NEW POLICY >>>>>>>>NO DIAGNOSIS>>>>>>NO STATEMENT>>>>>SAVE MONEY [angry]

[deeeja]

Well, if you don't have a private educational psychologist in my area, you have no chance of getting adequate provision in school. It turns out that up to 20 hours will have to be funded through school via school action+, and the remaining by LEA. To top it all, the local authority are no longer giving diagnoses of autism, and are replacing this with social and communication disorder
So under-diagnose + no statement = saved money. I suppose I ws one of the 'lucky' ones to get a diagnosis of asd!
This is so maddening! I have only just found out this morning, shocking beyond belief!
All those poor children!
I have informed the IPSEA.

They'll be helping no-one soon.

Do they actually understand about ASDS, about aspects like sensory difficulties and differences, about the need for routines and obsessions, about different perceptual and sometimes movement differences? Or do they think that it's only relevant to put down what they can see, rather than what it actually means to the child?

It's all just about money I fear - save money on the majority of kids who'll get crap care but who won't sue, take it on the chin with the few parents who do sue and force a payout. It's quite a common attitude in big corporate businesses; it's just a shock when you find it also at work in an area where a child's future is at stake!

It is similar where I live, (still issuing statements at parental request but without specified hours and schools have to fund so support is limited by their small sen budget)and IPSEA took on the LEA. The special schools (that they want to close) have got busier because some ms simply cannot support sen children even if they wanted too!
Is it worth writing to IPSEA to alert them? It is simply iniquitous!

Something similar is happening in my area next year.

My DD is changeing school at easter, the school has lots of children with SEN. The head teacher told my that our LEA are also going to be phasing out statements. And schools will have to fund the extra support that a child needs.

So what going to happen then, will the school be given the extra funds to support these children? and will school then be made to spend this funding just on the children with SEN?

The thing is i thought that a child didnt need a DX to get a statement, shouldnt an assessment be done on the childs individual needs, not on what their Dx is? also seems extremely discriminating.

LEAs are not allowed to phase out statements. Have a look on the IPSEA website and the front page- the news there has links about 2 LEAs who tried this. Once has had its knuckles rapped by the Dept of Education and the other will no doubt have its knuckles rapped soon.

If you're a parent in this area would be worth writing to them pointing this out and enclose some links to IPSEA.

Replacing the autism diagnosis may help some children. i went to a meeting where a paed was talking about the problem of the children she sees who have something going on but don't quite tick the ASD box. - and currently can access no help.

However they shouldn't change dx they should change the way resources are allocated.

this page might be useful for the pdf

if you go to the home page there are other cases from other LEA's there as well.

We're in that situation yurt and a change to social and communication disorder would certainly help ds get a dx that took account of his whole range of difficulties and not just the hyperactivity.

Yurt you have a good point! I know of children in a more generous LEA (where they support children with dxs of AS and ASDs)who have been Dx with AS even though they don't quite fit the criterior because it is the only way to get the support they need. Frankly a broader definition would help many children particularly the impulsive/ hyperactive /spectrummy children who often get their asd side overlooked or mistreated. The whole system of LEAs needing labels needs sorting out!

They should keep the ASD dx, and have a general one as well. The States tend to use PDD-NOS in this way and it would be useful I think.

Agree entirely with you Yurt. A subject I can get very steamed up about!

What I meant was the needs of each child should be the criterior for support not the label. Labels help to support needs. Sorry Deeeja, have gone a bit off at a tangent. Perhaps we should all write to IPSEA!

Hi Magso

Re your comment:-

It is similar where I live, (still issuing statements at parental request but without specified hours and schools have to fund so support is limited by their small sen budget)and IPSEA took on the LEA. The special schools (that they want to close) have got busier because some ms simply cannot support sen children even if they wanted too!
Is it worth writing to IPSEA to alert them? It is simply iniquitous!

This whole thing of devolving powers to schools is nothing short of disasterous

It certainly is worth contacting IPSEA as this is something they are actively campaigning against (their web address is www.ipsea.org.uk). What you LEA are currently doing is not within the law. Infact deeeja's LEA are also acting unlawfully too.

IPSEA's postal address is:-

6 Carlow Mews
Woodbridge
Suffolk IP12 1EA

how can they stop a 'autism' diagnosis. Its a medical one.
It would be like them saying they aren't accepting any more cerebral palsy diagnosis but have them down as lazy!

Exactly nmc! Its cheaper to label a child naughty as this is not ilegally defined as a sen! But from reading other threads it does sound like some leas are putting pressure on paeds/ pyschs etc not to dx!!!. Perhaps thats illegal also? It sounds like Deeeja's LEA want dxs 'watered down'. On the other hand (I'll play devils advocate for a moment) perhaps its a way of defining needs more accuratly and including (complex or atypical) needs for children who would otherwise be excluded by their own silly guidelines!

As the toehrs say, this is a blanket policy and it is illegal.

gawd, mys chool won't even funsd a statemented kid with an OT cushion- we gets ent lists, can you imagine?????

Where are all these areas where this is happening atm? DS has assesment due in April we live in Doncaster.

Round here, the delegated funding to schools is done by postcode (cos clearly only poor kids have SEN) and so I know of one small primary where they only got £800 for all SEN last year...even though their statements alone ran to £12000!

Even the schools in deprived areas who get loads of money don't have to account for it.

Anything up to 25 hours has to come out of this delegated budget. And of course, there aren't many kids with more than 25 hours, as they don't give many like that out!

So hypothetically, a child could have a need of 24 hours a week (to stay safe, to make progress etc.) and they would be turned down by my LEA who would say "the money's in school".

Now, this could be true, if it's a deprived area, but what chance has the parent got of persuading the school to fork out for something it doesn't legally have to when it could spend its budget on something else?

Or it might not be true (as in my example above) in which case either the child suffers, without enough support, or the other children suffer, as resources are pulled from them to provide the support for this one child.

I have contacted IPSEA last year...keep waiting for my LEA to show up on IPSEA's hit list!

It makes me so so so so

Not for J anymore, as he has his full time. But if he'd been born two years later, there would not have been a hope of even getting the statement, let alone full time.

maybe I'm just lucky but dd has 39.5 hours one to one a week (school week is only 32 hours so its a bit bizzarre ) and they've never quibbled. Its a deprived area too.
I do know if they don't provide whats on the statement you can take them to tribunal and make them.

im stuck in the vicious circle and the stupid rules for two different counties.
In Leicester City a child does not need a diagnosis to get help, a childs needs will be met without a label and you can access all the support you require. You can also get a statement for EBM disorders without much of a battle as long as you have evidence your child needs it.
In Leicestershire County you cannot access ANY help or support UNLESS your child has a diagnosis. BUT to get a diagnosis you have to go into Leicester City and the staff in Leicester City are unaware of the differences in Leicestershire county and dont like to label children!! I have had to fight tooth and nail to acheive a stament based on evidence only and to prove my son has emotional, behavioural and emotional difficulties. My son display typical autistics traits and some of these are severe BUT without a diagnosis we cant get help. The school cannot access training as noone in the school has autism and we cant get DS into a unit which would be perfect for him without a diagnosis.
ITS ALL WRONG. In an ideal world if a childs needs are recognised they should be met.

When the LA weren't providing SALT as specified in DS1's statement I wrote to them and said if they didn't reply in writing by date X I would report them to the local government ombudsman. They rang the day they received the letter and the SALT was in school the following week- this followed 8 months of them stalling.