What should you expect from the school?

For all parents, schools must:

• Provide the name of the teacher responsible for children with special educational needs (called the SENCO).
• Explain the way it decides which children need help and how it will be given.
• Describe how it will work closely with parents.
• Through its governing bodies, draw up and publish a special needs policy and report annually to parents on its implementation.
• Publish information about physical access to the school for children with mobility problems.

A parent said “I was ever so upset, it was such a change from what we had imagined for her. But once we got there and we’d gone round with the staff, they were just so thorough in finding out what would suit her…they were just tremendous and she’s flourished.”

Code of Practice

Since the Education Act of1994, the law says that a child has special educational needs if he or she has learning difficulties due to medical or health problems, physical disability, emotional and behavioural or other problems and therefore needs help. The help is known as special educational provision. The help could be wide-ranging, for example more individual time from a teacher or assistant, equipment or special arrangements to suit the individual child (for example time out of lessons for a trained adult to do the physiotherapy exercises in school), or time at a specialist unit. One in five children have some sort of learning difficulty at some time in their school careers, most children get over their difficulty while others need ongoing help.

The Code of Practice provides government guidelines that spell out who is responsible for what, if someone suspects a child needs extra help.

The guidelines give information about three different stages of help for your child, (School Action, School Action Plus, SEN Statement). There is considerable importance placed on partnership with parents. There are also clear procedures about what happens if you agree or disagree with the assessment and decisions about your child. Your child’s progress should be reviewed regularly with you.

The full text of the Code of Practice is available at www.dfes.gov.uk/publications

Ask for a copy of a parents guide to the new code on 0845 60 222 (UK only) to order your free copy of the new Code of Practice Guide for Parents).

Also try www.inclusive.co.uk/infosite/codepar.shtml

The input of a physiotherapist and occupational therapist will be especially helpful in defining the difficulties your child has, and the strategies you and the teachers could use to help her. Specify that you would need them to assess your child whether or not your child requires an SEN statement.

These professionals in particular can assess your child’s needs both in school and at home, and are key allies in coping with childhood arthritis.

Outcome of assessments

The assessments should clearly indicate the nature of your child’s individual educational needs and the action and strategy the school will use to meet her needs. The assessments are completed following the Code of Practice, which is a statutory process. The process lasts eight weeks, and involve different specialists. It is still common for the process to take a lot longer but the more informed and prepared you are, the smoother and quicker the process is likely to be.