Do you have questions on the special educational needs and disability (SEND) Review? Ask Minister for Children and Families, Will Quince MP

Hello. Will the proposed plans mean that the records of children who may need to move through several schools are stored centrally so that their care is able to be constant and understood on arrival at a new school?

Hello Will. I have many, many concerns

my top ones are

It seems that the ability to request any school will be removed and parents forced to pick from a list the LA deem suitable.
As someone who has 2 children with EHCPs and lives in Essex, I cannot stress how appalling this notion is! Please clarify as the report is vaguely worded.

I also would like you to explain exactly what calculation is used to ascertain Value For Money for education. Independent Special Schools are recorded as providing, poor value for money twice in the report.
Do you take into account the child/YP mental health?

.Enforced mediation - as LAs are repeatedly found to have behaved unlawfully (see LGSO as well as SENDIST decisions), how can they be entrusted with mediation? This is absurd!

The reforms seem intent on removing a parents ability to name and appeal for suitable education as a way to "fix" the expense of tribunals for LA . It's incredibly worrying and disappointing.

Will children who have been previously Looked After, now adopted, be recognised in the SEND review as having SEND related to trauma and life experiences? They seem to have been forgotten.

The green paper recognises the vicious cycle of late intervention, low confidence and inefficient resource allocation and talks about turning the vicious circle into a virtuous one.

The importance is early intervention has been recognised for many years but rather than the early intervention actually being provided it is used as a barrier to deny further support eg. Ehcp needs assessments being turned down because a school hadn’t yet done x z and z. If a school cannot or will not provide then this is how the vicious circle arises.

how will the send reforms ensure thst this early intervention is actually provided in practise and not used as a barrier for support. The solutions I see in the green paper, mandatory mediation etc all seem to be things that will increase the length of time taken to travel round the vicious circle with potentially more expensive outcomes for the la and worse outcomes for the children. A lose:lose situation

The report mentions the need to provide excellent provision from early years to adulthood. How is excellent defined here, and who will be monitoring this to make sure provisions are of the highest standards?

To be honest I couldn't be bothered to ask a question as I know society doesn't care about people with special needs, but then I saw a £200 voucher was up for grabs and I desperately need a new washing machine.

A high proportion of parents with children with special needs also have special needs themselves. This means they find it difficult filling out the complex forms and advocating for their children. When councils refuse to access for an EHCP, most give up due to simply not having the ability to fight the decision. The result is the children with special needs do not get the support they need, and the parents feel like failures.
Will you make an application form for SEN support for children especially for parents who also have SEN so it is easier for them?

Will you redesign dla and pip forms so that they better lend themselves to neurological conditions like autism , adhd and SPD.?
like pp it is made so difficult to access support your children are entitled to because it is so complex

This is an excellent question and I would like to echo it, as well the one from @vickibee about the PIP transition at age 16. The forms and the processes involved are ridiculously complex, stressful and discriminatory - why?

If I'm picked in the draw please give the prize to @duvetdayforeveryone Thank you.

One of the biggest issues for parents of children with SEND is the lack of accountability in the system.

Accountability is scarely addressed in this paper, even under the heading accountabilty.

Why doesnt the government want the people responsible for educating some of the most vulnerable children to be held to account.

Thank you @SpindleInTheWind 😘

Hi Will,


my question is around transition to adulthood.

my son is 19 and desperately needs more support, his EHCP recognises that his good vocabulary masks his major issues.

My anxiety is that this EHCP will just cease with no formal plan for the future. What plans are in place to support young people when an EHCP ends?

My experience so far is that not even social care what to take him on.

If the college placement next year falls through he will be isolated and unsupported.

And having just read duvets post I agree….if I am selected please pass to her,

The SEND review wants to reduce the number of parents appealing to SENDIST where 96% of parents won their appeals last year. Parents win appeals because Local Authorities behave unlawfully. Instead of putting in measures forcing LA's to behave lawfully, it proposes national standards, enforced mediation and an independent review mechanism, why is that? Our LA already play the system using the wait for Tribunal as a cost saving measure and then losing 99% of appeals and conceding many more just before the hearing. Adding more hoops for parents to jump through will delay their child getting the provision they need. Will you also be ensuring that LA's make alternative provision under Section 19 whilst this lengthy process takes place?

The process for applying for EHCP needs to be streamlined. It shouldn't be such a long and hard process when given evidence from the hospital, the parent and the school. Can children who claim DLA automatically qualify for an EHCP and then the content can be agreed by the above parties?

When will you review and update the Working Together guidance so that social care assessments of disabled children are considered under seperate processes and guidance from issues of abuse or neglect? The current legislation forces social workers into an intrusive role within families where there are no safeguarding concerns simply to access short breaks and respite. This is a violation of their human rights to a private family life - there should be no need to see a child's bedroom, for example, to provide them with short breaks! The current Child in Need guidance is not fit for purpose and social care assessments of disabled children are subject to widespread declines, accusations of fabrication, and subjective decisions; where there should be kindness, caring, and an objective process to help families.

On a different topic - the goverment now requires children over the age of 16 to remain in education, be in training, or be employed. In the case of disabled children, remaining in education for as long as possible is often the most suitable choice for the best outcome. And yet free school transport is only provided up to the age of 16 - WHY??? It strikes me that this is is a mismatch of goverment policies that urgently needs to be aligned.

Question.

I have done 7 appeals to the send tribunal. I am lining up appeals 8 and 9 right now. I have never lost an appeal. How do you feel about the fact that parents have to appeal to get the best outcome for their SEN children?

How do you think parents that cant navigate tribunals kids fare?

If your savvy you appeal and win as the law is on your side. If your not your child ends up doing what? county lines as nothing else for them?

How is this ok? If I had £5 for every law my LA had broken my kid would be funded for life in Eton fees by now.

Btw my ds need slt every three weeks in mainstream. The school and LA kicked up a stink and stopped it so I won a 20k PA school for him in year five so they saved maybe £1000 pa on slt at the detrement of £20,000 indi SEN school fees plus taxi each way for the next 9 years.

Giving the right provision at the right time would have meant ds would still be in mainstream school saving at least £16,000 a year

How do you intend to change the fact that most teachers/ta's have no or limited training in neurological conditions but are then expected to know how to manage a class of child some with Sen?

How do you intend to ensure ehcp's are followed in school and that there is repercussions if it not followed?

Hi Will, will SEND budgets for schools be ringfenced so that they have to be spent in SEND support? I’m a SENDCO with basically no budget and an enormous SEN register as my headteacher keeps telling me we have no money! It’s an impossible job at the moment!

What is going to be the process for identifying the national criteria to trigger an EHC needs assessment?

I am angry. I am angry as my son was diagnosed with Autism aged 3 years old, before he started nursery. He was diagnosed so young as it was bloody obvious. It took me until he was in year 3 to get him an EHCP, despite him having multiple needs. When he got his EHCP it had barely any support in the provision section F, because my County Council said according to their educational psychologist there was no need for provision. I then had to spend 3 years saving up money to spend £900 on a private educational psychologist and £480 on a private occupational therapist so that in his Autumn 2021 annual review they could finally write in his EHCP that he does need a 1:1 support and occupational therapy. I should never ever have had to spend that money to get my son the support he needs, but in 2022 in the UK only people who can afford it get the support their children need. It is utterly disgusting and needs to change!!!

Hi Will

What do you think when wrong with the 2014 Children and Families Act? How will the Green Paper correct this?

Personally I think the CFA does not need updating, and the only change that is needed is ACCOUNTABILITY on the part of the decision makers. Local authorities keep making the same unlawful decisions, and I'm sure tribunal judges are weary of the groundhog day of cases with the same unlawful decisions.

How will the SEND Green paper address accountability?

why is there so few special needs schools/ places avaliable? DS will need to travel 5 miles each way to the only special school we have been offered.
Why do we have little to no say in which special school our children attend?

How will you make local authorities accountable and provide funds for SN. My son has SN and it took 3 years for the local authority to issue an EHCP during which time he went from speaking to mute, writing to not writing, top of the class to expected to fail everything. 1 year on we still have no support. Giving thousands to lawyers is the only way anyone gets support in our area but I am going through chemotherapy and cannot work and do not have that option. Why is there no help for families like ours?