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5 year old with ASD and help in school

NAS65623

Good evening, my son is 5 and has ASD. He attends a mainstream primary school. The school is local to us and is very small which limits the help available to him. 

Ideally I would like to try and get him 1-1 assistance from an outside source (if this sort of thing is even available) as I don't think this would be within the school's scope or budget.

Has anyone had a similar situation and been successful with getting their child extra help? I get told by school that he loses focus and doesn't seem to understand but nothing about how they plan to aid him. 

I should add that he has an EHCP but not overly confident that it is adhered to. 

Any tips or guidance would be greatly received. I have a meeting with school in a couple of weeks and wanted to go into it fully aware of what is available to us. 

  • in reply to Tinyexplorer

    Thank you very much once again. I got lots of information from one of those websites so have arranged a meeting with Senco tomorrow morning to discuss. Thank you for pointing me in the direction of them, they have given me a much better insight into what happens once the EHCP has been granted and our rights for it. 

  • in reply to NAS65623

    The school cannot say they don't have resources with the EHCP. What you could discuss with the school is whether specified hours are sufficient or they would recommend increasing the hours at the annual review. Basically if they admit there are not enough hours, they should recommend to increase them. If not, they should provide what is specified. Talk to those advice lines and talk with the Senco,

  • in reply to Tinyexplorer

    @tinyexplorer thank you so much for your response. 

    The EHCP does specify that 1-1 is to be provided and allocates time scales for this. The SEN teaching assistants in the school are amazing, they are just being stretched trying to cope with all the needs within the school. I will certainly question if the EHCP is being fully covered and will take the appropriate action, as mentioned in your response. 

    If the EHCP isn't being covered by current resources could the school apply to receive extra funding as a result of an EHCP being issued? My worry is that they are going to say they haven't the budget for extra resources being that they are a small school. 

    Thank you for the points of contact. I will get in touch with them. 

  • Your son has an EHCP. This is already a very good start. You are in strong position. This means his needs are identified and recognised. 
    Does the EHCP specify that he should get X hours of 1:1?

    By law the EHCP should be very specific about the kind and quantity of help. What provisions are specified in his EHCP?

    If 1:1 is specified, but the school is not providing it, you can discuss with the Senco and put a complaint that they failed to arrange the specified provisions. You can and should also complain to the Local Authority that the school fails to provide the support specified. The school would have the resources and the EHCP is also coming with a budget quantified in hours of 1:1 an group support. The school simply cannot argue that they don't have resources if he has an EHCP.

    If the EHCP does not specify hours of !:! it is a different ball game and you would have to prove that current provisions do not meet his needs and demand reassessment and possibly go to tribunal.

    You can get execellent 1:1 advice from NAS and from SOSSEN. They have walk in advice centres that are really good, plus a phone helpline

    IPSEA and SOSSEN also have model letters for most SEN situations. 

    NAS 0808 800 4102

    SOSSEN  https://www.sossen.org.uk/advice_centres.php

    IPSEA advice line https://www.ipsea.org.uk/advice-line