Support & guidance for the special educational needs and disabilities inquiry written submission form. Use this link to upload your submission https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-az/commons-select/education-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/special-educational-needs-and-disabilityinquiry-17-19/commons-written-submission-form/. Advice and guidance (read this first) To successfully make a submission via the online form on a committee’s website, documents need to: • • • • •
Be less than 25 MB in size Be in Word (doc, docx, rtf, txt ooxml or odt format, not PDF) Contain as few logos or embedded pictures as possible Contain no macros Comprise a single document. If there are any annexes or appendices, these should be included in the same document.
Specific guidance (read this second) •
• • • • • •
State clearly who the submission is from, i.e. whether from yourself in a personal capacity or sent on behalf of an organisation, for example the submission could be headed ‘Written evidence submitted by xxxxxx’ Be concise – we recommend no more than 3,000 words in length Begin with an executive summary in bullet point form of the main points made in the submission Include a brief introduction about yourself/your organisation and your reason for submitting evidence Have numbered paragraphs Include any factual information you have to offer from which the committee might be able to draw conclusions, or which could be put to other witnesses for their reactions Include any recommendations for action by the Government or others which you would like the committee to consider
VERY IMPORTANT • • • • • •
All submissions will be published and searchable on the internet, be careful what you write as it will be publically available. Do not comment on existing legal/tribunal cases. Each submission should ne newly written material, i.e. not published elsewhere. References can be made, preferable through hyperlinks in the test. Once submitted, no public use should be made of any submission prepared specifically for the committee unless you have first obtained permission from the clerk of the committee. If you are given permission by the committee to publish your evidence separately, you should be aware that you will be legally responsible for its content.
Use this link to upload your submission https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-az/commons-select/education-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/special-educational-needs-and-disabilityinquiry-17-19/commons-written-submission-form/. Personal Advice • • • • •
Don’t refer to LA/child’s name, this may allow for identification (remember it can be searched for, see above) Keep it succinct e.g. ‘failed to carry out assessment’ rather than ‘initially I tried X, then Y, LA said Z’ If some sections are not relevant just write ‘not relevant/no experience’ in that section If you aim for 400-500 words for each of the five sections this may help structuring your response Good luck Page 1 of 4
Questions that may help you to structure your submission Remember that you do not have to submit evidence in all sections, just the one(s) that you have personal experience of or wish to focus on. Write about your own experiences in your own words, this list of questions is to help you to think about what points you might want to make – please do not answer every question (or any of them if your story is different).
Section 1. The Assessment and Support of Children and Young People with SEND • • •
Are you happy with the support that your child receives at school? If not why not? What actions have been taken to assess your child’s needs? Were these sufficient? How did you find the process of requesting a needs assessment (for an EHCP)? Did you understand what was going on? Was there good communication between you, the SEN team and the school during the process? Was the process completed within the 20 week timescale? If not, how long did it take and what was the impact of the delay?
•
Have you been happy with the range of professionals whose advice has been sought as part of the assessment? Were you involved in deciding which advice should be sought? Were the reports requested and provided in a timely manner?
•
Do you feel that the assessments fully reflect your child’s needs. If not, why not?
•
Do you feel that the advice has been fully taken on board in your child’s EHCP?
•
Did you feel that your child and yourself have been at the heart of the needs assessment process and that your views have been fully taken into account?
•
Were you given good and timely advice as to where you could seek further assistance?
•
Do you feel that the EHCP document is an accurate reflection of your child’s needs and clearly defines the support and provision that will help your child achieve their goals?
•
Do you feel that your child is supported to reach their full potential, with decisionmakers having high but realistic expectations for them?
•
Has the provision and support defined in the EHCP been provided as expected? If not what has not happened? And why?
•
If you have applied for a needs assessment for an EHCP but have been turned down during the process, do you understand why and do you agree with the decision? Has any support been put in place for your child within school?
•
Have you ever been told that your child does not need an assessment as they don’t have academic issues (even if they have social, emotional, mental health or sensory issues)?
•
If your child or young person has moved from nursery to primary or primary to secondary or secondary to college or other institution, how smooth has the transition been in terms of support? What impact has this had on your child?
2. The Transition from Statements of Special Educational Needs and Learning Disability Assessments (LDAs) to Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) • How did you find the process of transferring to an EHCP? Did you understand it? Was there good communication between you, the SEN team and the school throughout? •
Was the transfer conducted in a timely way (i.e. within 18 weeks)? If not how long did it take? What was the impact of the delay?
•
Did you feel pressurised to accept an EHCP to “meet the 31st March” deadline? Do you feel that this has affected the quality of the EHCP?
Page 2 of 4
Questions that may help you to structure your submission •
Do you feel that the right assessments were done as part of the transfer to the EHCP and all the necessary professionals were asked to input?
•
Are you happy that the EHCP is as clear and specific as the statement was?
•
Has all the support and provision from the statement been transferred to the EHCP (unless there was an agreement that it was no longer required)? If not – what reason has been given?
•
Is the provision in your plan clear and specific? Does it specify number of hours of support, type of person providing it and frequency? Or does it use phrases such as “would benefit from…”, “should have access to…” etc which are difficult to monitor
•
Did you feel that your child and yourself have been at the heart of the transfer process and that your views have been taken into account?
•
Do you feel that the EHCP document is a good reflection of your child’s needs and clearly defines the support and provision that will help your child to achieve their goals?
•
Do you think that the EHCP is an improvement on the statement / LDA ? Why / why not?
•
What impact has the transfer to an EHCP had on your child and your family?
3. The Level and Distribution of Funding for SEND Provision • Do you feel that the services and /or equipment provided meet your child’s needs? •
Has this changed over the last few years? If so, how?
•
Have you ever been told that the support that you feel your child needs is not available because of funding issues?
•
Have you ever been told that the school can’t apply for a needs assessment because your child “doesn’t meet the £6000 threshold”? If yes, was appropriate provision put in place without the need for a full needs assessment?
•
Have you ever had to wait for support, equipment or provision because different organisations were discussing who should pay for it (e.g. school. Local Authority, Social Care, Health service)
4. The Roles of and Co-operation Between Education, Health and Social Care Sectors • If appropriate, did social care and healthcare contribute to your child’s EHCP? •
Did your EHCP reflect the impact that any health or social care needs of the child have on their education?
•
Did you feel that a complete picture of health needs was included? How was this achieved? Did you have to provide a lot of supplementary information or did the Local Authority contact a health professional who provided all of the necessary information?
•
If you were told that your child does not have social care needs did you agree with this? If not were you given reasons why no social care needs were recorded in the EHCP?
•
How do you find the integration of services in the EHCP vs the statement / LDA?
5. Provision For 19-25 Year Olds Including Support of Independent Living; Transition to Adult Services; and Access to Education, Apprenticeships and Work • Were you helped to understand the education options as well as social care and health support for your child post 18? •
Did those options meet your child’s needs? If not what action has been taken and what have the consequences been?
•
Have you had any issues with the suitability of provision for children post 18, and the support available to enable them to access it? (e.g. transport, part time curriculum)
Page 3 of 4
Questions that may help you to structure your submission •
Have you been told that your young person cannot have any further education / training support through the EHCP after 19? If yes, do you believe that your young person needs to continued education and training and what is the impact of this not being provided?
•
Do you feel that the provision from 19-25 is appropriate to enable your young person to achieve their agreed goals or outcomes? If not what do you believe is missing?
Possible Recommendations (these are just suggestions) • EHCP health and social care provision to be statutory •
Quality of all EHCPs to be reviewed to ensure that more vulnerable families are not receiving 2nd rate level of provision.
•
Continued independent support for families
•
Transparency around SEND budgets in schools
•
Transparency around LA funding decisions
•
Mediation where school and parent disagrees about level and type of SEN Support
•
Clear post 16/18 pathways
•
Clear post 16 /18 funding (transparency around who pays for what when child turns 18?)
•
Clarity around funding of 19-25 services and the local authority obligations post 19 as per the SEND Reforms
•
More funding –The reforms have raised expectations, but these expectations cannot be met.
Page 4 of 4