Government to target SEN "scams"

[TheTimeTravellersWife]

Article in the Times today "The government is set to launch a review of special needs education amid concerns that schools and middle-class parents are exploiting the system to gain extra teaching help and more time in exams for pupils.

The review, to be announced in the next few weeks by Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat children?s minister, is expected to consider tightening up the criteria for registering a child as having special needs."

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article7144811.ece

I am, for once, speechless!

I htink that's a shockingly written article, with some crap quotes form people,

BUT

I do agree that sometimes the criteria need tightening up.

I'm talking about the extra time in exams end of the spectrum of SN, here btw.

I have a statemented dd, who is at SN school full time.

I also have a dsd who has AS, who sadly didn't recieve all the help she should have at school(crap school, even worse senco = not much help at all). thankfully she is receiving decent help at uni now.

My dss, on tthe other hand, went ot a brilliant school, who knew full well how to play the system. he (totally and utterly NT, with no difficulties at all) got extra time in his A levels for - wait for it - being left handed

he did not need it (although I am sure used it well - a lot of people would be grateful for the extra time!), and it just makes a mockery of the system, tbh.

Good grief!

And that's about all I have to say about that!

Good grief!

And that's about all I have to say about that!

eh? really don't get this at all. Tis bloody hard enough as it is to get statements - plenty round by me still being fobbed off with provision plans etc

but gist of this piece seems to be on the the side of making statement process easier. I agree with that. But don't see how pissing over other 'milder' needs and dismissing them as made up middle class exam competitiveness paranoia is v helpful

Well

Yes and no

today our SENCo ahd to drive to the council to chase up statements for ds1 and another child

the staff are all sick so the ones whose senco's do not drive over do not get looked at (ffs)

And ds2 has been told ' we know ds2 has dysrpaxia but tehre's nothing we can do and we cannot afford to help him' so he is falling out of the system

but

both ds1 and ds3 ar elisted as having dyslexia when clearly certainly ds1 does not, it seems school hears struggling to read and assigns the dx - in fact he has finsihed several harry Potter books recently adn writes well (ds2 admitttedly less so).

Not that it touches us as we are in a devolved country. Thank God.

but sadly, it does happen.

dss' school did not htink he had additional needs, but knew there was a loophole, a way to gain the extra time for him, and so took it.

sad but true.

And if I dig around somewhere I have a lovely letter from Nick Clegg agreeing that getting help for any child with Sn is far too diffficult and barriers should not be increased.

grrrr.

I'm doubting it's frequent enough to account for this discrepancy, though, especially the number of reports I read of parents who struggle with schools which seem to be in total denial of real difficulties:

"In England, more than 19% of schoolchildren are classed as having a special need, compared with 5%-7% in most developed countries."

Needs should be addressed as they affect child

DS2's milder needs mean he in no way needs a TA etc but he is actually doing less well academically than the others, and in fact hasn't moved an inch over the last eyar he's on SA)

Kids at the milder end already losing what help they get as TA funding pulled.

but I don't think it's talking about increasing barriers for anyone with SN.

they are wanting to try to crack down on the people who take the piss, surely?

I know how hard it is to get proper help- we fought for years for dx, then statementing etc.

but honestly, dss' school decided, at A levels (had been at the school since secondary age, didn't arrive for A levels) that all of a sudden, he had additional needs which needed extra time.

bollocks does he.

they just wanted ot maximise his chance of gaining the grades for Oxbridge.

Right, but who gets to define who is genuine and who takes thec piss? LEA won't refer ds2 on so I can't prove he is genuine

The people deciding will in all likelihood be cost cutters.

I'm a member of the LD's I am inclined towards them but..... highy suspicious

oh, yes, but that all links back to the fact that LEA shouldn't be both assessing and handing out the cash, doesn't it?

THat's a farce, whoever is applying, and is the reason why statementing is so difficult anyway.

But if it is so easy to play the system (dss' school seemed to find it so) then soe=mehting should be done.

Of course, you could see what they did as not hurting anyone, which is probably why LEA prob don't care as much - didn't cost them anyhting - dss "just" got extra time in exams, no extra funding etc.

but I agree, the ridiculous farce around denying needs that are blatantly there - that also needs to stop.

My parent partnership told me that the reason IPSEA got so many complaints about them was because we were a county full of middle class parents who 'knew their rights' and were battling for extra resources for kids who didn't need it.

Right, so the CPA assessment that said it was failing ASD children had nothing to do with it them, nor the illegal practises IPSEA has written to them about many times!?

. am prepared to consider that extra time criteria for exams may need tightening up. but other than that, seems like a cynical divide and rule ploy - oh these pesky "middle class" parents who fight for their children's rights.

But this year long fight has been hell! No-one would put themselves through it if there was an alternative!

WRT to extra time in exams, I haven't seen that at school 9they're not even allowing statemented ds1 that, decision by school); however I can think of ases from my Uni days 9which are relatively recent)

OTOH I can think of plenty who didn't ask and should have- someone who was the most clear cut case of adult AS undiagnsoed I ever encountered; Dh who ahs registered neither his mental health problems not been to teh service to be checked for his blatantly obvious dyslexia.

So I would guess that whilst they're possibly right that soem sschools play teh system given SF's experience, enough schools are the reverse that if their aim is to shrink percentages then theya re on teh wrong path here- it's about (or should be about) targetting the support to the right child, and enough miss out that even with a fair amount of system playing then there won't be any shrinkage in numbers.

Anway, read somewhere this week that asd (one of the more commmon SN's) is far more liekly in wet climates so you'd ahve to know which EU countries thata re comparing with wouldn't you (Ah the wonderful diversity of ASD research!)

I can just imagine how ASD is far more likely to be diagnosed in wet climates. I'm sure the phrase "Oh My God, I'm going to lose my head, stuck indoors with this child today!!!" comes into it in some form It's a thought that often crosses my head during the summer holidays when it rains every flaming day and I can't even get DS1 out of the house because he hates rain so much.

PMSL ourvye