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Are you trying to cut your way through the special needs education jungle in the UK?
This website offers tips, resources and advice to parents negotiating the special needs statutory assessment and statementing process. It’s written by people who have been through it, not professionals, so we cannot offer legal advice, but can point you in the direction to find it if that’s what you need. It’s mainly to help get you off the starting blocks and to provide links to established organisations who can help if problems arise along the way. It will provide links to useful sites and tips on how to get prepared and stay motivated throughout the process.
Getting a statement for your child is an exhausting, time consuming and often demoralising process. Local Education Authorities are usually budget, not child, focused for obvious reasons. They are required to provide an adequate, but not necessarily the best, education for every child.
If you want your child to go to a particular school because you believe it is the only place they will be able to have a good chance of an “adequate” education you must be prepared for an undoubtedly long, often drawn out, stressful process. Only the most persistent and prepared will be successful. Local Education Authorities (LEAs) aren’t about to make it easy for you; they will give you the least possible they can get away with. At least one LEA has told its schools, staff and Special Needs Co-ordinators (SENCos) that they must not support parents at an SEN Tribunal, citing parents who have an “agenda” to send their child to an independent special school at the LEA’s expense.
The fact is, for many high-functioning Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children or those with dyslexia, dyspraxia or dyscalculia, a mainstream school often does not have the expertise or the resources needed to provide an “adequate” education because these children need a different style of teaching.
LEAs are also focused on so-called “inclusion” but miss the point that the ultimate goal is to enable children to be included in society as an adult. Making them all dance to the same tune in a test-driven, national curriculum based mainstream education system will turn mainstream children into successful mainstream adults, but those “square peg” children who do not fit into the “round hole” of the state system may end up never reaching their potential.
This site is not anti-LEA but LEAs have budgets to stick to and the power to decide where they will spend it. This site is to help parents get started on cutting their way through the special needs jungle from a parent’s perspective so they know what help is out there for them to get the education their child needs.
If you know of a good site that offers help, please send the link to info@specialneedsjungle.co.uk so that we can enlarge the knowledge base available and give under-pressure parents a fair chance of coming through the special needs jungle with their sanity intact and their child in the right educational setting.
June 16, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Hi
Just a thank you I think!
I have a place for my son (high functioning autism/Asperger’s) at secondary school. I have just been to visit an Independent School which will suit him so much better. I have been advised (Educational Psychologist) not to apply for a statement as his behaviour is not bad enough and his educational attainment is not poor enough to get one.
I have just read your comments and believe that my son needs a statement and needs funding by the LEA to receive an appropriate education. He will not cope at the local secondary school and despite their assurances that he will have support it will not be enough to help him to understand what is expected of him socially and indeed academically.
I have his annual SEN review (school action plus – he has an IPA) next week and will be telling them that is what I will be doing.
Regards
Katie Hughes
November 25, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Thankyou for sharing your journey- there’s lots of really invaluable info here…just had to get my twins (1 autistic) out of really rough school, so I know what its like to bang your head against the Local Authority Brick Wall!….
Rachelx
November 27, 2009 at 11:00 am
Hi, I found you through BMB. My daughter, Amy, is autistic. She attends a mainstream school which upto now, we have found no fault. She is very lucky however, as she receives a statement of 26 hours support a week, but her support worker is actually at the school all day with Amy. She has been with Amy now for 6 years so knows her inside-out, in some cases, I think she knows her better than I do!
I have found, since Amy’s diagnosis in October 2003, that it’s all about money. I have tried to be one step ahead most of the time and have always had a long written report ready to add to the statement. Most of the influence in a statement will come from the teaching staff because it is drawn from an educational environment, but as Amy’s mum, I have been very forthcoming and made sure staff, panel, and the LEA realise that I am Amy’s advocate. It’s sometimes a struggle, but providing we parents stay focused, have an agenda, put over exactly what WE require and stick to it, then it makes the whole procedure a lot easier.
I have a blog, http://www.crystaljigsaw.blogspot.com, where I often post about Amy – I don’t post too much information about the school though.
This is a great blog – I have added you to my blogroll.
Best wishes, Kathryn Brown (aka Crystal Jigsaw) xx
November 30, 2009 at 6:18 pm
I’m just starting to enter the horrid web of SEN/Statemented/ Severe Speech and Language needs in secondary mainstream school that does not take on board adequately and compassionately your childs individual needs!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
Help, what do we do to ensure that our son has APPROPIATE support.
I never envisioned how hard things could be… why?
Do all secondary schools say that it is not in their SEN policy to not provide 1:1 in classroom settings?
A very concerned and unhappy mum.
December 1, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Stacey
You need to speak to your SENCo is you haven’t already and make sure that your son’s needs have been properly assessed – if not already, ask them to get the LEA Ed Psych to assess him. If you have a statement his needs should be laid out in there but not necessarily comprehensively or even accurately. Try your local Partnership with Parents and if they’re no good, try SOS!SEN’s website. Good luck!
December 2, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Thank you ‘Special Needs Mum’!
Its good to have a response. Im currently in the process of waiting…. VERY ANXIOUSLY for a reply from an SEN Officer. My husband and I have decided that the best way forward is to transfer our son to a new secondary school(we already have one in mind)and have arranged to visit it on Friday. His current school cannot or should I say will not provide to meet his individual needs, i.e will not supply 1:1 LSA in classroom setting (due to their new SEN policy ????). I will make sure that once I receive the all important call from the SEN officer that I will put to him all that has to looked into and changed to help my son achieve his full potential in mainstream school. This will include a reassessment/updating of his Statement and to be placed in a school that can provide a 1:1 – which is clearly stated in his last Statement as being necessary for him to be able to access the National Curriculum!
I would just like to STRESS to all mums/Dads of SEN children, you know them best!!!! You know when their needs are not being met. It is extremely stressful and hard to fight this system but if you don’t, no-one else will. These kids are counting on us to help them out- Listen to their needs, their voice! I wish all of you out there the very best with your struggles and I also hope for my son that I stay strong and win this battle for him. xx