Statement of Special Needs & Support in School
Well, this week I have been helping a friend who has a child who has been diagnosed with verbal dyspaxia. He has had his Statement since 2014, when he was in Primary School. Now, if you are familiar with the layout of a Statement of Special Educational Needs, you will know that it is set out as follows:-
Section 1 – Name and address details of the child
Section 2 – Details of the child’s special educational needs
Section 3 – What help the child should receive and, learning goals
Section 4 – What part the school should play
Section 5 – The child’s non-educational needs
Section 6 – How the child’s non-educational needs will be met
A Statement or (SEN) is issued by the Local Authority and they will check the child’s progress at least once each year, this is commonly referred to as the Statutory Annual Review. If necessary, changes will be made after the annual review.
Now, if I were a SENCo (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) at a school, the Local Authority would provide me with a copy of all Statements for children who attend the school I work for. The first thing I would do is look straight at Section 4 to see what support we need to provide for each child. I would invite the parents in to discuss the child’s Individual Learning Plan (ILP) otherwise referred to as the Individual Education Plan (IEP) along with the child and identify short term targets and put in place strategies to help the child work towards those targets. I would diary a progress meeting or report in accordance with the details on the Statement and aim to update the ILP in line with the details on the Statement probably at least once each year. Not a difficult task really. I would say it is merely a case of good organisation and planning. I do appreciate that High Schools have many more children on roll than primary schools but in my book, that is no excuse for not providing the support in school in line with a SEN.
Why then are there children with SEN’s who do not receive an iota of support from their chosen school??? I find this absolutely infuriating and extremely upsetting.
When a child is given a SEN, the school will apply for funding which is banded so, dependant on the amount of support a child needs, the school will apply for the relevant band of funding to enable them to provide that support to that child whilst they attend their school.
How then, do schools account for the money they receive when they do not provide the relevant support??? I thought transparency was key nowadays. The funding they receive is clearly being spent elsewhere! I find this shocking to say the least and, as a former Governor believe that in a school where they have a Board of Governors, the Governors should be held to task as they are clearly not scrutinising the spending of the SEN budget.
This is the issue I came upon this week with my friend. Obviously, I am not going to name names but I was utterly astounded because, out of everything that was in her son’s Statement which the school was responsible for, absolutely nothing was in place and as far as the SENCo was concerned, her son had no problems as he was attending all mainstream classes and achieving his targets. What targets though!!! My friend has never received a copy of her son’s IEP, let alone been asked to go into the school to discuss them so how the hell is she supposed to know what his targets are and whether he is achieving them! Her son’s statement is quite specific and states that her son and both parents should be involved in devising his ILP. She has never once received updates on his progress which, according to his Statement should happen every 6 weeks! She has never received minutes of the Statutory Review meeting which took place 10 months ago! There has been no communication from the school whatsoever in relation to her son’s progress. As far as my friend knew, certain things had been put in place for her son such as him leaving lessons a few minutes earlier than the rest of his class so he avoids crowds of children on the stairwells which, causes him anxiety and, provision for her son to be supervised in a separate room at lunchtime so he does not have to dine in the dinner hall with the rest of the students. Prior to our meeting this week we discovered through talking to my friend’s son that neither of these provisions were in place. My friend’s son will not eat or drink at school and when this was raised at the meeting with the SENCo earlier this week , he disagreed and stated that he had seen my friend’s son with a drink in school!!! So basically, because he purported to se him with a drink, we are supposed to be happy and let that issue drop??? Really???? If my friend’s son states categorically that he does not eat or drink in school I think we should be more inclined to listen to him than to the SENCo who saw him with a bottle!
I think I can honestly say that I have never ever in my whole time (last 20 years) dealing with SENCo’s, Ed Psych’s. Social Workers, SALT’s, OT’s etc etc have I ever come across a SENCo who has no idea whatsoever of the contents of a child’s Statement and is not implementing at least something from it to support that child at school.
It is heartbreaking to think that a child with a SEN is left to struggle through their education without the support the SEN is supposed to provide and it is utterly disgusting that a school is provided with additional funding for that child but they do not allocate that funding to that child’s needs.
I have to say however, that as a result of our meeting this week, things have started to move in the right direction for my friend’s son and the support he is supposed to receive is now being implemented. I do have to say though that it is ridiculous that it has taken a meeting and a damned good ticking off (in a manner of speaking!) to actually get the support he should have had 18 months ago!
Parents of children with Statements sadly need to be extra vigilant and make a note of what support the school should be providing and then ensure that that support is actually being gin to the child. It is sad that we should have to do this but unfortunately, if you don’t, chances are your child is unsupported at school. Communicate with your child’s school regularly and force them to communicate with you.
I would imagine that there are hundreds of children out there who go to school without the support in place that they should have and more importantly what their chosen school actually receives extra funding for! If this has happened to you, I would be really interested to hear from you or, if you would like any support on this subject, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
NB. Please note that SEN actually changed in September 2014 and Statements are no longer given. This has now been replaced by the Education, Health & Care Plan (EHCP) although any child awarded a SEN prior to September 2014 WILL NOT LOSE THEIR STATEMENT. Please see the letter via the following link which provides full details and further links