School Action Plus

As I understand it school action is where the school are aware and should monitor your child and provide support.

School action plus means outside agencies are also involved.

Snooz started school on school action plus.

School Action Plus is now actually a redundant 'name' in the new SEN system - but it means that a child is accessing support from Outside Agencies (CAMHS, Specialist Teacher, EP, SALT, OT) who the school are working with in order to provide a differentiated curriculum for the said child. It also means that the school are providing 12 and a half hours a week of support dedicated to the needs that are over and above the expected needs of a child their age. The SEN code of practice states that children with SEN have needs that are 'extra to and different from' those of their peers - it is these extra and different needs that should be targeted in the 12 and a half hours - not just 'normal' support in the class from an LSA to help them do the same as the rest of the children in the class.

Under the new system, in our LA, the new terms seem to be 'Additional Needs' and 'Complex Needs' but I'm not sure these are necessarily the terms used with parents. You should have a 'One Plan' meeting which should in theory involve all who work with the child. A One Page Profile should then be drawn up that should include things that work and things that don't. If needs are higher than this then there can still be an IEP and proposed outcomes should be set. Anything like this would usually be on a termly schedule of assess, plan, do, review.

The new system was developed to give children and parents more choice and control and to make education work more closely with health and social care. It's too early to tell if this is working.

The thing to be asking for is evidence that they are listening and are taking action to support your child's needs. It is one thing for them to sit in a meeting and say they'll do something, quite another for them to actually follow through and make the changes on a permanent basis - then something entirely different for them to be able to review effectively and make appropriate follow on plans!

Hate to be depressing.

Our 2 have been on school action since they came to us (5 years ago) then school action plus when school funded 10 sessions of Theraplay whilst we funded hundreds of sessions ourselves. Eventually they got an assessment from a specialist teacher - not an Ed Psych. That teacher then gave the TA some techniques to use. Not sure if the 12.5 hours is mandated but ours were getting bits and pieces of TA support 1:3 ish. A timetable was only produced (yes about 12.5 hours) once we got an EP report and said we were going to try to get an EHC plan.

They offer loads of peripheral sticky plaster stuff and even though the EP report says they need 5 hours per week with a specialist dyslexia teacher and MB needs 20 hours a week 1:1 the school say the don't agree - this is because they do not seriously disrupt class on a daily basis.

You have to go through school action and school action plus before you can apply for an EHC plan. in reality the 1:3 TA time is constantly getting but into by special events - sports day, rehearsing the xmas performance, children in need etc etc etc etc. In reality there are only about 2 weeks/half term where it all happens according to plan.

School just say our children are flatlining progress wise because they have barriers to learning and approaches to breaking those barriers have to be tried for a period of time and when they fail a new approach is tried and by then half a term has gone by and so it goes on.

I hope you lovely people have better experiences we are totally depress about it all here but still going for an EHC plan even though school say LA will never fund the things that have been recommended to us.

I don't know much about the new system, but where I work children on school action plus are discussed regularly with teachers and senco - strategies used are reviewed, new ideas for supporting them put forward and agreed etc. All children for one year group discussed at the same meeting. Some have interventions from outside agencies like SaLT or OT; others are just known to outside agencies. Teachers have a list of who the children are and why they are at SA+. The list also includes children at school action and these children are also looked at to see if their needs have changed or if more can be done. I have never heard of 12.5 hours - children are just given the support that seems appropriate and can be arranged within the schools resources.

But on top of that all the children in the school are monitored regularly in terms of progress - where issues arise individual children are looked at to see if support is needed. These children may or may not be deemed SEN but any could have an intervention if that was suitable.

I know with EHC plans school interventions and support has to be shown to have not had the desired impact over a period of time. So it would be hard to jump to having one straight away I guess.