Today I published proposals for improving services for disabled children and those with special educational needs.
This doesn’t affect everyone, but if you are a family with a severely disabled child struggling to give 24-hour care, or the parent of a child falling behind at school who doesn’t know where to turn for help, then I hope it will make a significant difference.
As Liberal Democrats in government, we started by listening to parents, families and young people. We had 1800 responses to our “Call for Views”, and each person will be getting an email letting them know we’ve now published our Green Paper, and how to contribute to the consultation.
So our proposals don’t start from an ideology about the way services should be delivered, but focus on tackling the real problems that we’ve found. Our proposals will mean education, health and social care services working more closely together – a single assessment rather than a myriad of forms. They will mean more mediation so families don’t have to have recourse to the SEN Tribunal – solving problems together rather than funding lawyers. They will mean a greater role for the voluntary and community sector in giving support to parents navigating the complexity of the system, and more investment in special needs teaching.
Building on recommendations from Liberal Democrat policy papers, we’ll be ensuring all children can have a progress check between 2 and 2½ years to spot problems earlier and we’ll be giving parents more control through a legal right to a personal budget for their care, with a plan to legislate so this can be in place by 2014.
Finally, we’ll be changing the way that schools classify SEN to give more emphasis on giving every child the support they need to succeed – looking at achievement not labels, and reinforcing the strong strategic role of local authorities in securing the right provision locally.
I hope that members and supporters recognise Liberal Democrat values in what we’ve done so far. I’d be really grateful for your views on our proposals, either via the DfE consultation [email protected], or via the comments thread below.
In particular, I’d like your views on the following two questions:
- If you are a teacher, school governor or local councillor, how do you think we can support schools in spreading the good practice in teaching and supporting children? What really works in your area?
- If you are a parent with a child with special needs, or know someone who is, how do you react to the idea of a personal budget, and what support do you think would be needed to make the most of it?
I’ll be looking at your replies and come back soon with a further posting. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sarah Teather MP is Minister of State for Children and Families.
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26 Comments
At University I’m pretty astonished by the over-allocation of resources to people with very mild conditions. I’ve lost count of people I’ve heard with milder dyslexia than me (I chose not to claim) boasting about the thousand-pound laptops, printers, books and internet they receive.
I’d like to see much stricter caps on these claims, if better regulation is too expensive, and funding reallocated to children with serious learning problems or behavioral difficulties.
The problem is not that the various ‘professional’ groups will not work together, or that there is interminable form filling across the agencies which deal with the child.
In stockport, for years now, the problem has been that
a) there is total lack of accountability, which runs through all agencies dealing with disabled children, and which extends from the lowest operative to the highest Andrew Webb.
b) There is a range of people form filling, and – from social workers to health workers, to educational psychologists, Care Coordinators and extensively within Stockport Local Safeguarding Children Board – there is no-one who seems to be able to make an accurate record, or to sign that misinformation or date it adequately. The result? Harm to the child – and family – yet again.
But hey, its OK. They’re only crippled kids. The pity is that the disability is so compounded by the actions of purported ‘professionals’ in Stockport, that the entire family is crippled for life, and constantly looking over its shoulders, ready for the next onslaught.
I am particularly interested in reading the Green Paper and the proposals for Special Educational Needs as my middle son has a full SEN statement and has since starting full-time education.
It has been a very hard task through form filling, meetings with Educational Psychologists, teachers, doctors (not just the family GP) to get the support needed for our son. For anyone who thinks getting any form of help for a child with SEN is easy I can assure them it is not. It is an ongoing battle still.
We have told the same case story to literally dozens of professionals over the years and will tell the same story to dozens more no doubt as our son makes the transition to high school.
@Charlotte PetersRock
“The problem is not that the various ‘professional’ groups will not work together, or that there is interminable form filling across the agencies which deal with the child.”
With the greatest respect Charlotte, as parents, this is exactly part of our problem and we had a case very recently where the breakdown in communication resulted in my wife and I having to take time off work gathering evidence for the class teacher (for extra support) to find , if the school had bothered to actually read his statement, that the evidence the school needed was there all the time. These professionals just do not seem to talk to each other in their departments never mind outside stakeholders. Parents are expected to hold the whole thing together as an information hub even when we are sometimes left out of the loop unintentionally.
I know nothing about “Stockport” so have no view about the other points you make in a) or b).
Getting back to our son, my wife and I have never been interested in labels and have always wanted to give our son the chance to achieve the best possible outcome with his education so I welcome the emphasis on achievement called for in the Green Paper.
I will follow your posts with great interest Sarah with an open mind and that the coalition are going to help parents such as my wife and I and our son. My biggest worry is that the main motivation for the Green Paper is a mask for a cost cutting exercise.
I’ll reserve judgement on this, it’s certainly an interesting proposal and one which could work out well. However, with respect to many learning difficulties diagnosis at 2-2.5 is impossible so earlier testing is pointless – how can you tell someone has problems learning to read or write until you realise they are significantly behind the norm for their cohort (as late as 10 – although ideally you want to identify this asap).
Regardless though, the government have reduced the grants given to employers to ensure that they can cater for some of the needs of disabled staff. There is a sense of giving with one hand and taking with the other.
There are also problems with diagnosing many specific learning difficulties in that a EdPSych costs several hundred pounds and is simply unaffordable for many, so poorer families with these problems are already at a large disadvantage. Given the governments enthusiasm to hack the NHS to pieces access to this resource will become even more costly and scarce. Some joined up thinking would be nice…
My daughter received a diagnosis of autism at age 4, and has a Statement that gives her full one-to-one support… so that should be easy, huh?
NO
I battle every single week with the Local Authority about what should be in the Statement and when they will apply the results of the previous review (it’s March and the last review was in July. The next one is in May…) The school maintains that ‘power’ lies with the parents, but all the professionals now liaise with school, leaving this parent in the dark.
The ‘system’ certainly needs attention, but whether it needs turning upside down I don’t know. I suspect a lot of money could be saved by simply working to make this one work the way it should. Like bhainart, I am concerned this is wrapping around an exercise in cost-cutting that will have further adverse effects on our vulnerable, gorgeous children.
Sarah
I heard you on the radio this morning and was really surprised at some of the things you said. You talked about a requirement for agencies and schools having to work more closely together, but you are in the process of removing the duty for schools to cooperate with Children’s Trusts which were set up for this very purpose. You spoke about the importance of embedding programmes like Every Child a Reader, yet you have just removed the ring fenced funding for this programme and put it nto the DSG. This means the money has gone into all schools’ budgets, with no requirement to spend it on this type of programme, rather than to the schools which were employing the Reading Recovery teachers on which ECaR is based. As a result these schools are planning to redeploy these teachers or make them redundant. You spoke about the lessons from Achievement for All, a programme developed by the National Strategies; yet the National Strategies contract ends in three weeks time and all of this expertise will be lost.
There seems to be an element of contradiction and even confusion in education policy. All of this is compounded by the relentless attack on Local Authorities by certain Conservative cabinet ministers at the very time when schools and others are relying on LAs to help them make sense of some of these changes.
Help!
People do not want personal budgets, they want education that is adapted to their children’s needs. And they want some respect for their views as to what their children’s needs and capabilities actually are – respect is an attitude of mind and not something which can be purchased with a personal budget.
Most people understand that there are budgetary and other constraints as to what can be offerred to help their children, and they are prepared to take advice from those who have expertise in the problems (providing such advice is given with respect for those receiving it rather than with a dose of arrogance as is often the case) .
Sarah although you may have gone local with your Tory friends (as witnessed by your failure to keep your promises on Sure Start) please do not swallow their garbage about markets being the answer to all solutions.
@John Your university experience must be different to mine. I was issued a tape recorder due to a writing disability. This wouldn’t be given to me without a £15 deposit.
The university said note takers were too expensive.
The tape recorder was stolen when I was burgled and I was asked to replace it. This is just one of many extra costs disabled part-time students were expected to fork out to the university. Parking for disabled students (even Blue Badge holders) was another thing fraught with difficulty as you encountered a 19th century bureaucracy insistent on seeing things only from its ivory towers.
About the only perk you did get was slightly longer to return your library books. The library brought in ID cards that you had to show on entering or leaving. Lessons were scheduled for new students in the evenings (who obviously didn’t have ID cards) in the library when the library wasn’t staffed.
Many, many things like this happened that made you wonder if the administration was deliberately playing jokes with students or just saw them as a necessary nuisance they’d prefer to be rid of.
I wasn’t entitled to any form of financial assistance as I was working and only part-time. I was entitled to a bus/travel pass on disability grounds. By the time Merseytravel took 6 months to process my application agree I was entitled to, the course I was on had finished an, I’d forked out more in transport costs than my tuition fees were (and the university then went on Summer holiday).
Dyslexic students got a lot, lot more support than people who were autistic or had other types of very serious disabilities. However with most of the department dealing with disabilities going on maternity leave at the same time it caused problems for students. I served on a staff-student committee as the disabled student rep. Unfortunately the university consistently refused to make its buildings accessible to disabled students and was (ab)using the application process to turn down applications from the disabled.
I did my best to improve things but feel my contribution was about as effect as throwing a stone into a lake.
P.S. As a disabled student you’re expected to fill out many forms to do anything. How are you supposed to do this when it’s excruciatingly painful just to sign your own name?
The whole education system does and has and will carry on putting massive problems and barriers in the way of disabled students. All those issued with tape recorders to record lectures were told (because one lecturer winged) that we had to ask permission in advance of recording. Some were “outed” as disabled by lecturers and a lot of bad things went on. The admissions policy was blatantly not adhered to, the student union equal opportunities officer although very well meaning was like more undergraduates young and inexperienced.
The whole experience to be brutally honest, made me wish I’d gone back to teaching postgrads rather than concentrating on getting an education. I learnt more in the libraries and private study than I did in some lectures where the postgrad didn’t have an indepth knowledge of the subject they were trying to teach and instead tried the “Slow death by reading a thousand Powerpoint slides” approach.
There were lecturers who didn’t speak English as their first language with strange accents which made it very difficult to understand for those with hearing problems. By the time of the second week on that course, 2/3rds of the students dropped out. There were many, many problems.
You got the impression that the university had ballooned in size under Labour, but the Department of administrative services (which sounded like something out of Yes, Minister) was more concerned with paper pushing than people. Money was constantly cited as a reason not to do things they were under a statutory duty to do so. Promises were broken and eventually the students rebelled.
@senmum
I used to work with children with high functioning autism/Aspergers. The tales I heard from the parents made me incensed so I lobbied my MP.
I then met up with someone senior who worked for the local authority (along with a representative of a local parents support charity). He was clueless. He knew less than the parents or people working in the voluntary sector did. He thought he could fob us off with flattery, but all he did when opening his mouth was show how little he knew.
It (eventually) led to some changes. However I heard of delayed statements, tribunals, kids having problems at school (and still do).
You can (if suitably connected) pull strings and get things done quickly. The vast majority of parents don’t have either the political connections or access to tailored support to help them through the process.
Things are better now. However there is still much wasted potential because the education system for too long has had a “one size fits all” approach and if you stick up for what you (or your offspring are entitled to) all the resource/costs arguments come out and you wonder whether schools are being taught to treat people as people or just another line of lucrative income on the annual accounts. The bureaucracy can drag things out for years of delays. It’s really not fair, right, legal, moral or ethical considering the long term effects on the individual.
Also posted on Facebook
I have a 17 year with a full SEN statement since the age of 4 for high functioning autism (Asperger syndrome). A lot of time & expense is wasted in the statementing process battling with the LA & unnecessary legal tribunals. There is a them & us approach. The debates are about resources rather than the child’s needs or parents wishes. There is a lot of duplication, inflexibility & poor communication during the statementing process. Parents who are educated, well financed & articulate are better placed to get their child’s needs addressed – so I worry for those from more disadvantaged backgrounds. My son, in addition to Asperger syndrome, has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder following a mental breakdown due to stress at school when he was 16. He is receiving help for this. Due to our determination as parents we are hopeful that he will achieve his dream, get the A level grades needed and attend University next year to study Maths.
I am happy to share more about my experience if this is useful.
P.S.
I like the idea of a personal budget if parents are skilled enough to know what to do with the funding, as much support will be needed to help families and parents use the budget effectively.
After a tribunal in our area the LA delegated a budget to us as parents to run an ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis) programme for a son so he could be integrated into mainstream school (it was cheaper than a special school place). Without the ABA programme for nine years it is doubtful that he would have made it to mainstream secondary school and reached the stage he is now and be applying for University. Unfortunately this funding was withdrawn in year 10 as our son progressed too much and it was thought he was getting more support than he needed. A couple of years after the intense behavioural support was withdrawn he suffered a mental breakdown. At least now he is recognised as having mental health problems so that he can access support in the 18 -25 years bracket as I believe there can be a gap in service for high funcitioning young people with SEN during these years. Many with SEN, especially ASD, suffer unnecessary mental health problems in young adult life due to lack of recognised suppport, in the long term costing the state more.
It would have been more helpful to protect respite care and then seek ideas, rather than overseeing the absolute decimation of respite facilities through your cuts programme and then ask ‘right, what can we do to help?’
“I like the idea of a personal budget if parents are skilled enough to know what to do with the funding, as much support will be needed to help families and parents use the budget effectively.”
skilled – and have the time and/or inclination.
Casting my mind back ten years or so when my son was first diagnosed, requiring 24 hour care, sleeping no more than 2 hours in a go – the very last thing I would have needed was to take on the responsibility for arranging the things my son and our family needed.
Ten years later and I still don’t think I need that hassle (though we already do have the budget for arranging things like respite/out of school activities).
And as for skills …. me and my wife are both white collar professionals, she is a qualified accountant.
Speak to the CAB or similar support group and ask them how much time they spend trying to help people to complete the horrendous DLA forms. Even Cameron complained about that himself.
And you want to increase the administrative burden to families like mine under the guise of empowerment ? It’s ok thanks – we have more than enough on our plate.
I am a father of a profoundly disabled 5 year old girl. I also have an 18 month old son.
Myself and my wife work full time.
We get home at 6pm, get the kids into the bath, then get their supper, a bit of a play and a cuddle and they are in bed around 7.30pm
We get to have our tea, a bit of a sit down, watch some TV maybe and then it’s off to bed, we don’t tend to get many nights that aren’t punctuated by one or both of the kids waking. My daughter can be very restless in the night and often wakes up crying in pain so we get to bed as early as possible to compensate.
We spend lets of time attending clinics, consultations and meetings with health professionals,officials from the local authority, teacher and social workers etc, thankfully we have good employers who allow us time to do that, but it is time we are expected top make up at some point.
We are in receipt of Direct Payments, which are very usefull but which means we that we are effectively turned into into employers and have to keep meticulous records and fill in the resulting paperwork.
That’s my own personal background.
Now, when we do get some free time, do you think for one second that we want to use it planning, organising and reviewing a personal budget and then filling in its associated paperwork.
It’s a crazy idea and one I will have nothing to do with.
You must live in dreamworld where everyone has assistants and secretaries and researchers and all the spare time they need.
Unfortunately, working parents of disabled children do not live in that world with you.
They need to inform parents/carers of all the resources that are available in their local area at the assessment, because at the moment, as soon as a child is diagnosed, parents are basically left to their own devices. The child psychologists and therapists are not even aware of half the stuff that’s out there and they don’t tell parents/carers what they are entitled to. For, e.g. parents are not told that a Specialist dentist is available for all special needs children, or that there is a ballet club/football club for special kids in their local area. You are not even told that there is a non-means tested holiday fund that you can apply for. Parents/carers have to research all of this on their own or they have to have to rely on the knowledge of other parents.
before i comment i’m unsure how the personal budget would work, for what would it be used for and how it’s decided what the budget amount would be for a family – will it be like filling out a dla form? other than what was mentioned about it above could someone direct me to a link with more information. thanking you in advance 🙂
Sarah, I’d really like to know why your happy to be in the same Government with Eric Pickles. What he’s doing at the moment will make any and all of your proposals moot. He seems determined to take away duties of care from local authorities. At the moment his department is “consulting” on ..
Giving local authorities “freedom to operate in a way that meets local needs and priorities”. Proposing removal of councils duties of care in some areas is certainly localism, but then so would be proposals to arm councils so they can set up separate zones run by local warlords, not sure either fit in with any real Lib Dem’s idea of localism.
Included in the list of duties under review are duties to: assess people for community care, offer a carer’s assessment, provide welfare service, consider the needs of disabled people, investigate suspicions that a child is being harmed, keep a child in care when a care order has been made.
The “consultation” is outlined here officially http://www.communities.gov.uk/localgovernment/decentralisation/tacklingburdens/reviewstatutoryduties/ .
Does anyone really think that taking away statuary duties from councils will make things any better for anyone. Why are we in bed with a party that can even think this, let alone propose it.
i have a son of 17 who has aspergers syndrome and learning difficulties. i have read through quickly, this document. all i see is that schools are being discouraged to diagnose special needs kids as having special needs. the “perverse” overdiagnosis is how its worded, i see nothing here but cuts in disguise. if kids who have problems in school need help from a senco they should get it and not have to worry about half baked idea’s from politicians trying to make their cuts look like helping people. we aren’t stupid, some of us can even read.
As a care worker in a specialist ASD school for young people I see every day the struggles that families have to go through to get basic information about funding/education and support. There are fortunately many people who work in this area with integrity and a real passion for what they do and there are others who seem more intent on squeezing as much money as they possibly can from the confusing and inefficient systems currently in place.
Care and education for people with additional needs is BIG business and the fact that schools, councils and private companies are able to manipulate funding etc to suit their own needs shocks me. For example parents will be informed that their child will have a staffing ratio of 1:1 which in reality means that although the child is funded for this the staff are stretched between a whole class of young people in order to maintain profit and generally “look good” in the accounts. The government needs to be regulating this as it is bad practice and in the end money that is specifically meant for these vulnerable young people ends up in other people’s pockets. I know people will say well that is what Ofsted is for but I believe that they are part of the problem.
Personal budgets would be a great idea but there are a great deal of parents of SEN children who themselves are unable to fully engage due to their own SEN. These individuals not only will not be able to be involved in any discussion like this but may also struggle to manage a budget and sadly in many cases I’ve seen will squander any money/budget meant for the young person.
In terms of mainstream schools “keeping” young people with SEN I agree that it’s a good idea in theory but again a mainstream school may state that they have staff trained in physical intervention methods needed in extreme cases of aggression from some SEN children but the reality is 1 member of staff is trained and in order to use the techniques safely for everyone involved at least 3 people are required! Resources need to be extended and if funding is granted for a young person then I think parents should have the right to study where and how this money is being spent with a right to whistle blow if they feel the money is not being spent correctly.
Ultimately I would be looking for legislation that promotes open and honest accounts of where and how the funding for a young person is being spent because this will save the tax payer in the long term. Early intervention as often as possible and earlier social worker involvement for those families already struggling with SEN. I also strongly believe that this discussion needs to be taken to those families as it is them who will miss out if this is passed without these families taken into consideration.
Sarah, i was very pleased to read the green paper. i understand only to well how difficult it is when a statement needs to be put in place for a child. it took us about a year to put one together, not because there was doubt if our son was entitled to extra help but just because all the professionals that are involved in our sons care didn’t always liase with each other and it was groundhog day for us going over the same conversations time and time again. it has been a huge learning curve for us trying to work out who you approach to access other areas that would benefit our son and i’m certain we’ve still only scratched the surface of what’s out there.
i also have 2 other children who are dyslexic, as i am. my youngest son in particular was diagnosed when he was about 7. recommendations were made then followed very loosely in primary, at secondary being dyslexic can be difficult and if the support is there then there really is no reason for that child not to succeed. unfortunately for my son after the ed psy. left it really was a different story. i had so many meetings with teachers who were not aware of my sons dyslexia, with no consistent support given my son fell further and further behind. the teachers would say they had so many sen reports on the children they didn’t have time to read them all! so many children had dyslexia, family problems, behavior problems etc. and every teacher i spoke to apologized and admitted they were failing our son. after a final chat with the headteacher it was clear that he could talk the talk but not walk the walk. after lengthy discussions with the council our son moved to a different school, within a year his grades went from a ‘u’ to ‘c’ . throughout our time at my sons old school we were painfully aware of how our sons self esteem had lowered from being constantly behind and being label as having’ special needs’ it’s so strange now that at his new school this label has been dropped, they address weaknesses then went for it. they too have their share of children with dyslexia, family problems etc but the school is lead my a head who inspires and motivates the staff, it has been ofsted inspected as an outstanding school which goes to show that for a lot of children, being a ‘sen’ child does nothing more than lower their self esteem. two schools, two different results, making the schools more accountable to the parents, ofsted and ed psyc. really is the way forward. if the ‘outstanding’ schools can be more involved in leading and managing other schools then even better.
with regards to the personal budget, i’m unsure how this will work exactly and would appreciate more information on this.
Hi Everyone,
I sincerely hope the announcements by Sarah yesterday will be the start of something new and not more rhetoric. Families are sick of words and need real actions.We know as we are with every day.
We have been working with families and children in practical terms for almost 40 years. In that time we have supported around 15,000 families who had all but given up and were sick and tired of attending meeting after meeting and assessment after assessment. Children who come to us suffer from a wide and complex mix of sensory, neurological and behavioural conditions and often we see Autism, ADHD,Cerebral Palsy, brain injury,dyslexia, dyspraxia, Asperger’s and a whole lot more. The children we are asked to see do not fit the “boxes” of mainstream services so families are left with no statement, support or even hope at times and feel very isolated.
We work very differently, with everything under one roof. We work with families form across the UK, and beyond when necessary, and do this entirely from fundraisng with no state help. Around 400 children are seen each year and we have a six months waiting list as we can only fund from our own fundraisng efforts and are grossly underresourced. We receive no state help for our core service.
On the basis we have been doing what parents actually want (and now what the Governemnt is suggesting may be a solution) would the state consider working with us? We can provide the service, we can train and share our knowledge and we can influence future decisions from a vary practical viewpoint. We could also do with a lot more understanding and can represent many families and of course we woul;d like to earn some cash and take some of the pressure of our small fundraisnig team!
Certainly we would recomend all families to take a look at bibic at http://www.bibic.org.uk We are a registered charity and do the work because we want to. Thank you, John Bennett CEO bibic
Our 3 year old girl was diagnosed with ASD last year. Autism is a hidden disability. She is mild/high functioning, with a speech delay – some days people would see no reason for the diagnosis, but other days it can be very different, as anyone who knows anything about autism would be able to tell you.
We are waiting to see if we get a statement right now – 5 weeks in to a possible 10 week wait. ‘She’s not bad enough for a statement’ is what I have heard from various sources. But she has a diagnosis – surely that ‘proves’ she is not the same as her peers and she needs extra help? I agree it should take time to work out the best way to help her, and how to write that down, but surely the fact she needs help shouldn’t be in question? Yet I know so many who have not got the elusive Statement, and it does all come down to money. It’s as if the council fear that if we get a statement we would want to exercise the right to put her in a special school, which cost a lot to run. We are more than happy with mainstream, but need to guarantee the support is there.
Personal budgets won’t work for everyone. It’s probably not what most people with SEN children want – as said above, we have plenty of other things to be managing.
Awareness and training of staff is what is needed most, and the ability for the professionals to just help all these children achieve their full potential without having to try and make funding cuts.
In response to Jackie Cameron’s query, the full Green Paper can be downloaded from http://www.education.gov.uk/.
Pages 47 – 50 cover the personal budget proposals, including plans for piloting and consultation questions.
Oh heavens evans! NOTHING has really changed since the ’81 act! My daughter is now in her 20s and we spent the whole of her school age years being deliberately messed around, intimidated and bullied by anybody and everybody involved in education, NHS, etc. (The NHS side of it is still going on now!)
Did the system work then? NO! And apparenty it still doesn’t work now! Indeed I was even bullied at an appeal hearing by the so called professionals employed by the LEA and at a tribunal hearing by a member of the panel!
The green paper wants to encourage agencies to communicate? They already communicate – behind the backs of parents and families so that they can sing from the same hymn sheet when they refuse help, support, health care, education etc!
Yesterday we went to the NAIDEX exhibition at the NEC – loads of equipment that my daughter would kill for – but there isn’t a hope in hell of getting it funded – and the personal budget will never materialise so we will continue getting by with nothing – just dreaming of that amazing bath that would be safe for her and save my back! A bath? Ye gods we can’t even get a suitable wheelchair – wheelchair problems are just another source of bullying – we’re supposed to accept an unsuitable wheelchair or keep using the one that is recognised as unsafe!
Not holding my breath for this governent to change anything – they’re screwing us big time – disabled people and their families are being targetted – come 2013 we will lose our home with the housing benefit changes – no point hoping for that bath then – won’t be anywhere to put it in cardboard city!
The problems for Special Educational Needs (SEN) in the UK date back to the Conservative Government of 1984, when as part of a cost cutting exercise they change SEN from being a Core subject in Teacher Training to a Voluntary option, which now means we have generations of teachers that have no training or understanding of any SEN issues a child in their class may have. SENCos have no training requirement in any SEN training at all, and they do not even have to to be qualified teachers. So there is no required training or qualification for SEN in the UK, so the whole systems is an amateurish mess.
Teachers in primary schools are not trained in the neurology of the various cognitive skills children are required to develop, and most are not aware of the neurological processes involved in the task of reading, let alone understanding recognising and developmental deficits or delay any child may have.
Currently there appears to be no understanding of the Lexical and SubLexical Processes involved in the task of reading, and currently we are forced to use Phonics to teach reading which only addresses one of the required skill areas required for reading, and a process which the UK Medical Research Council estimates that 10% of children can not use, due to medical Conditions such as Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)
Children who have APD have problems processing the gaps between sounds, (GAPS test is part of the APD diagnostic battery of tests), the gaps between sounds that can make up words, and for some the gaps between words in rapid speech. So how are they expected to blend the sounds represented by letters – impossible. So current Government Education policy is promoting Disability Discrimination against those who are not able to use phonics.
What is required is an Educational Research Council to investigate how we learn neurologically, identify howm we learn, and develop teaching methods based on the neurologically based evidence, and the required variations for the various different learning styles children may have at different stages of their development. They would also need to identify various types of cognitive deficits and disorders which can create learning disabilities, and research the best support alternative compensatory options to help work around these various disabilities.
Our eldest children who both have a clinical diagnosis of APD were failed by the primary and secondary schools they attended, and only began to get the help and support they needed when they went to college. The so called high performing secondary school has no interest in providing adequate support for SEN children their only aim was to climb the A’Level league table.
Our youngest son has a diagnosis of APD and at a different secondary school which is working to try to helps his needs, and have been working wit ha Great Ormond Street Hospital Multi – Discipline APD assessment and diagnosis.
So you need to get the educational professionals working with the medical professionals so that thye can begin to understand the issues children my present, and stop all the guesswork and the so called “What Works” attitude, be cause the real question is For Who Does it Work and Why?
” However, with respect to many learning difficulties diagnosis at 2-2.5 is impossible so earlier testing is pointless” ,
g, please remember that many children with SEN have severe physical disability but cognitively are fully able, and therefore can easily be assessed at the age of 2. And so they should, to give schools and LA enough time to secure funding for adaptations, equipment and additional staffing. My daughter with SMA can’t access Early Years Education because 1) LA said that funding a hoist would be unreasonable use of resources, 2) LA said that for a child with no mobility, 1.8 m is a “walking distance” so they won’t provide transport. And even if the school decides to pay for adaptations, they won’t be ready for the new school year.
We asked for assessment when our daughter was 2 years old, and were told that it was too early. She’s 3.5 now, and she still hasn’t got the Statement.
Mama