Why do I not practice what I preach

[Karen A]

Anyone who has been round here any time may know that I spend a large proportion of time emphasising the need to have provision within a Statement quantified,qualified and detailed.

 

When we obtained a Statement for Ben three years ago I did not know this.

For the past three years Ben has obtained excellent support every fortnight from an ASD outreach teacher.She is excellent and his main support.

In the last few days following concerns raised elsewhere about attendance I have made a few enquiries as alarm bells were ringing.The ASD outreach teacher had not visited since July.We obtained conflicting reports as to why this was the case.

 

This afternoon I discovered that it has been decided that numbers are such that the ASD outreach teachers can no longer continue in their current role.They will now act in an advice,training and support role to schools.They will only work with individual children in programmes short term to enable staff to take over.So Ben was to loose the ASD outreach teacher's support with no warning and no consultation.I don't think she even planned to tell him or ourselves.

After a frank discusion she has recognised that she at least needs to see Ben to explain.

 

I had hoped that some individual input was documented in the Statement so we had an option to challenge the decision.Unfortunately there is nothing more than advice and training for staff.

 

We probably can do very little.We are in a very difficult position as regards reviewing the Statement because Ben is doing well.

 

However perhaps at least others might learn from our experience and do as I preach not as I do.

 

Karen.

[call me jaded]

Hindsight is always 20:20. My own son's statement is rubbish because they named the right school and I knew I wouldn't have to fight for the correct support once he was there. I took the gamble that no major changes would occur.

 

In my LA they have removed all exceptional funding and what's going on in the preschool panel I don't know - no additional support at all from what I can see.

[Kathryn]

Sorry to hear this, Karen. Good to hear that Ben's doing well though.

 

K x

[Sally44]

What I would suggest is to keep an eye on the things the Autism Outreach Teacher used to do, and the difficulties your child has that would require he had access to her/them.

I am in a very similar position with the outreach teacher for SpLD, whose role also changed about 4 years ago and since then the advice from this department, school and everyone else I have asked is that "she no longer goes into schools and only gives telephone advice" etc etc.

I have recently written to the head of this service and asked them "how" they are meeting his needs when they have never seen or assessed him and can only offer telephone advice.

I received a reply from this department saying that I had "misunderstood what their role was".

And since that letter a laptop with predictive text has appeared out of the ether, and this teacher even turned up at the IEP meeting!

Remember that it is about 'identifying and meeting every need'.

If you find that provision is starting to disappear due to cuts in funding and the fact that the Statement is not specific enough, you might need to consider at some point going to appeal to get everything back in.

But for the time being, just monitor it and gather evidence. And then when you feel he does need it write to the head of that service and ask them to explain how they are meeting his needs (or even know what they are), if they do not see him.

 

I have found the biggest difficulty regarding 'access' to professionals is that it relies on the school seeking that advice, and if they feel that "everything is fine", then they just won't ask for that professional's input. Unless it is worded specifically in the Statement.

[Karen A]

I have found the biggest difficulty regarding 'access' to professionals is that it relies on the school seeking that advice, and if they feel that "everything is fine", then they just won't ask for that professional's input. Unless it is worded specifically in the Statement.

 

That is the main problem.The SENCO has been asked for a list of pupils who require input.However she now has control over who she suggests.There is one pupil with AS who is obtaining multiple detentions and Ben [who is doing ok academically but gets very anxious about things but just stresses out at home].The SENCO will only refer on over these issues if she thinks they are related to AS.My suspicion is that the same situation will occur with ASD outreach as happens with EPS.The school will in effect be forced to prioritise who they wish to have input.

 

We have very little scope to do much as far as I can gather.Other than monitoring as you suggest and making sure the SENCO is now Emailed about every issue however minor.I realised this morning that the ASD outreach teacher has a point.The school are funded to provide support for Ben and use the money for other pupils.The ASD outreach teacher spends most of her time with Ben dealing with issues which would not have happened if staff within the school had very basic awareness of ASD.Most of the time the school do not even act on her advice.She has spent months obtaining agreement from school for training for staff.

 

If the ASD outreach teacher is not seeing Ben then the SENCO will have to pick up these issues.Whilst ASD outreach direct work is not documented within the Statement the programmes are documented to be provided by a named member of staff.If we do not see evidence of provision being in place then we have less to loose from a review of the Statement than the school [since Ben is not getting the provision anyway].

 

Oh dear I thought I was better today.A fifty minute gym session,ten minutes boxing with DH holding the pads and I am still.

 

Karen.

[Sally44]

When the autism outreach teacher was involved with my son, I found one of the biggest problems was that she never put anything in writing to either the school or myself. That made it very difficult to know what had been recommended and whether it was being carried out.

So it might be worth asking her to put her findings and recommendations in writing to school and for you to be copied in. I presume she is making recommendations to meet Ben's needs. So you could say that you want those difficulties to become targets on his IEP. In that way they have to be SMART and therefore the school has to demonstrate how they will meet those targets and record if they are met. If they are not met for two IEPs, then you can reasonably ask the school to seek advice from the relevant professional.