sn provision in East Sussex?

[saintmaybe]

We're thinking of moving to East Sussex From Brighton, The only thing that's holding us back is that I've always been told that we're lucky in terms of services, educational, and eventually adult, provision and I don't know if we'd be mad to walk away from it. Does anyone have experience of E Sussex for sn?
Atm ds2's in an mld special school, which is well regarded, although he's not very happy there. I definitely think he's likely to be better off in special than mainstream. I've spoken to the lea but they're unwilling to say where he's likely to be placed until he's there and they've assessed him.
He could theoretically just about keep going to the current school in terms of distance, but I don't know if he'd be funded to go 'over the border'.
Any thoughts, lovely people?

We live in E Sussex. I know there have been messages on here before saying that Brighton is much better than E Sussex for services. We've had a mixed bag - great OT last year, but now nothing. SALT isn't great (but that's a local problem; there are other good ones elsewhere). Early Years have been very good, and we are on the Key Worker scheme, which has been very useful.

Having said that, we are moving to Somerset in April so that we can be near to a special school for DS2 (who has ASD). It would be a 45 min journey to the nearest one (in Eastbourne) otherwise. We thought the school was excellent when we visited though and it has a very good reputation locally. I think it depends where in East Sussex you're planning to move - I know there are some great schools in Hastings too. The area in which we live is known as a bit of a 'dead spot' for SEN services, though as I say we've been lucky in many respects. I am quite pushy though .

Thanks sphil. Ds2 has asd too, and we're really looking at Lewes/ Ringmer area. He quite likes long car journeys, though. You're moving for the school- wow- is it really great?

Do you get the impression that it's hard to access special schools; that there's pressure to do mainstream? I think he might be considered borderline but I really don't think it would be right for him. And would the lea have provided transport to Eastbourne?

Sorry to ask so many q's - I'm finding it hard to get info from lea, and though we'd like to move and it would be great for other 2 dcs I'm nervous about finding out too late that it won't work for him - and by extension all of us.

I'll check out the school in Eastbourne and pay a visit.

You moving soon? Good luck with it

That's where we live! Yes, we were certainly led to believe that the LEA would provide transport. I don't really know how much pressure there is towards m/s - DS2 has moderate/severe autism so no-one had any arguments against special for us.

One thing I forgot to say - our specialist paed has just had her contract terminated and they haven't replaced her - so waiting lists are even longer than they were before.

We love living here though - Lewes is a great place to live. I just want to live in the local area where both my dcs go to school, + we have family in Somerset.

Thanks. Gives me more to think about...