SEN0378

Written evidence submitted by Wilson

 

I am the mother of a child with severe anxiety who has been school avoiding for the past three years. The reason that I am submitting evidence to the inquiry is that I want to make sure that the broader role of SEND provision, including mental health, is considered in the inquiry and I want to include our experience of working with the SEND team, with a list of strategies that have helped my child in stay in education.

 

I will briefly set out some background so that you can understand the context of a situation that could have been very different with the right support at the start and how the right support has finally made a huge difference.

 

Background

 

My daughter has a diagnosis of severe anxiety and started school avoiding in March 2022. She is in year 10 and attends a local state school in Southeast London. She has always wanted to remain in the school despite her difficulties and we have worked incredibly hard to enable her to do that.

 

Initially the support from her school was completely inadequate. I sent numerous emails to try and get help, but they were slow to respond and in September 2022 I made my first complaint to the headteacher to say they were not fulfilling their duty of care for our daughter.

 

From the start I had asked for her to be supported through the SEND system and I referenced the 2015 SEN Code of Practice (para xiv) and the inclusion of anxiety under the umbrella of social, emotional and mental health. However, despite a couple of meetings with the SENDCO at that time., the school continued to try and support via the teaching team and this just didn’t work as there was no central focus on supporting her specific needs. The main contact we were getting was invitations to attendance meetings, with unhelpful language, directing lots of blame towards us as parents.

 

I would also like to highlight the general misunderstanding and dismissal of anxiety in the system. At one attendance meeting with an Educational Welfare Officer, she told me that what I was asking for was unrealistic and that ‘even a child with autism’ would not get that level of support. As I told her in the meeting, this is not a competition of need and ultimately my daughter was unable to access her education due to her severe anxiety. (I should add that the things I was asking for were then implemented successfully around 16 months later).

 

Meanwhile my daughter’s mental health and attendance continued to decline and the impact on our whole family was, and continues to be, huge. So, in January 2023 we made a further complaint, and a plan was put in place, but the elements of the SEND plan were not implemented and we continued with a reduced timetable intervention from the head of year, which just does not work without additional support. In fact, I believe it can have the opposite effect – it just creates more pressure on the child due to the time limited nature of the plan.

 

In September 2023 we complained formally once more. This complaint included the fact that a report from CAMHS had been ignored and not implemented by the school. One of the key things CAMHS had recommended was "Support from the school special educational needs department given the significant barrier to her learning caused by anxiety".

 

Finally, we were given the support of the SEND team and a Team Around the Child (TAC) structure was put in place with a regular schedule of meetings with the school, CAMHS, parents, key school staff including the head of year and we were also able to include the local SENDIASS/SIAS representative.

 

It was only at this point, 18 months from our first communication to the school, that things started to improve. I appreciate that each child is different, and these things may not work for all, but ultimately that is why the support of the SEND team, who are trained to understand the different needs of each child, is so vital to support our children in this time of a mental health and school attendance crisis:

 

Key strategies that have supported our child and the whole family:

 

  1. A Team Around the Child (TAC) process, led by the SENDCO, with regular review points
  2. Regular check ins from the SENDCO or other representative in the SEND team for my daughter in tutor time. (Even a 10-minute check in helps my child feel supported and held by the school)
  3. Educational Psychologist assessment and recommendations – as recommended by CAMHS and the SendCo through the TAC process
  4. An ASD assessment, which came back as negative
  5. Moving from a reduced timetable to a full timetable, but with access to the library as a safe space if she is too anxious to attend a specific lesson. I believe this has been a key factor in helping her stay in school
  6. Clear guidance communicated to office staff and teachers that she has severe anxiety and should not feel trapped in school if she needs to leave
  7. Removal of sanctions for non-completion of homework or minor lateness to class
  8. A tutor group move to be with trusted friends
  9. Permission to sit beside a trusted friend/child in all lessons

 

Impact:

 

The measures above have helped my daughter move from a situation where she was attending school around 20% on average to a position now where she has an average attendance of around 85%. Importantly it has also meant that she has not had to leave the school, which would have been the next stage if they hadn’t finally supported her in the way she needed to be supported. Her mental health has also massively improved. She no longer has panic attacks and is slowly living a more normal life, socialising with friends who she may have lost if she was not in school.

 

I should add that once we were able to access them, the psychiatry services from Southwark CAMHS were excellent. We had to supplement that support with private psychology support due to the years long waiting list.

 

She is definitely not out of the woods and the continuous pressure of the assessments, and the school system does not help but she is generally now a happy child, who can get herself into school and continue to thrive.

 

Why am I submitting this?

 

I am happy to be contacted with any questions or additional evidence.

 

 

January 2025