Getting the right schools for children with special needs

But for seven-year-old Dan Grundy the first day at school will come later than for most children. His family are moving from Leeds to Wakefield so that Don, who is profoundly disabled, can have the best possible care at a special school.

Dan, who cannot walk, talk or feed himself is one of the children whose parents feel they have been let down by the system which aims to provide inclusive education for all.

At the same time, five-year-old Rebecca Goodman, who has Down’s syndrome, will be starting out on another year at the Ilkley school which her parents say is doing a fantastic job.

And they are already planning to start the whole process again so that their two-year-old son, Mario, who also has Down’s, can follow her into the mainstream system.

They are very different and unconnected examples of a system that aims to provide inclusive education for children with special needs.

Karen Goodman, from the Ilkley-based support group LS29, is delighted with the help daughter Rebecca gets at All Saints School in Ilkley.

“They are the most fantastic school – very inclusive, very confident and very on the ball.”

“But I think you are very dependant on the school staff, mainly led by the headteacher, and on the confidence of parents to push for the support they think their child needs.

“Usually, of course, parents have no experience of this, and no experience at all of the statementing process – so it is completely over-whelming.”

She said that while some schools were very inclusive, others were simply not welcoming, which, in some cases ,could be because of a lack of knowledge and experience.

And while she believes some children need a higher level of specialist input, she thinks mainstream schooling is suitable for most children.

But she stressed the importance of starting the statementing process as early as possible so that all the necessary help will be in place by the time the child starts school.

“People need to know that it can take six months – we were told it would take three months.”

She emphasised how important it was to get the help that is available from a number of organisations that could help with the statement process including the Independent Panel for Special Education Advice (IPSEA) and the National Portage Association. She said the Down’s Syndrome support group at Bradford also offers invaluable support to parents.

Dan Grundy’s case is very different to Rebecca’s. He had been attending Green Meadows nursery in Guiseley, which his mother describes as “wonderful”.

But with no mainstream school willing to take him and no special school able to provide the care his mother wants for him, the family say they have been forced to put their house on the market and move to Wakefield.

Mrs Grundy, who is chairman of the Special Needs and Parents (SNAP) support group and acting chairman of Leeds Mencap, said her son. Dan, was starting school for the first time at the age of seven this week.

“Our son is very severely disabled and we have had problems getting him into a school that can meet his needs,” she said.

She said Dan was turned down by a local primary and although he was offered a place at John Jamieson Special School, in Oakwood, Leeds, he would have been in a reception class with children much younger than himself.

And while she says she is very much in favour of the move towards inclusion, she also firmly believes in the importance of special schools.

“I wouldn’t argue against inclusion,” said Mrs Grundy, “but there are ways and means or doing it and, unfortunately, the running down of special schools isn’t the best way of doing it.”

Sue Williamson, who has children at Green Meadows Special School in Guiseley, agreed that some youngsters are being failed by mainstream education.

She said: “The needs of the children in special school, certainly in Leeds, are more complex than ever before.

“Local authorities are placing more children in mainstream education which is failing many of them.

“Special schools tend to get the children when a little older because of this. Early intervention is the key.”

Mrs Williamson, who is treasurer for the PTFA at Green Meadows hailed the “fantastic” work that special schools do – but she said children needed a statement of their educational needs in order to get a place at a special school.

She said: “The Government is encouraging local authorities to place children with SEN in mainstream schools wherever possible. There are some very good examples where this works well, but for some children it doesn’t.

“Some parents feel it is harder to get a statement, a legal document that specifies the needs of the child and the help they need, which means you can’t have a special school place (SILC in Leeds).

Some parents want a statement not so they can have a special school placement but so that the mainstream school has to provide the help needed and because a statement means you can choose a school which you may not have been able to get your child into without it.

“Some parents want specialist provision but can’t get it,” said Mrs Williamson. “The SILCs have a specialist site and specialist units within certain mainstream schools where the children are supported by SILC staff.

“Some lessons are in their own unit and some lessons along mainstream peers but supported by SILC staff who have the expertise to adapt the curriculum to meet their individual needs. They have lunch together and playtimes together with mainstream peers. This allows children to receive specialist support but to have lessons in both settings tailored to meet their needs.

“You need a statement to do this and can have your child in the special school if inclusion doesn’t work. The SILC staff in these settings help to train the mainstream staff so they become more able to help their own SEN children.”

She added: “More information is needed for families about their options. It should be easier to get a statement and staff in mainstream schools require more training so they have the expertise to meet the needs of children with more complex SEN who would previously have gone into special school.

“Green Meadows offers excellent provision for very young children with SEN. They have a mainstream nursery (no statement is needed). If the child has a statement they can go there from two years old and access physio, OT, speech therapy, rebound, hydrotherapy, nursing support and sensory support. It would be difficult to offer these facilities in other settings and you can still choose mainstream later.”

Many parents of children with autism and Asperger’s syndrome feel their educational needs are not being met, according to Susan McDonagh, the chairman of the Leeds ABC support group, which covers an area including Horsforth, Yeadon and Guiseley.

She said: “We have a mailing list of almost 500 and while there are some families who feel that their children’s special educational needs are being met, there are many more families who believe that this is not the case.

“A good number of children and young people with autism do have their particular needs recognised and extra funding is then put into their particular school, but it isn’t exclusively allocated to them. It invariably goes into “the pot” that holds all the money given to the school for children with special educational needs and the head or governors decide how the money is to be spent.

“Many of the families I know fight to get a statement of special educational needs for their children in an effort to ensure that the money available to help their young people is ring-fenced and used particularly for them and also to ensure that their particular needs are recognised.”