Schools becoming academies

[sweetmum4]

How will this impact our children with sen? Any thoughts please share because I am very confused.

I think it depends on the actual school and the company that is running it. Our catchment secondary became an academy 2 years ago and it was definitely a change for the worse: in fact, the only reason we got dd into the much better out of catchment school, as we managed to show the panel that the academy had NO plans for provision for disabled students. But that is not to say that another academy cannot have excellent provision.

On the one hand, I can see why it would be worrying - situations like cory describes are not good.

From a purely selfish pov, however, it would probably be good for us, weird would be all the easier to provethat dd1 could not cope in am n academy which is unwilling to make allowances, and thus easier to keep herein her SN school.

There are some legal differences in whether SEND can name an Academy in Part 4 of a statement. They are not 'maintained schools' under the Education Act 1996 so, in principle, they can't be named by the Tribunal without the Academy's agreement.

It depends on the funding agreement for each academy. Most newer academies have funding agreements which means that admissions for statemented pupils are broadly similar to maintained schools anyway, but the older ones may have slightly idiosyncratic admission policies for SEN pupils.

An Academy is able to refuse to admit a child by saying it would be 'incompatible with the provision of efficient education for other children and no reasonable steps may be made to secure compatibility' (see here). I think maintained schools can also say this, but it seems to be used more frequently for Academies.

We have quite a few Academies in our borough and one made it clear that DS wasn't welcome even though they had an ASD resource. An LA could name an Academy without their agreement and go to the Secretary of State to enforce that, but my LA seems reluctant to get into any dispute with the Academies - while they often put pressure on mainstream schools to accept a pupil even where it's not clear they can meet the child's needs.

There must be lots of SN schools that are not 'maintained schools' though. All the NAS ones, ICan etc. Presumably they'd agree to be named though....

Yes, they usually have approval from the Secretary of State to admit statemented pupils - there is a list of 'approved' schools. Academies are different from non-maintained schools though, because they do get funding from the state, but they don't have the same regulations as state schools.

I have to say, i am really worried about this. My DD does not attend a special school, but has SEN. Do academies have to accept SEN children and provide for their needs?

She's only year 3 so we're a little way from secondary at mo but it does worry me.

Isn't the proposal to extend academies to primary schools too? I can just see our school going for that! I would like to know the implications.

My concern with academies is that they wouldn't have to conform to an accepted form of practice. They could do something bizarre like make every child wear a boater or take cold baths or speakLatin for half the day and if you complained they would just say "well that is the way we do it, if you don't like it go somewhere else", but there wouldn't be anywhere else because all the inclusive schools would have been changed into academies.

If your locals school becomes an academy, it's not as though they are going to keep a maintained school next door just incase your child doesn't fit in.

I had worried re the extension to primary schools. The majority of the schools (primary and secondary) have outstanding ofsteds so could all apply to become academies.

Thankfully we're moving to another area next month, but i think the academy route could mean a two tier system.

I'm worried about it creating a two tier system, too. I strongly suspect that qualifying schools would also lose out on a lot of funding if they didn't make the status change, so it's not like heads and governors would refuse on principal.

I too am very concerned about the proposal to increase the number of Academies.

Currently, Academies do not offer the same rights and protections to pupils and parents in such matters as SEN, exclusions, admissions etc.

No complaint about an Academy's performance for SEN children can be made to the LA or to the Secretary of State. The new Academies Bill needs to change this!

Where an Academy does not want to admit a child with a Statement, there is no right of appeal to SENDIST.

I have been Googling Academies and special needs and have come across the following:

Briefing note from IPSEA www.ipsea.org.uk/AssetLibrary/News/Suppl-SubmissionSelComSEN-Feb2006.pdf

Also this briefing note from ACE www.ace-ed.org.uk/OneStopCMS/Core/CrawlerResourceServer.aspx?resource=258A1202-71E3-43F9-9962-A1B596 6E051F&mode=link&guid=1f6b042748874f3a9378042605c4cd28

As many people as possible need to know about how this will affect our children, so that we can contact our local MPs, and all the relevant charities such as Mencap, Scope, National Autistic Society etc and start campaigning for the Bill to be amended.

If you post on other forums, then please post this information, so that as many people as possible know and can get involved in changing the Academies Bill so that we can ensure that children with SN are not disadvantaged.

Free schools and Academies could provide an opportunity for our children, especially if it takes them out of LA control. But there must be some safeguards and accountability.

And we don't have much time to make sure that we are heard:

"A short Bill will be introduced this week removing local authority powers to veto new schools, allowing charities or education providers to get state funding for each pupil they attract. The legislation is intended to be rushed through Parliament by summer."

Local Government Ombudsman can't look at Academies either

So who are they accountable to? I haven't managed to find out.

OMG. I saw that too on the ACE site. I know our school will head for academy status.

We need to get campaigning!

Yes, we really do need to start campaigning and fast, given the timescale for the Bill to be rushed through.

I don't want to be too negative, as maybe there is an opportunity here, with schools removed from LA control, but there must be accountability and protection for children with SN and recourse to SENDIST and the Local Government Ombudsman.

Yes, there needs to be a standard letter produced by relevant organisations for people to send to their MPs.

I shall be contacting my MP about asap!

I found it interesting in the IPSEA document that KPMG run the dispute resolution service for Academy admissions. They are Academy sponsors themselves, so I wonder how impartial they would be in a dispute against one of their schools!

"A short Bill will be introduced this week removing local authority powers to veto new schools".

"an academy must agree to admit a child unless to do so would prejudice the efficient education of other children".

So unless there is something we have missed, the government is not going to ensure that there are school places for SEN children, much less that these are suitable.

I hate the word efficient in that sentence. "I am sorry, we are going to have to remove your child, he/she is make all the other children's education inefficient". "No, I am sorry we can't make that change for your child, it would compromise the efficiency of the other children's education".

God, sugar, I read that stuff about KPMG too. A firm of accountants running hearings, in private, about SEN.

The fact is that even if you are at one of these schools, the chances are you will have no enforcement power relating to your statement which seems to be a massive issue as enforcement of provision seems to be a common problem for lots of parents.

I will email our local NAS regional organiser today

At the moment the extra funding for SLT and OT provision for my dd is paid by LEA, if her school becomes an academy who will pay for it. The school is only keeping her because the LA is forcing the head, once they have no pressure they might say they can't meet her needs and then where will we go?
What about the LA funded home ABA programs? Have they actually thought it through or this is a change for the change sake.

I've emailed my MP who says he will investigate! I'll keep you posted.

In our local paper it says that only the schools ranked "oustanding" by Ofsted will be given this privilege. Seems a bit strange to me to leave the LA with all the rest. My son's (secondary) school is on the list, but there is at least one Infant school named.
The schools will only go for it if it is in their best interests though.
Definitely something to keep an eye on.

I'm sure there'll be money thrown at it to entice schools to start with - doncha think??

Is this a rehash of the Grant Maintained thing?

I think it is imahappycamper. No good thing it seems to me. Looks like a two-tier system where we can weed out those that are too much effort.

I have to say with a son at an Outstanding primary school in a Grammar school area, the system already feels like it doesn't need/want him.

I think it's inevitably something our Head will want to do.