SCN0219

Written evidence from Parental Submission 176

 

 

The EHCP Process and Adopted Children

 

  1. Policy changes should focus on the following areas:

 

  1. The regulations pertaining to Special Needs Funding and Pupil Premium spending allow schools to absorb the funds awarded to my child into the school’s budget without ring fencing them for the child to whom they have been awarded, and to spend them on basic  staffing needs.

 

  1. SENCO’s are able to be in post for 3 years without any SEN training. When the 3 years is up they pass the mantle to another class teacher who is then given 3 years to complete the post graduate SEN qualification. Schools must have a trained, out of classroom SENCO.

 

  1. The onus should not be on the parents of children with SENDs to pay for independent specialist reports and lawyers in order to obtain provision for their child’s needs through the appeal process.

 

  1. SEND services should ideally be removed from Local Authority Control as provision and funding is currently a postcode lottery. The SEND Code of Practice states that Children’s needs must be met. This should not be dependent on Council budgets or the legislation is pointless and unworkable.

 

  1. The Adoption Agencies and the Local Education Authority should not, in practice, have competing agendas. If they do, potential adopters are being coerced into taking on children who will fail to have the life chances of their unadopted peers by not being sufficiently supported through education.

 

  1. The EHCP has named provision and placements which provide no greater chance of targeting and meeting my son’s Special Educational Needs  than his current provision and placement.  We can only conclude that his EHCP is unlawful in that does not provide appropriate or even adequate provision to meet my son’s needs  over and above what he currently receives, provision which has failed to measurably improve his access to the education that children without SENs receive, despite Higher Level Special Needs funding, over a period of four years.

 

  1. This gap in accessibility is widening quickly now that he is in Key Stage 2 and must be addressed for his last years in primary education if he is not to become part of the statistics of failure in education and future life chances of children Looked After or Previously Looked After. My son’s mental health is already fragile, and we are sure that it will deteriorate unless he is able to learn. He needs to be taught in an environment where he does not feel alienated and different, and where he can access the

 

 

June 2018