SCN0671

 

Supplementary written evidence from Nicola Jones-Ford

 

 

Are the right students are getting the right support ?

 

  1. From my experience it feels the person who shouts loudest, or the parent who pushes the hardest gets the biggest share of the support.   In my school we have less affluent, less educated families who do not feel able/confident enough to ‘fight’ for an EHC plan assessment.  In working with our families they rely on school staff to take the ‘fight’ on if we feel that it is appropriate to make a request for an EHC plan assessment, so this is an increase in my workload and the workload of my team.  There is obviously the local independent supporters that can help with this, but my families tend to be reluctant to use these ‘strangers’ as they do not know the child, even though our local service is excellent. 

 

 

Are the LA able to hold schools to account ?

 

  1. In my LA this is not evident currently.  My school is a SEND magnet school so we have a higher proportion of EHC plans within school but also parents know we have good outcomes for SEND children so make the choice to send us their sons who have additional needs.  Due to the positive reputation of supporting students with SEND well, the expectation of the LA is that we can support even the most complex needs with the most difficult families which means that LA does not challenge the school down the road when they do not accept a student with an EHC plan for a very mundane, nothing reason as they can always rely on us because we will try.

 

  1. This then has an impact on the school measures and how our school looks to the local community  and trying to attract the students that will have a positive effect on our school measures. 

 

 

Are the students at SEN support level actually being supported  ? 

 

  1. In our school yes but as I commented within the meeting the amount of time, effort and ‘fight’ that is needed to work within the Children and Families Act implementation for EHC plans is huge, which ‘robs’ time from the SEN support case load because the work with students and families, the seemingly endless paperwork, thresholds of evidence, co-ordinating meetings with all professionals, the chasing of the LA to action things and keeping on top of what is actually happening  for a student so that the much needed additional support will be forthcoming eventually. 

 

  1. As I said at the meeting without knowing exactly how much money is coming in to school for the students at SEN support level, where this notional six thousand pounds sits and for exactly who it is ear marked, it is extremely hard to be accountable for it but also impossible to have cost effective practices.   It also makes it impossible to challenge school management on how the funding is being spent on SEN support students effectively. 

 

  1. It seems that students with EHC plans have more protection of their entitlement to support as they have an individual plan outlining what the school needs to do.  Whereas the students at SEN support level have a lot less protection it seems, personally I have never heard of the tribunal hearing a case about SEN support they all seem to be Statement or EHC plan based.  

 

 

EHC plans and standardisation

 

  1. From watching a previous Education Select Committee roundtable with Dame Christine Lenehan she called for there to be a standard template for EHC plans as each LA has interpreted the law in a different way.  Working with students from a number of LAs I would echo this view but there needs to be some careful thought about this.  Currently an average EHC plan in my borough is 18-20 pages long, when completing the Annual Review of the EHC plan, the Annual Review document is of similar length and you are juggling the two documents in a meeting that should only be maximum of ninety minutes for a student with mainstream SEND needs.  Some of my parents do not read well and get very intimidated by great big documents of processes they are not very sure of, which makes then anxious that their child is going to lose out in all this paperwork they do not understand clearly. 

 

  1. Careful consideration of what the ‘template’ needs to look like as all the paperwork and documents locally are not smart and very labour intensive as if I make a slight adjustment at an Annual Review to an outcome that then means that a whole new EHC plan needs to be produced and sent to parents who might not understand what is about and again worry that their child will be losing something under this mountain of paperwork.  The local paperwork is not very accessible to parents who do not read well or do not read English as the EHC plan and Annual Reviews are pages and pages of text.  

 

 

Role of Social Care in the EHC plan process

 

  1. With the meeting we were all asked about how Health have been involved in the EHC plan process and the consensus from the education staff was that they were not, but I would also echo this is the same for Social Care too from my experience. 

 

 

The Role of the SENCo within school management

 

  1. Within the Code of Practice it says that it is ‘good practice’ for the SENCo to be on the school management team.  This is an interesting statement in itself, because there is upcoming education legislation about their needing to be a Senior Leader leading mental health in school, but this is not the case for SEND.  Yes SEND is about expanding the opportunities for all, highly inclusive practices and it being the role of every teacher to teach all students, but without that strategic lead that is SEND focussed with the school leadership, SEND can become something that the SENCo does and it is not integrated throughout the whole school practice.  By making it mandatory for the SENCo to be part of school leadership it is also a very strong direct message from government that students with SEND are important within schools.  

 

 

February 2019