“A new special educational needs (SEN) system has been in place for more than a year. But have the changes been positive? Laxmi Patel gives them a broad thumbs up – but warns that cuts are taking their toll”. Laxmi Patel recently...
On 29 January 2016 the DfE announced that it would be putting more money into the special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms. The additional funding is £80 million. The funding breaks down as follows: £35.87 million to local...
This is the second of a two-part post. Yesterday’s post explained what a personal budget is, how parents/young person (YP) can request one, personal budgets for Health and Social Care, challenging the local authority’s (LA’s) decision and...
We get enquiries about personal budgets time and time again. Whilst the right for parents and young people (YP) to request a personal budget has been in force now for over a year, it is apparent that very few people who want one have actually managed to...
There is still quite a lot of confusion about how therapeutic provision should be provided to a child or young person who has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) . Yesterday, 6 January 2016, we received a letter from a local authority which...
“Speakers at the Westminster Education Forum touched upon an issue that I believe needs to be discussed and understood more fully. Changes to the special educational needs (SEN) regime brought about by the Children and Families Act 2014 (CFA)...
The Department for Education (DfE) has released its latest Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) newsletter. It focuses heavily on the failings of the Local Offer , but is quiet on a number of other issues. The newsletter...
The Children and Families Act (CFA) came into effect a year ago, on 1 September 2014. At that time, we felt hopeful that we were on the brink of a significant cultural shift. We questioned whether the transition would be smooth, whether there would be much...
Head of SEN Solicitor team at Boyes Turner Laxmi Patel has written a parent’s guide to the Special Educational Needs reforms which appears in this month’s Families West magazine which you can read here . The article focuses...
The Inclusion Manager at Reading Borough Council, Chris Stevens, has set out that too many children with special educational needs (SEN) in Reading are facing exclusion or are missing education. This follows the announcement that West Berkshire...
