Written evidence from K. Stefanova (CFA0118)

HOUSE OF LORDS CHILDREN AND FAMILIES ACT 2014 SELECT COMMITTEE INQURY

Dear Child and Families Act 2014 committee,

further to the email received, I am responding with my personal experience to be counted as the evidence.

Regards of the Support for pupils with SEN and disabilities in England ( session 2017 -2019, HC 2636) -National Audit Office, Department of  education.

  As understood, the aim in supporting the pupils with SEN and disabilities in England, are the strategies  to IDENTIFY Special educational needs EARLY and the family to be INVOLVED in decision making as well.

    To identify EARLY special education needs, the authorities such as the NHS and school working TOGETHER should acknowledge the new way of SEN assessment such as private quantitative EEG to identify the special education needs in the pupil. The COOPERATION between the NHS and private sector should be more supported. This approach should help the NHS and families to avoid a long waiting list to be assessed by the NHS, diagnosed wrongly or no diagnosed at all due to the shortage of highly qualified health professionals such as clinical psychologist and paedistric/developmental psychologist to assess many pupils with complex and mental learning difficulties and get the CORRECT diagnose. The school/academy should have a list of RECOMMENDED private clinical psychologists and educational psychologists working with the school/academy to assess the pupil with the family/school/NHS medical history provided for the medical assessment. This approach may ease the pressure on the NHS regarding the pupil's medical assessment ( adhd and other conditions) and long waiting list. Some families are ready to pay for the PRIVATE medical assessment to help their child to succeed in learning at school and to avoid the school pressure with the high educational expectations which the pupil with not still professionally identified SEN cannot reach for a medical reason. The families identified as a low income or/and needing a family support/on social services list should have a priority to be supported at school to assess the educational needs by educational assessor and/or by the NHS to assess the pupil's medical needs. The school/academy can have also financial issues ( such as the NHS) and a shortage of qualified staff to assess the pupil's educational needs and do the reasonable adjustment ( or not enough qualified school staff to assess a big number of pupils with learning difficulties in that school). The school/academy should have that list of RECOMMENDED PRIVATE health professionals ( clinical psychologist,educational psychologist and others) to assess the pupils with learning difficulties with the QEEG technology to be used next to the EARLY identification of learning difficulties in the child and to be recognized by the NHS. Both, EARLY and CORRECT diagnosis of pupils with SEN or disability should be NUMBER ONE for the authorities. This will avoid any disputes, additional paperwork, wasting of time  from different sides and a big pressure on the child and the family.

      Regards of the school/academies identifying the SEN. After identifying the SEN/disability, the school's reasonable adjustment for GCSE exams should be MORE STRAIGHTFORWARD to avoid the pressure on the pupil with medical condition/SEN both, at school and home. The school interventions in year 11 should be agreed with the pupil and when ( the school needs to discuss the extra school holiday intervention/Saturday school intervention and AFTER school interventations in year 11 with the pupils first if they will be able to attend ). The school high expectation in learning outcomes should be BALANCED with the usually lower school attendance of pupils with SEN/disability and identified medical conditions. The school should do some REASONABLE ADJUSTMENT in case of the lower school attendance due to the medical condition and school pressure in years 11 due to the GCSEs exams and extra school interventions to improve the pupil's learning outcome. The example is to AUTHORISE the school absence/or school lateness in year 11 due to the medical condition and extreme school pressure before the GCSE's exams AND keep providing ongoing school interventations for pupils with SEN in year 11 to improve the missed days/lateness due to the medical reason. Or allow/authorise the pupil with SEN to go part time to school in year 11. The reasonable adjustments for pupils with SEN/disability in year 11 will help to ease the stress and pressure on the pupil and the family.

      Thirdly, the aim of the authorities for the family to be involved in the decision making. The NHS and other authorities ( such as social services) should acknowledge that the cause of SEN/disability can be both genes and infection in the mother to be. Not only the family genes. This way of thinking should help to avoid the STIGMA of families needing extra support for various medical/social/economical reasons and on the social services list. In other words, there should be STRONG support AND PRIORITY to POSITIVELY support mothers to be and mothers with identified health issues AND their children by authorities involved in the support. If the pupil shows signs of learning difficulties at school, then the school/NHS and others involved should PRIORITISE to assess the special educational needs of the child as well. This will ease the pressure on families and children and avoid POINTING THE FINGER to family as the ONLY cause of the learning difficulties/issues in the child. This should be known and acknowledged ( amalgam dentistry as a cause of infection in the mother to be and its effect on the child's development in the mother to be and a ban of amalgam dentistry in the UK as some other countries already did).

  SUMMARY: The support for pupils with SEN/disability in England should take into account the WAYS how the EARLY SEN assessment can be done, the school's adjusting to the needs of the pupils  (no pupils with SEN adjusting to the school needs of high school attendance for SEN and high performance of pupils with SEN without taking into account the pupil's medical needs) AND acknowledge that families identified by authorities needing a support for medical,social and economical reasons should have a PRIORITY in identifying the SEN/disability in the pupil to EASE the pressure on both the pupil and family itself.

  Yours sincerely,

   Katerina Stefanova

May 2022