Statement of Special Educational Needs

Maria in school uniform (2015)

Those of you who have Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans in England will have fond memories of the Statement of Special Educational Needs (SOSEN); but in Wales we still have them - for now anyway. In fact, just after we left England for Wales our Welsh Local Education Authority (LEA) had already been made aware of Maria and was negotiating with us which school we might choose. They didn't come out and say to us that Special Schools in Wales are only for chldren with severe learning needs. At that time, Maria was classed as having moderate learning needs and so the Welsh LEA recommened putting her into a mainstream school with an Additional Learning Unit (ALU).

We visited the local Special School, which is only five minutes drive from our home, but the Head Teacher made it clear that it would be very difficult for Maria to get in and she would have to wait until next year to apply.

So, we were pretty much pushed into accepting Maria into a large mainstream school with a large ALU of seven classes. Unlike the English Special School, this Welsh school didn't have a team of in-house Speech and Language Therapists (SALT). In fact, her new Welsh school told us that they had not been able to get hold of a SALT for years and, by a stroke of luck, this year the LEA had managed to find one and she was now busy doing assessements. When I pointed out that Maria also had Occupational Therapy (OT) on her statement then the school SENCO shrugged her shoulders (metaphorically) and told us that OTs were very difficult to find in Wales but that they had an in-house psysiotherapist who would help. Six months later and still Maria's OT provision hadn't been met.

In the meantime, the English format of Maria's Special Educational Needs Statement did not conform to the Welsh standards, so the LEA rewrote it into the Welsh format. It should have been very straightforward. The first draft looked okay but had a few differences about monitoring and maintenance which I questioned. They agreed with me and changed it into a second draft. After a few more comments a third draft arrived in the post and I assumed they had just implemented the small changes I had suggested. Everything should have been the same as the English version: Maria should have blocks of SALT sessions and see the SALT each week. The same for OT - just like she was doing in her Special School in England. Now all that Maria needed was an OT.

The NHS OT lagged by many months, so Maria didn't see an OT for six months. I got the forms to complain to the Obudsman about the LEA not providing the OT service that is required by law in Maria's Statement. But before I could complete the forms I got a phone call from the LEA telling me they had just hired their own "Educational OT", and Maria was top of the list to see him. I wondered if I should ask for Maria to have two sessions per week to make up for the lost six months, but I didn't. I thought to myself that at least they had made the effort to hire somebody and I shouldn't punish them by complaining to the Ombusdman or giving them a hard time.

And so everything seemed to be okay for a couple of months until I got a phone call from Maria's SALT telling me it was time for her review. I was confused. Why was Maria having a review at this time of year? She has weekly sessions with her SALT. Why does she need a review now?

Er no, she said. Maria's provision on her Special Educational Needs Statement had been changed from blocks of weekly sessions to two reviews per year. My heart starting to beat faster and I was speechless for a moment. WHAT!!!

After I calmed down I pointed out that nobody had discussed this with me. The previous SALT had not discussed making any changes to Maria's provision. I was incredulous and felt sure there had been a mistake. After the phone conversation - in which I asked the new SALT to go through Maria's records to see what reason was given for reducing Maria's SALT provision to two reviews per year by the previous SALT - I rushed off the check Maria's current SEN Statement.

Remember that third draft I mentioned? The one in which only small, routine changes had been made and so I didn't bother to check it. Well, in the covering letter it said that Maria's SALT provision was being reduced to two per year; and when I checked the SEN Statement itself, sure enough it had. I was LIVID - both with them and with myself for not checking the draft properly and for trusting them. Those sneaky ********! The two month period I had to complain to a Tribunal about the changes had passed and there was nothing I could do now.

I had spoken to the previous SALT many times over the phone. She hadn't told me anything about reducing Maria's provision. What was going on? I began to smell a rat. Sure enough, when the new SALT phoned me a day or so later, she told me that she could find nothing in Maria's notes that explained why her previous SALT had reduced her provision. I tried to convince the new SALT to put Maria back on her orginal provision; she was nice but vague and uncommited to any such action.

So my mind turned to what to do next ...