North Yorkshire Parent Partnership Service
1) Are the SEN and disability statutory frameworks - including the SEN statementing process - helping children and young people to get what they need? If not, what changes could help?
Statementing process is too embedded in Local Authority. EPs should be more independent of LA – not gate keepers of resources and LA policy.
(2) How can we identify children's special educational needs earlier, and make sure that they get the support they need as quickly as possible?
Early Years support and portage are crucial and inclusion funding which is easily accessible. EYs settings need more training and access to free advice. PCT and social care need to be trained and involved earlier.
(3) How can we improve the processes for special educational needs and disability - in schools, in assessments, and across all services - so that professionals can spend more of their time with children and their families?
There is a huge amount of paperwork for schools and the availability of templates etc for monitoring and recording progress. National templates would save time. Standardisation of process would create consistency and achieve a benchmark for provision.
(4) How can we ensure all schools and colleges have high expectations for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and help young people to develop the skills for employment and their future potential and contribution to society?
Training. Qualified Teaching Assistants. SENCOs on Senior Management Team. Strong, committed leadership, who really believe children can achieve. Ethos of ownership of children with SEN. Schools need to be challenged for negative attitudes.
(5) How can we improve the choices of schools and services available to parents and improve opportunities for them to be involved in decisions that affect their family?
Transport is a serious issue in rural areas to enable real choice for parents and children. Transport policed need to take SEN into account in terms of equal opportunities to access the right school for a child with SEN. Parents need to be able to have a voice through Parent forums and Parent Partnership Services.
(6) How can we improve the transition from school to adult life for young people with special educational needs and disabilities and the support provided for their families throughout?
Parents and young people need quality transition information. Better links and coordination between adult and children’s services. Schools should be clear about their responsibilities toward young people on School Action and in transition.
Quality FE and the improvement of work opportunities. Simplification of FE funding.
(7) We would like to include ideas and examples of what's working well. If you have an example we could include please respond setting out your response as detailed below.
Q8) Please use this space for any other comments you would like to
make.
Q9) Please let us have your views on responding to this consultation (e.g. the number and type of questions, was it easy to find, understand, complete etc.)
North Yorkshire County Council
1) Are the SEN and disability statutory frameworks - including the SEN statementing process - helping children and young people to get what they need? If not, what changes could help?
The Code of Practice for Special Educational Needs and its statutory basis should be reviewed to taking particular account of the recommendations contained within the Ofsted Special Educational Needs and Disability Review.
Any further changes to legislation or guidance should not simply add to the current arrangements. They need to be simplified and improved to achieve consistency across different services and for children of different ages and levels of need. Simplified legislation needs to make the system is clearer for parents, schools and other education and training providers.
Different Authorities are now doing things in different ways – does not help with parental expectations – a new National Framework would help in this area.
Concerns about Academies & Free Schools & whether there will be admissions issues – need to be specifically included in any new SEN legislation.
The different legislation/timescales in Education/social care/health legislation cause difficulties in being able to work together – need to be brought into line.
The SEND tribunal system does not take into account the fact that if local authorities were to put in the level of provision which they direct in individual cases for all young people in the authority with similar needs, local authority budgets would be significantly overspent. The system can lead to inequity of provision for young people with SEN.
Consideration should be given to divorcing the statementing process from resources. e.g. having to stipulate no. hours is not helpful in many instances and takes focus away from provision that will enable child to make good progress.
Guidance about level of detail that can and should be included in the statement, as well as importance of updating statement when required
(2) How can we identify children's special educational needs earlier, and make sure that they get the support they need as quickly as possible?
The key to early identification is through all three statutory agencies working together from birth. This needs to be embedded in legislation. Inter-service pathways need to be improved, ensuring that where additional support is provided, it is effective.
Teaching and pastoral support need to be improved early on so that additional provision is not needed later.
Early years providers, schools and colleges should be able to meet a wider range of additional needs as a matter of course, and their main funding should reflect
local levels of need accordingly.
Access to additional services should not always depend on a formal process of assessment or medical diagnosis.
The Key Worker system works really well in Early Years, but it needs to be recognised through a National Framework and it needs to be properly funded. It will struggle to be effective if there is the expectation that this will be taken on in addition to existing worker’s already overstretched caseload.
There are issues when young people with Special Educational Needs attend Independent Nurseries. They often do not have qualified teachers as staff who have been trained to recognise SEN. This can lead to young people’s needs not being identified early enough.
For many children with Sensory, Physical and Medical the only reason that they have a statement is to provide additional adult interventions, often for personal care or the preparation of resources. Can we create a system where this can be provided without the bureaucracy of a formal statement?
The importance of high quality early intervention by qualified staff in order to promote high and realistic expectations for parents.
Formal recognition that for some support includes a high level of preparation of modified, differentiated materials. This needs to be made possible through:
• Recognised training for support staff in schools
• Recognition by all staff of the importance of this work
• Time and resources made available to prepare such materials
Clarity for parents, schools and Services about what information is required at RSA and what schools already need to have in place.
(3) How can we improve the processes for special educational needs and disability - in schools, in assessments, and across all services - so that professionals can spend more of their time with children and their families?
The system of assessment needs to be improved and focus on quality and improving outcomes for learners.
Currently the different assessment/accountability systems can lead to too much time being spent in discussion concerning which service should take responsibility in making provision for young people. Targets set by LAs can often be budget related – services then work to protect their budget. A joint assessment would encourage/faciliate joint budgets with services working together to meet the needs of a young person, rather than in competition as to who should take responsibility.
Statutory assessments should be primarily about clarifying needs, rather than securing funding/alternative placements.
Streamline current duplication of assessment and recording; enable agencies to better integrate their assessments; look again at the legislation which impedes information sharing amongst agencies.
Could a toolkit be provided for all agencies who have to provide assessment advice – leading to a standardisation of the information required for decision making. This would be useful if developed at a National level as it would be transferrable across authorities. It could also be useful for independent professionals providing reports for tribunal hearings.
Guidance on expectations of all staff in supporting SEN.
Improve training for all school staff in meeting needs
Need for training for EY settings and schools about what support services are available, what they offer, and how they work to help resolve problems
Professionals should spend more time supporting, advising and intervening with children and families to design and implement high quality interventions and careful evaluations, rather than ‘measuring the need’ for a Statement of SEN. Assessment itself is not a solution to a problem.
Professionals working to increase the knowledge base, skill set and capacity in settings and schools in themselves should increase parental trust and confidence that needs can be met without embarking on a cumbersome legal process.
When a child or young person is underachieving, the school or setting should begin by analysing the effectiveness of its generic teaching and systems for support before deciding that she or he has special educational needs.
Where young people are protected by the Disability Discrimination Act, their rights to additional provision should not depend, as they do at present, on where they are being educated. In particular, young people aged between 16 and 19 should have similar entitlements, whether they are at school or college.
Schools should not be the only organisations held to account legally for the outcomes of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. All the services involved should be bound equally by its terms.
(4) How can we ensure all schools and colleges have high expectations for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and help young people to develop the skills for employment and their future potential and contribution to society?
The first priority for all children should be good teaching and learning and good pastoral support.
Ensuring that accountability for those providing services focuses on the outcomes for the children and young people concerned.
Focused training at initial teacher training about SEN and achievements of CYP with SEN. Ongoing compulsory training, maybe in modules for all school staff. Such training should be for everybody and all staff have to attend a number of accredited training modules in order to maintain their professional status.
Culture of expectation to be lead from the top i.e. the Head Teachers; emphasise training at this level so that the importance of staff attending relevant training becomes a high priority in the school/college. e.g. Priority that Teaching Assistants go on course lead by specialist services such as Sensory.
There are difficulties around the differing levels of expectations in schools in different areas e.g. in inner city schools, in leafy lane schools.
Evaluation should focus on the outcomes desired for and achieved by children and young people with additional needs. It should not focus only on whether they have received the services prescribed.
Schools and other services should give urgent attention to improving the quality of their evaluation of additional provision. Similar considerations apply to post ̶ 16 providers in relation to young people with complex needs.
Good evaluation requires systems that track progress securely towards planned outcomes and information that is used rigorously and regularly to evaluate the impact of interventions.
School and national performance indicators should include the data that is now collected on the progress and outcomes of children and young people working below Level 1 of the National Curriculum.
The publishing of league tables can lead to a concentration of school’s efforts onto SATS results & GCSE results. Should we not be looking at “value added” league tables which could apply to all young people in the school, including those with SEN.
Further development of progression guidance, maintaining focus on SEN & other vulnerable groups within OfSTED framework. Alignment of SEN Code of practice with equalities legislation. Make statutory requirements explicit.
(5) How can we improve the choices of schools and services available to parents and improve opportunities for them to be involved in decisions that affect their family?
With respect to services available to young people with SEN – a reliance on the provision of teaching assistant support has become the “norm” when making provision through a statement of SEN. This has become a goal that parents & schools work towards, even though it may not be the most appropriate provision. Additional & different provision does not have to mean Teaching Assistant support. A move away from this would need a huge change in the mindset of all professionals involved and work to develop the confidence of parents that needs can be better met in other ways.
When teaching assistants are required, schools need training on the best use.
When looking at improving the choices of schools, we need to ensure that parents are not given unrealistic expectations of the provision which may be suitable/best value/available.
Some school buildings/environments are not suitable for inclusive education. The current financial situation has meant that the building of/adaptation to schools has been put on hold – this will have a detrimental effect on pupils with SEN. We need to be able to look at specific funding being made available to enable improvements to outdated special school buildings e.g. safe provision for young people with autism & challenging behaviour. This wiil then enable more young people to be able to attend schools in their own localities rather than have to travel long distances to independent special schools where they can loose regular contact with their families.
With respect to parental involvement – there is a feeling that there have been so many recent government initiatives to develop new roles to support parents that there is confusion both amongst parents & professionals alike as to who can/is working to provide advice. IT can also lead to either the duplication of support being offered, or professionals unwittingly working in contradiction with each other. A co-ordination of this type of role is required.
The Parent Partnership Service plays a valuable role. Could the term parent partnership co-ordinator put some parents off using the service? Could they be called Parent Supporters instead?
Why no question involving improved opportunities for young people to be involved in their choice of provision?
Clear information to families at an early stage – preferably in writing and verbally, including someone who can help them understand what is available in their county. Services offered should be in one directory in each county.
Welcoming the idea of less bureaucracy in order to free up highly qualified and expensive professionals.
Multi-agency training available for parents – similar to that which is available to professionals. This will help parents have a better understanding of systems and what people are trying to achieve for their Children and Young People.
(6) How can we improve the transition from school to adult life for young people with special educational needs and disabilities and the support provided for their families throughout?
There seem to be lots of gaps in this area. Parents have commented that they have had to “have their wits about them” to ensure provision and that they have concerns for parents who may not have the ability to find their way through the complex systems.
All transitions legislation/assessments need to be brought together under one set of legislation, with one review and a single time frame. There is an issue of children’s social care working with young people to the age of 18 & the SEN legislation providing for young people up to the age of 19. This causes confusion, particularly for the young person themselves & for parents. It also hinders joint working.
Issue of more training on transitions for teachers in schools, with schools being supported to provide independence skills for young people with SEN.
Not waiting until children are at secondary school or the above transition is impending but putting early (primary age) independence programmes in place giving children the skills which can be developed in later life e.g. mobility skills and independent living skills.
Clear guidance on the importance of teaching Independence Education, i.e. teaching of ‘life skills’ and ‘employability skills’ through recognised courses as well as clear indication that inherent in such courses a range of EN, MATHS, GEOG, etc achievements are made.
The need for independent travel training to be flagged up at a national level as a priority.
The current pressure of league tables impacts on the opportunity for schools to provide vocational training/alternative qualifications for young people with SEN. A shift in thinking is required.
There is an issue around the funding systems for colleges to make provision for SEN, the lack of provision for SEN in some further education colleges leading for the need for young people to travel large distances to colleges where provision is available. Also, the system for parents to be able to appeal when a college is not meeting the needs of a young person needs to be made as robust as the SEND tribunals system.
(7) We would like to include ideas and examples of what's working well. If you have an example we could include please respond setting out your response as detailed below.
North Yorkshire LA were experiencing an increasing number of situations when parents were going straight to an appeal to SEND when they had had a request for statutory assessment turned down. Despite offering parents a “hand delivery” of the decision by a Parent Partnership Co-ordinator, on some occasions this was the first time that they had heard that parents were unhappy with the decision made. In collaboration with the Parent Partnership Service, the LA developed a scheme called “Your Next Steps” which involved information going to parents along with the “no to statutory assessment “ letter. This advises them that their next step could be a meeting with the SEN Officer & Parent Partnership Co-ordinator to discuss the decision. The information advises that this could be an alternative to an immediate appeal to SEND, but parents are also made aware of their right of appeal. The scheme has been in place for a period of 2 years, it has led to more positive working relationships with parents & has turned around a pattern of a year on year increasing number of appeals to SEND. No additional resources were required to put this scheme in place.
Q8) Please use this space for any other comments you would like to make.
Enable the wider access to materials in alternative formats through providing guidance to publishers of learning materials on production and provision of adapted materials (e.g. large print, ‘free from visual clutter’, accessible text files)
Promote special exam arrangements that are fair and enable the pupil to use methods and strategies that they use in everyday learning environment, this includes greater flexibility in providing extra time, text files, larger range of adapted exams or additional time to adapt exams.
Q9) Please let us have your views on responding to this consultation (e.g. the number and type of questions, was it easy to find, understand, complete etc.)
The consultation asks questions about parents’ rights and involvement. It is sadly lacking in any consultation about the involvement of young people, their rights & views.
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