According to all the surveys which have been carried out in this country in recent years, home educated children seem far more likely to have problems of one sort and another than the school population as a whole. In 2003, Education Otherwise asked all its members about their reasons for home educating, in 2006 the National Foundation for Educational Research published Some Perspectives on Home educated Children, in 2007 York Consulting found the same thing and so did the Ofsted survey, whose results were published last year. It seems clear that among children who are educated at home by their parents, there are an awful lot with special educational needs or who are the victims of bullying. It is rare for a child to be withdrawn from school because the education is not up to scratch. The commonest reasons by far for taking children out of school is because the school is seen by the parents as being unable or unwilling to deal with the problems which the child is encountering.
At any rate, whatever the rights and wrongs of the matter, the end result is a group of perhaps eighty thousand children with a far higher proportion of autistic spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Emotional and Behavioural Disorders and so on than an average group of school children. The parents would argue that this situation has arisen because of shortcomings on the part of the school. This may well be so. The fact still remains that we have tens of thousands of children who are often not receiving the help for their children's difficulties which they require and to which they are entitled. The provision of support services often ends when a child is deregistered from school. During the Ofsted survey of local authorities and home educators which was conducted in 2009, one mother said that when she mentioned that she was considering taking her children from school, a child with special educational needs, she was told that it was a case of 'school and services, or home education and no services'. This is not an isolated case.
The result of all this is that many of the children who have been deregistered from school in this way are not receiving the oversight of professionals. In many cases, the parents are angry and at loggerheads with what they see as the educational establishment and want no more to do with them anyway. In others, they are told bluntly that services will in any case end if they take their children from school. I am not commenting here at all about the rights and wrongs of the actions of either the parents or the schools. It is though a matter of concern that so many children who evidently need extra help in order to fulfil their potential are now effectively cut off from the services which they require. A number of people are uneasy about this, including many professionals, but I can't think that there is a simple solution. I am aware that a number of parents here took their children from school because they believed the school to be failing in their duties towards the children. I wonder if any of them have any ideas about the best way to deliver services to children once they are out of school?
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I thnk that it depends on the nature of the services; for example we actually got more speech therapy once my dd wasn't at school, although we had to travel "to it" rather than the previous system where the SALT came to school. Our speech therapist though was still directly employed by the NHS, where as many LAs now have their own who are placed in a school setting. Once dd was out of school, we also had a lot more time to work on the programme devised by the SALT; that was never going to be the case in school setting. We are also fortunate that home educators in our area are able to access educational pyschology services from the LA - one of the fruits of our work with the LA: other areas are not so lucky.
ReplyDeleteTo help more HE children in similar positions isn't hard - the LA already employs the EP's and if the child were still in school, then the LA of the school would still have to bear the cost. It just needs to the right attitude from the LA - a child " in need" shouldn't be denied services because of their educational setting.
Of course it would seem a higher propotion of HE kids have SENs and this really IS because schools aren't meeting their needs so they are withdrawn.
ReplyDeleteSchools are slow to decide action is needed, often funded is limited to the most severe difficulties leaving those who are disruptive or have are silently struggling tend to get skimmed over. Equally a diagnosis doesnt always guarantee professional help. Once diagnosis was secured for my oldest boy I thought things would be fine but in reality the school said they didnt know what to do with him as he didnt prsent typical symptoms and continued to exclude without any kind of help.
Often class sizes are too big, there are too few TAs and the curriculum is too full to really help those who need it. From the evidence of others it seems that its not the really bright or really difficult that are missed but more often its those middle kids with processing issues, or dyslexia, or other mild diffiuclties that get missed.
As a home educator I have successfully been able to access Educational Psychologists, SALT, Occupational Therapy and paediatricians via my local authority - maybe we are just lucky here in Somerset. Warwickshire,Lincoln and Devon were impossible when it came to securing services for my children.
An issue for us has been getting therapy following diagnosis. For example when my daughter was diagnosed by an OT, we were told there is no therapy here. I was told "Im sorry but this is the diagnosis. however, this is a condition recognised in the US and we dont have anyone trained to treat it in the UK. You could pay privately". - If thats not a cop out by professionals I dont know what is. The UK just isnt set up for many disabilities/ difficulties that can impair children.
We ended up going to BIBIC who does know about US therapies and was able to give us several fantastic programmes to help.
'During the Ofsted survey of local authorities and home educators which was conducted in 2009, one mother said that when she mentioned that she was considering taking her children from school, a child with special educational needs, she was told that it was a case of 'school and services, or home education and no services'. This is not an isolated case.'
ReplyDeleteWhat's also not an isolated case is 'school and no services'. This is why many children are being home educated in the first place.
'What's also not an isolated case is 'school and no services'. This is why many children are being home educated in the first place.'
ReplyDeleteAlso a fair point!
"It is rare for a child to be withdrawn from school because the education is not up to scratch. The commonest reasons by far for taking children out of school is because the school is seen by the parents as being unable or unwilling to deal with the problems which the child is encountering."
ReplyDeleteThose problems invariably mean that the education is not up to scratch, so I don't see why you make the distinction. A child living in fear of bullying is not going to learn well even in an otherwise excellent school and likewise for unmet medical or development needs.
"It is though a matter of concern that so many children who evidently need extra help in order to fulfil their potential are now effectively cut off from the services which they require."
If the child is de-registered because their needs are not being met, nothing has really been lost (because the needs were not being met), but the parents can concentrate their time and energy on meeting those needs themselves instead of wasting their time and energy, battering their heads against 'the system'. They cut out the middle man, or at least one of them if they still need to look for outside help.
''What's also not an isolated case is 'school and no services'. This is why many children are being home educated in the first place.'
ReplyDeleteAlso a fair point! '
It's an important point. A lot of people who don't actually use the services think that because a LA offers access to speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, an educational psychologist, CAMHS etc, that those services are actually supporting children and improving outcomes. Often what happens is that children are undergo repeated assessments, and the children with most significant needs might get a bit of help occasionally.
Simon,
ReplyDeleteI don't think they are "cut off from services" in the way that you imagine.
Physiotherapy and OT, if they were in place, carry on as the same, as they are health service funded. Speech therapy is often funded through the education system, and people lose that, but they usually manage to get a similar level through the health service. It can take a bit of organising. Paediatricians and CAMHS still see children in the same way.
Those in mainstream lose the 1 -1 support assistant, (something they often ask if they can keep) and access to people like advisory teachers, but then these mostly were only seeing the child in school, something like once a term. Some services - like HI and VI in many areas would continue to offer a level of support.
Those in special may miss out on specialist therapies, like hydrotherapy and music therapy. Some special schools offer these anyway to "outsiders" at an after school club or weekend sessions. Respite care shouldn't be affected, and specialist playschemes and holiday clubs are rarely closed to HEers who want to use them, and there are local special swimming, drama, horse riding groups in many areas too.
There is a difficulty for some people around communication aids and braillers. the numbers affected are very small, and charities will sometimes help. The increasing available excellent communication apps for iphone and ipad may well make this less of an issue for some. The families I know who are affected in this way have very carefully balanced the difficulty in accessing this equipment, with the advantages they see in educating the child according to their needs not to a curriculum, and are always in touch with a range of support organisations where they are getting expert advice.
HE special links a lot of these families, who share information about advice from charities, private professionals, books and articles, programmes of therapy, and personal experience and the level of informed peer support is very high. People find answers there and ideas that make a difference, that were not available to them during years at school. When a parent sets out to become really informed about a child's condition and difficulties, these days with so much available on the internet, and an informed group to discuss it with, bounce ideas off, and to pol information and understanding with, they can become impressive experts in their child's needs.
Speaking as a parent, I am aware that the experts only know bits of my child, and often give contradictory or unworkable advice. As a parent who has spent huge amounts of time with my child, observing and reflecting on his difficulties and planning strategies to help him, I am in a much better position to make sense of their input and make informed decisions.
Christine
'I don't think they are "cut off from services" in the way that you imagine.'
ReplyDeleteI don't imagine this at all. It happens in some cases and some parents who spoke to the Ofsted survey had had this experience.
"It happens in some cases and some parents who spoke to the Ofsted survey had had this experience."
ReplyDeletePossibly they lacked the support and advice available from the HE community. Maybe a cost effective move on the part of LAs to help these people would be to put them in touch with HE support networks who can tell them how to access the lost services if the LA cannot or will not do it themselves.
Mmm. I think often at the point of leaving school, families are very focussed on the services, such as the 1-1 that is available in school, and LAs are quick to point out that this won't continue, so they feel cut off at that point. Very few (if any) are driven back by a lack of services that were available in school, other than for the day care that school provides.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Simon for sorting out the vanishing post. I'd like people to see the real possibilities fro support that exist.
Christine
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