SCN0471

Written evidence from Hampshire Parent Carer Network

 

  1. Hampshire Parent Carer Network (HPCN) is a charitable organization working throughout the county of Hampshire in the South East of England.  We believe in an inclusive society where everyone shares the same opportunities.  Our members are parent carers of children and young people with additional needs aged 0-25 years, associated professionals, and affiliated groups.  We support and train parent carer representatives to work alongside the professionals who provide health, education, adult and social services to our children and young adults

 

  1. We have more than 1,000 members across Hampshire who work together to use their collective voice to influence decisions and shape services, improve outcomes, and make a difference for all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities in Hampshire.

 

Summary

 

  1. Co-production is not fully embedded within either schools or the Local Authority – there is no real change since the SEND reforms.

 

  1. The timeliness of transfers has been challenging, many were finalised at the eleventh hour. Consideration was not given to how this new approach, and new way of working with families, would take time to embed, and deadlines were prioritised above quality.

 

  1. Schools are not meeting the needs of SEND children across Hampshire and Hampshire County Council has seen a year on year increase in EHCPs

 

  1. Parents continue to fight against the system, pushing for more SEN support in Schools

 

  1. Lack of joint working across the local authority and Health – despite making small improvements, there is still a lot to do.

 

 

PARENT FEEDBACK AND DATA

 

  1. We have been talking to our members on how they feel about all the specific areas in the enquiry. This has been done at our Get Together and Talk Together meetings and more significantly our ’SEN team meet the Parents’ where we have now run 8 sessions across the county. We have listened to what the parent carers have said, what their issues are and taken these themes into our response.

 

  1. HPCN has also surveyed its members and the following stats demonstrate how Parent Carers across Hampshire feel about the following:

 

Assessment of and support for children and young people with SEND

 

  1. We asked our Members how they felt about the Assessment of and support for children and young people with SEND.

 

  1. “A staggering 80% of parents felt their mainstream school was NOT meeting the needs of their SEND child”

 

  1. 81.25% said their mainstream school was NOT meeting the needs of their child

 

  1. 18.75% said their mainstream school WAS meeting the needs of their child

 

The transition from statements of special educational needs and Learning Disability Assessments to Education, Health and Care Plans

 

  1. We asked our members how they felt the transition from statements of SEN and Learning Disability Assessments to EHCPs went.

 

  1. “Over a third of parents felt this was satisfactory”

 

  1. 9.62% of parents said it went smoothly with no problems

 

  1. 31.73% of parents said it was satisfactory but we had to push for what we wanted

 

  1. 24.04 % of parents said It was an absolute disaster, we didn't even get a chance to view the plan

 

  1. 34.62% said the question wasn’t relevant to them

 

The level and distribution of funding for SEND provision

 

  1. “Nearly half of parents felt very let down by SEND provision”

 

  1. We asked our members how they felt about the level and distribution of funding for SEND provision.

 

  1. 7.62% of parents think it's adequate despite the amount of government cuts

 

  1. 42.86% of parents felt It doesn’t t represent the needs of their children and they felt very let down

 

  1. 42.86 % of parents felt the level of funding is too inconsistent from area to area

 

  1. 6.67% said this question wasn’t relevant to their child

 

  1. The roles of and co-operation between education, health and social care sectors

 

  1. “Over half of parents surveyed felt the health and social care professionals didn’t understand the education needs of their SEND Child”

 

  1. 54.55% of parents felt the health and social care professionals DIDN’T understand the education needs of their SEND child

 

  1. 14.4% of parents felt the health and social care professionals did understand the education needs of their SEND child

 

  1. 31.31% felt the professionals somewhat understood the education needs

 

Provision for 19-25-year olds including support for independent living; transition to adult services; and access to education, apprenticeships and work

 

  1. We asked our members how they felt about the transition process for 19-25 year old and access to education and work:

 

  1. “Half of parents felt a lot of improvement is needed to make the transition better to adult services”
  1. 22.86% of parents felt there was no provision for 19-25 years old

 

  1. 30.48% of parents felt a lot of improvement is needed to make the transition better to adult services

 

  1. 2.86% of parents agreed that it does what their young person needed it to do 

 

The following statement is from a Parent with a SEND child living in Hampshire and a member of the Hampshire Parent Carer Network.

 

  1. We have submitted this personal experience as we believe it forms an important part of our submission in line with the terms of reference. 

 

  1. The transfer from a Statement to EHCP was reasonably quick and easy for me, as Hampshire County Council agreed that I could write the content and they would review/make amends as they felt necessary. This agreement came about because I had asked for a face to face meeting with the LA SEN team as part of the statutory assessment process, and they refused. They said that this was not necessary or required, even though I quoted the SEN Code of Practice to show that it should be part of the process. They felt it would be easier for me to draft the text I wanted, rather than actually meet and have a discussion. They said they would meet with me and the school once an EHCP had been agreed. This is NOT co-production and this meeting never took place either.
     
  2. There was no input from social care or health (apart from health signing off the EHCP, which includes no health provision except for annual hearing tests and eye checks at a local opticians). We were told by someone in social care that there was no point requesting a social care assessment as part of the EHCP process as we would not be eligible for anything, as it was only for people with more significant needs than us. Therefore, my daughter’s EHCP is just really a statement with a different name. As a parent I have no evidence of any joined up working in Hampshire.
     
  3. We asked about personal budgets for some elements of the plan but were told that this was not possible as they do not do SEN personal budgets in Hampshire (without any discussion or reasons why).
     
  4. Despite me writing the EHCP content/outcomes for my daughter, and agreement over wording and provision being made via email with HCC, there was a delay in issuing the EHCP. This was because the mainstream school we wanted our daughter to attend were asking for significant budgets before they would agree to her placement. HCC told us that they would not be able to issue the EHCP until budgets had been agreed with the school. We were not involved in these discussions, and it was only when we muted legal action/tribunal did the plan get issued. The adversarial nature of budgets/SEN funding is still problematic, in fact it is now possibly worse due to the cuts Local Authorities are facing.
     
  5. Independent Support were useful during the EHCP process. It is disappointing their service is not continuing.
     
  6. The mainstream school, prior to my daughter starting, told us that they did not differentiate below a Level 3, and as she was working at Level 1 or 2 this might mean they could not meet her needs. They also suggested that we would need to make her a version of a timetable that she could understand, as the timetable they use would be confusing for her. The initial meeting with the SENCO was not as positive as we would have liked. This would be incredibly off-putting for parents who were less committed to inclusion than we are.
     
  7. There has been very little in terms of assess/plan/do/review since my daughter started her mainstream school. Our face to face interactions are limited to 1 parents evening a year (5mins slot per subject teacher) and one Annual review meeting. The paperwork for the Annual review is completed in advance of the meeting, which is led by the school, and it does not feel like an equal partnership. We have regular interactions with the Team Leader for learning support, eg to discuss homework, however very little contact with the school SENCO, who frequently ignores email correspondence or gets the team leader (who is not a teacher) to respond. We do not feel there is any element of co-production within the school relationship and we do not have a teacher co-ordinating our daughter’s education in mainstream.
     
  8. The school rely on a very small amount of outreach and training from a local Down syndrome support group (a charity set up and run by parents). This is minimal. The Local Authority have not provided any training or support to help them include a child with Down syndrome in their very high academic achieving school. Two years in, we are finally starting to feel things are beginning to be more positive and slightly more successful for her. This has taken a lot of tears and stress for us to get here. We have no idea, however, what her KS4 provision will look like though, nor beyond… There is very little post-16 provision locally that would be suitable for her needs.
     
  9. We do not feel our daughter’s voice is significant within any discussions. No adaptations are made for her to be able to access or express her view within meetings. Her input to the EHCP process and her Annual reviews is always completed with a school TA. There are limited questions provided, and her responses the school presents to us in meetings do not always tally with what she tells us or demonstrates to us at home. The Annual Review meeting format is not adapted so that she can participate in the discussions in a meaningful way.
     
  10. The school have chosen to undertake a mini options process in Year9, which has meant that some subjects have to be dropped at this point. There was no adaptation to this process made for our daughter, even though it potentially would mean that she is having to drop subjects that may be best for her to study in KS4. We asked for a meeting with the school or a discussion about the process and how we could make it work for her specific needs/future outcomes, but this was not forthcoming. No co-production again.
     
  11. The school SEN policy and SEN information report have not been updated/discussed with parents since the launch in 2014 (and then I think it was only discussed with 1 parent who was the SEN governor). Co-production at a strategic level within this mainstream school is not happening.
     
  12. There is a lack of accountability for schools re SEND. Children with SEND are expected to fit in with the existing school structure/rules/curriculum, which can be difficult at times. There is a lack of forward thinking/planning ahead/reasonable adjustments being made but there is no real way for parents to challenge this without expensive legal battles. For instance, my daughter has been unable to access most after school provision at the school as we have been told it would not be suitable for her, or that a Teaching Assistant was not available to volunteer their time to attend with her. We do not think TAs should ever be expected to volunteer their time to support our daughter after school. As a result she does not attend any extra-curricular activities.
     
  13. I am educated and computer savvy but I find it incredibly difficult to find information on the new Hampshire Local Offer. It is written from a Local Authority perspective and not a parent perspective, and I don’t feel that the tone of writing is particularly parent friendly. You have to know what you are looking for to be able to find it and even then it may take a large number of clicks/different pages to scroll through to find it.
     
  14. The reforms have not improved anything at all for my daughter. Her education continues to be stressful and problematic for us, in a way that I have not experienced with my son who has no SEND. The stress and strains on families should not be underestimated. I have spent far too many sleepless nights and days in tears as a result of this system which continues to be broken. I have no evidence to provide to the Select Committee to suggest that anything has improved since the CFA in 2014.

 

In conclusion:

 

  1. We believe the reforms have not changed the way SEND children are treated and there has been some small headway made to Co-Production.
  2. We would like to see improved communications and joint working across all sectors and a true embedding of co-production at an individual, group and management level.
  3. We have worked very hard at strengthening our relationships with the local authority and health but believe we still have a long way to go. We would like to see pooled budgets across all services and joint commissioning with a commissioner who monitors the commissioned services with consequences for failure to deliver.
  4. We would also like to see improved transparency across SEND spending from the local authority.
  5. SEND Education continues to be very stressful for a lot of parents and we believe that local schools are not meeting the needs of children with SEND. Schools require more assistance to help them co-produce.
  6. In the county of Hampshire we believe the provision of education for SEN young people is inconsistent and quite often depends on the experience of the SENCO in the school and how prepared the parents of children are prepared to fight.

 

June 2018