My 3 year old starts school next year, he’s been at pre-school since September and they’re currently doing his EHCP ready for January deadlines. He will need to go to a special school (if he gets a place). I had to consent to everything and have so many people involved with his progression at the moment, he has a consultant paediatrician, 2 sencos at pre-school, a speech and language therapist and a specialist health visitor. It’s so intense but his pre-school have been amazing and the support has been incredible. Family etc have been harder work and a lot of them seem to think if he starts talking in the next 9 months then he’ll be fine and go to mainstream school but that’s not that case - it’s so much deeper than that but he struggles communicating non-verbally let alone verbally, he doesn’t interact at all with other children and his overall development is the same as a child of age 12-18 months. He started talking at 18 months but very suddenly stopped and regressed to baby babble and hasn’t spoken since. I’d give anything to hear him say mummy again but he just can’t and Rebecca is over there having a meltdown hiding in her “office” with a cup of tea because Woody won’t stop saying mummy and wants her attention. She really takes those boys for granted - she’s taken poor Woody out of pre-school for no apparent reason. The only children they get to socialise with is each other & especially at Woodys age they learn so much from each other. When I asked my sons pre-school how he was getting on with the other children they said that they adapt really quickly to non-verbal children and find their own ways of communicating with him, whether it’s facial expressions or passing him a toy or copying what he’s doing & my son will taking in these non-verbal cues, whether he chooses to respond to them or not he is still taking it all in & children absorb so much at this age. She’s just holding them both back.Hey someone asked if there was anyone from school or a senco. I'm a qualified primary teacher, taught for 8 years and have taught many autistic children and children with varying levels of need. I now work in Education for my local authority and work alongside a variety of services such as children's social care, children's disability service, the family service etc. Every school has to follow a graduated response to children with SEN. EHCPs (formally known as statements) are very difficult to be awarded and generally are after years of following the graduated response, ie proving that all other avenues have already been followed. They are typically for children with high level needs that are likely to attend a special school. In my experience and from what I have seen of Alfie on Instagram, he wouldn't meet the level of need for an EHCP. It's possible that he is receiving some in school support such as small group or 1 to 1 interventions without parental permission (you don't need that to work with TAs in small groups) but for things such as speech and language, accessing outside agencies, you do need parental permission. Again without us knowing his full academic ability, and only seeing small snippets of him on insta, it's very difficult to exactly pinpoint his level of need and therefore what exact support he needs. In addition what an EHCP provides access to differs with each local authority. Some state funding, some don't. You don't need an EHCP in order to have some targeted support from a TA in school. In order to get more funding, children need to be taken to what is called Springboard which is a meeting between the sencos in the family of schools where you can access support from Schools and Families Specialist Services and if needed some extra funding known as AFN and HLN. Again you need parental permission for this. The school has to put the first £6000 in the pot so it's only really children with more specific needs that will be raised. And then all the sencos decide between them which children get funding. If there are children in other schools with higher levels of need, then the funding will be prioritised for them. There's lots to all these processes but hope that helps explain it a little!
With regards to social care, you could argue educational neglect, but I'm really not sure they would meet the level 4 threshold for children's social care. I've seen a lot worse be turned down. Potentially it would meet level 3 which is targeted early help. This normally entails some sessions from the family service or recommendations for parents to go on courses but this is dependent on whether the parent agrees to engage.