"Dedicated" means "1:1"?

[Valiant_Skylark]

My son's statement includes "x hours of dedicated support assistance per week".

 

I've recently learned that, for many lessons, including "higher risk" (cos of mod/severe dyspraxia) ones like science, DT and PE, he has been made to share an LSA with another statemented child ie 1:2, for some time.

 

The LSA is struggling, and so are both boys, but the SENCO, when challenged, denied that there were any problems, stating that the other child was pretty independent and my son had the larger share of the help anyway. She went on to argue that "dedicated" does not have to be interpreted as 1:1. I stuck to my guns, saying I wanted my son to get the 1:1 as the provision detailed on his statement and that "this is the law". I was pretty gobsmacked when she said they tried to decrease the boys' reliance on their TAs "to get them more independent". I countered that an identified need was just that and it was law that the provision of the statement must be met. You cannot take a disabled child and ignore the provision in a ill-conceived attempt to make the child "independent". It merely puts the child, and the school "at risk".

 

This SENCO is a nightmare, basically.

 

I've left a message with the NAS ed advice line to get their view on this and some other dodgey "interpretations" from my son's SENCO, but can anyone give me any advice, especially on whether "dedicated" means, in law, 1:1?

 

Many thanks,

 

VS xx

[helenl53]

When advice is given about one to one - the old hands always say to ensure that it says 'dedicated'

 

What is worrying though, is that the statement is not worth the paper it's written on if the school ignore it.

 

I have heard that when this happens and a complaint is made to the LEA - they bully the school and threaten to take away the funding that they feel they are being diddled out of. This does inhibit parents from saying anything because they feel that the school will take it out on their child. The whole system is stinking

 

HelenL