCP application. On Monday you need to make clear to the school that if they do not apply for one by the end of this term you will be doing so yourself, many parents do this. Unfortunately the process is lengthy and can be very difficult, if I were you I would be spending the next few days doing two things.

Firstly researching the process. The websites of the charities SOSSEN and IPSEA both have a wealth of information. There will also be some sort of parental support team at your local authority who can help with the process but be aware that they have no power to influence decisions. Google "local offer" for your local authority.

Secondly getting all your paperwork in order, you will need to prove your DS needs the plan. So, start a file with any professional reports (nursery, school, doctors, speech therapists, audiologists etc). Think about scanning it all onto a computer too so you can submit copies easily.

Tell the school if they do not apply for the ehcp you will do it yourself (through your councils website). Don't delay in getting it started - ours took a year to complete from start to finish for our ds now aged 4. They are supposed to do it within 20 weeks but this rarely happens. Ipsea website have lots of information and a great helpline.

The school aren't telling the truth when they say there is no 1 to 1 support for children, they just don't want to fund it basically.

My son is 4 and has asd and developmental delay and his ehcp specifies either a specialist placement (which we are hoping for, currently in application stage) or a full time 1 to 1 in mainstream. He currently attends a preschool with 1 to 1 support.

Thanks everyone. We already have a massive file with all of his reports and paper work, so that's been done already. As if life wasn't difficult enough.

I know. But that file will stand you in very good stead, and you can get a lot of help on these boards - I would post in SN Children rather than SN Education which is a bit quiet.

As well as the big file, I have always kept an A4 notebook in which I write down notes/dates about every conversation with school or other professionals, including routine parents evenings etc, every relevant phonecall, dates and times of any incidents, useful bits of information gleaned from MN etc.

Thanks. :)