This Can't Be Right Surely?????!!!!!!!!

[yorks]

Hi all

 

Just had a very very strange conversation with DS headteacher. As some of you may know he's in mainstream primary school with 30 hrs support per week. We've just been told that his LSA has resigned and is leaving on Friday?????!!!!! No explantion for this rapid departure. Very very cagey head in fact when I tried to push her on this. Anyway the head has just said to me yes we can get in a new LSA in the short term but the enhanced CRB check has not come through for this person. She then said if she writes us a letter can we sign this document to say we agree the new LSA can work with our boy without the enhanced CRB???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! basically like a disclaimer. I've just said to the head in a very tense 30 minute phone call there is no way she can do this and I've basically been blackmailed that if we don't agree then DS will not have LSA after Christmas.

 

Any thoughts anyone?

 

Thanks Yorks

[KezT]

Hi all

 

Just had a very very strange conversation with DS headteacher. As some of you may know he's in mainstream primary school with 30 hrs support per week. We've just been told that his LSA has resigned and is leaving on Friday?????!!!!! No explantion for this rapid departure. Very very cagey head in fact when I tried to push her on this. Anyway the head has just said to me yes we can get in a new LSA in the short term but the enhanced CRB check has not come through for this person. She then said if she writes us a letter can we sign this document to say we agree the new LSA can work with our boy without the enhanced CRB???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! basically like a disclaimer. I've just said to the head in a very tense 30 minute phone call there is no way she can do this and I've basically been blackmailed that if we don't agree then DS will not have LSA after Christmas.

 

Any thoughts anyone?

 

Thanks Yorks

 

I would think the Head is in a dificult situaton too... If the LSA has handed in her notice (which could be for any number of personal or confidential reasons) and has to leave this Friday, there is little the Head can do about it. They can stop the pay for not giving notice, but you can't physically frogmarch someone into work and make them work there!

 

Equally, a new CRB takes several weeks (at best) to come through. It might be that the interim LSA has a CRG rom a previous emloyer which you could ask to see and might be willing to accept and sign the waiver. Without a new CRB or your signature they will not be allowed to be alone with your child at any time, which will breach your son's support needs and so put the Head in an impossible position. The only alternative I can se is that your son stays at home until the CRB comes through....

[Grace]

Hi,

 

Kez makes a good point - does this learning assistant have a CRB check from her old job? Then it really is a technicality because in a practical sense, she should be okay.

 

I know the Head has been a nighmare, but personally if she could provide proof that for all intents and purposes, this new learning assistant is okay, then I would go with that. An alternative is to ask that they use a current classroom assistant for your DS and use the new assistant as a classroom assistant - she could facilitate this, but from what you have said before, I am not sure it is likely! Been in this situation myself and that is what they did i.e. used a current classroom assistant for my DS and used the new one as a classroom assistant/x

[chris54]

With out a CRB check, this person would not be able to work with your son unsupervised. What you are being asked to sigh (Hopefully) would be to recognize this and that it would/may have an impact on what support he/she could give your son. For example he/she would not be able to be left alone with your child (any child).

You/the school could not use any form of disclaimer, its just not allowed under the law.

[bid]

You need a new CRB for each situation where you are working with children, so one from a previous job is not accepted. For example, my DH is a teacher so has one for the school where he teaches, but had to get another one when he became a governor at our littlest's school.

 

Personally, as someone who works with vulnerable children too, I think it's only wise to wait for a full CRB check, otherwise I don't think you would have any 'protection' legally if anything happened to your child IYSWIM

 

Bid

[chris54]

. For example, my DH is a teacher so has one for the school where he teaches, but had to get another one when he became a governor at our littlest's school.

 

At one time I had 4 CRBs at the same time. One as a child minder, one for an agency I worked for, one as a charity worker, and one for a toddler group I help run.

[yorks]

Thanks for your replies guys. Sorry I should have put this earlier. This so called LSA has never worked with special needs children before and there is no previous CRB. My DS has the largest amount of 1:1 support in the entire school and the head is insisting that she should be the person for my DS in the new year and not any of the other existing LSAs. Sorry cant help being paranoid but I firmly believe the Head is attempting to push us to a position where we take him out of the school. In fact the SENCO said to my other half if they can't find cover would we agree to authorized absence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yorks

[caci]

Apart from the CRB issue, I would be worried about a child who needs 30 hours support being given a LSA new to the school and with no special needs experience.

 

As other have said, I think I would ask for another LSA, who knows your child a little to cover for half a term (at least) to see how things go.

 

Having said that, my first LSA job was to give 27.5 hours support to a child, and at that stage I had no real experience of special needs (in fact the child had dyspraxia and I admitted at the interview I hadn't even heard the word dyspraxia before !)

 

I wouldn't sign anything. If the new LSA is the only one available, the school will have to ensure she is not left in a situation where she is alone with your, or any other, child. Difficult for the school, but not impossible.

[bid]

I wouldn't sign anything.

 

Professionally I completely agree.

 

Bid

Edited December 15, 2010 by bid

[JsMum]

Thanks for your replies guys. Sorry I should have put this earlier. This so called LSA has never worked with special needs children before and there is no previous CRB. My DS has the largest amount of 1:1 support in the entire school and the head is insisting that she should be the person for my DS in the new year and not any of the other existing LSAs. Sorry cant help being paranoid but I firmly believe the Head is attempting to push us to a position where we take him out of the school. In fact the SENCO said to my other half if they can't find cover would we agree to authorized absence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yorks

 

What does your sons statement say reguarding the LSA, does it specify that the LSA has experience and training in special needs?

 

If so you can safely say by the school providing this inexperienced, no Enhanced CRB check is not meeting your sons SE needs.

 

Therefore not obiding by his statement.

 

I personally wouldnt sign either, Ive volunteered with vunrable Adults and I couldnt even volunteer until I had my CRB and thats volunteering.

 

I wouldnt want to place myself in such a position either.

 

I would stand your ground and insist they follow your sons statement and request a Experienced, Enhanced CRB checked LSA.

 

If they can not do that then they are not meeting his needs and need to make alternate tempary arrangements that gives him a full time education that he is entitled to.

 

If you agree to the Authorised Abcences and keep your son at home would there be any garentee that this would also be tempary.

 

Also dont forget that by the suddent departure of his present LSA it may also have an effect on your son, my sons LSA left in July this year and he hasnt taken at all to his new LSA to the point they can no longer work together, we are now working on feelings because he is so upset with his previous LSA leaving and that was with notice, your son hasnt got that, he may be shocked, confused and worried about the replacement, so once the CRB checks have gone throw a slow transitions may be needed, look at using the waiting time for the CRB Checks to go throw, to learn more about the new LSA, her name, a photos, a profile of her so he can get use to the changes.

 

I would put your concerns in writing that way you have vioced your concerns and you have evidence from the beginning.

 

JsMumx

[Kathryn]

Agree too. Sign nothing. It's the school's responsibility - not yours - to ensure that any adult employed in the school is cleared as safe to be in contact with any children - not just your child. What a thing for the head to ask!

 

K x

[Suze]

Just to reiterate what jsmum has said , put your concerns in writing to the school, just so that everything has been documented.Also I would be very uneasy about this turn of events, 30hrs is a large statement and should quantify someone with experience working with your son, best wishes suzex

[Boy]

We've just been told that his LSA has resigned and is leaving on Friday?????!!!!! No explantion for this rapid departure. Very very cagey head in fact when I tried to push her on this.

This does seem kind of odd. You'd have thought that there'd be enough notice for them to arrange some kind of gradual changeover, or at least some shadowing before she leaves.

 

Schools can be put into difficult positions with regards to special needs children. Even trained staff aren't always necessarily going to bond with a specific child or be willing to work with them. Especially in a mainstream school where the staff might not have enough training to work with SEN children, or lack the experience (especially with more severely affected children).

 

Is there any chance that there is a good reason for them choosing this particular new LSA? Or is this someone who has never worked at the school before? I know that they said she isn't CRB checked and that does suggest that she hasn't been there before, even as a volunteer or in another job role, but it does seem strange that they would rely on a stranger to be with a child who needs 30 hours support.

 

However, I think you should be able to at the very least request that they find someone that your son is used to, even if the job has to be split between other staff members (half days so that your son still has a routine and knows who to expect before lunchtime and after lunchtime).

 

I was in a similar position at the beginning of term (but from the POV that I am the new LSA; difference being that the other LSA hasn't left the school, but was basically 'swapped' with me and now looks after the SEN child I had at the beginning of the year - I was given various reasons for the swap, and to this day I'm not sure which is the true one or whether there's some truth in all the explanations. Other differences being that I already work at the school and have been CRB checked, and I already used to look after him at lunchtimes and if his LSA was sick, and we have a really good bond, so although it was a big change for him (having had the same LSA throughout the infants and the beginning of year three), it wasn't actually an upsetting change, and he's been very happy (although admittedly less productive). I knew that his mother and old LSA were pretty good friends through the shared interest in him, and I felt quite concerned that she would be annoyed when she found out we'd been swapped (she wasn't told beforehand - on the day they swapped us over she came to collect him at hometime and obviously had no inkling that I was supposed to be looking after him from then on, just assuming his old LSA was off sick (which she was that day, actually).

 

Perhaps schools sometimes just do what they think is best, and as long as they follow the statement or advice from professionals, and then it's forgotten that the parent will potentially be displeased (because parents don't often get to see what goes on in the school, and might have a different perspective).

[westie]

Hi,

just to say as someone else pointed out there may be a personal reason for the person to leave at short notice (I obviously dont know whether this is the case but the head may have sounded cagey as they could get into trouble for telling you why) I left my job a couple of years ago. I had a contracted 3 month notice period, and I had to leave after giving two weeks notice. This was due to childcare falling through, they had given me their 2 weeks required notice and I didnt have a back up person to look after them (which was why I left my job completely to care for them both). My employer was understanding fortunately about this I am very grateful to them, I had worked there for a long time - over 15yrs - and it was not a job that someone could just walk in and take over as quite a specialised area.

 

With regards to replacement LSA I agree I would not sign anything and would not be happy with proposed suggestion at all. It seems hard for me to understand why they cannot move another person in already in school till the CRB is sorted for this other person, though maybe they concerned its too many changes....

 

sounds difficult for you I hope things are sorted to your satisfaction XX

[yorks]

Just wanted to say thanks so very very much for all the replies. Sometimes I just feel so alone with dealing with this school. Don't get me wrong my partner does his best but I think he just gets so overwhelmed by it all he sort of shuts down. I really don't know what I would do without this forum so thanks again guys

Yorks

 

Ooh and Merry Christmas to you all

[bid]

<'> <'>

 

Bid