Anti-iep Parent

[Guest]

Evening,

 

In addition to being a pre-school leader I am on the committee at my son's pre-school.

An issue has come up there and the leader is asking my advice and I really don't know the answer....

 

She has a child who is very difficult to manage in terms of neediness and behaviour. The child is taking up an adult's time 1:1 each time she is in and she is full-time so proving to be a real drain on staffing. They want to put her on early years Action and Action Plus, give her an individual play plan and start putting together evidence to gain funding for some 1;1.

 

The Mum is adamant that she does not want any of this to happen and does not want her daughter to have a 'special needs' label. No amount of explaining what this actually entails will help to change the rather aggressive Mum's mind.

What can you do? They need the funding to be able to put in the staffing to support her and give the other children a look in. The girl will be going to school in September where of course it will be much easier for school to force the issue.

As it is quite a 'confidential issue' it is difficult for any of us to get involved as committee members.

 

Any thoughts?

[Guest]

Unfortunately, you can't make a parent comply. What we have done is keep chipping away and sadly, it led to a near exclusion and the implementation of a Pastoral Support PLan to convince parents that theere was a problem!!

That's the worst case scenario.

As an INCO all I can advise is to keep records and kkepp talking to the family, chipping away a bit at a time. Unless they give permission you cannot implement Action Plus, but Action can be implemented and the extra provision will have to be seen to be neede from this. Sorry, not that clear. It's late and I'm v. tired!.

 

You can always talk to other agencies about an un named child and about children who exhibit behaviours 'similar' to this one.

[Guest]

Evening,

 

In addition to being a pre-school leader I am on the committee at my son's pre-school.

An issue has come up there and the leader is asking my advice and I really don't know the answer....

 

She has a child who is very difficult to manage in terms of neediness and behaviour. The child is taking up an adult's time 1:1 each time she is in and she is full-time so proving to be a real drain on staffing. They want to put her on early years Action and Action Plus, give her an individual play plan and start putting together evidence to gain funding for some 1;1.

 

The Mum is adamant that she does not want any of this to happen and does not want her daughter to have a 'special needs' label. No amount of explaining what this actually entails will help to change the rather aggressive Mum's mind.

What can you do? They need the funding to be able to put in the staffing to support her and give the other children a look in. The girl will be going to school in September where of course it will be much easier for school to force the issue.

As it is quite a 'confidential issue' it is difficult for any of us to get involved as committee members.

 

Any thoughts?

Yep thats a tricky one! Does mum agree that the child needs support or does she think its all a bit of a fuss? Maybe you could approach it in terms of 'working out the best ways to support the child by putting some agreed strategies in place to help the child' rather than seeking a 'special needs 'status, if that makes sense. often parents are afraid of the term 'special needs' so re-phrasing can help a lot - after all you are trying to do your best for the child, and most parents will support that.

Maybe once you've sat down and agreed strategies and targets , then you could explain that the level of support would be regarded as Early Years Action (you can't be on EY action & action plus at same time)

Ultimately you can't do anything without the parents permission, but in the worst case scenario at least your staff are flagging this up with the family, and it may just take time for the family to come to terms with it.

Think I might advise staff to be patient and keep emphasising that to do the best for the child extra support is needed.

 

Not much help I know - sorry , it's a real tricky situation

Carmen

[Guest]

It is a tricky situation and I agree that keeping good records with the child on early years action would be extremely useful information / data if you did then ask for support.

 

In the past when I have had problems and haven't felt mum or dad to be particularly responsive to what we have to say I ask our SENCO to come and sit in with us at a meeting with parents (thus formalising it a little) as she usually puts things better than me!

 

However I wanted to say that the comment about the issue being able to be more easily forced when she is in school is rubbish.

Very little can be done with a parent who refuses to see that there is a problem.

It will be the same situation in school..... chipping away until mum realises that everyone is just trying to help!!

 

We currently have a year one child who has been known to have a problem since nursery and still dad refuses to come to meetings or access help offered. It is a difficult situation whatever setting you are in!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Upsy Daisy]

Would it be appropriate (bearing in mind that you've described her as aggressive) to ask mum to come into pre-school to support her daughter herself.

 

This could work

a) because she may not want to have to give up the time

because she will see the severity of the problem for herself

[Guest]

I've had a similar situation although not gone as far as yours and I did what Upsy Daisy suggested. When mum came in and observed from another room the behaviour she got very upset but then agreed her child needed some extra help. This made it much easier for us to proceed and the child left us with a recommendation that if transition went well, the EY Action could be removed. In our area we cannot even put a child on EY Action without permission from parents, although we can of course do the actions we would do if we had that permission.

[Upsy Daisy]

I've just re-read my post and realised there is a smiley face instead of the b I don't know why it's there. I just wanted you to know I wasn't being flippant, Edlee.

 

It did it again but at least I could edit it out this time!

Edited December 19, 2009 by Upsy Daisy

[Marion]

I agree with holly even though the parent doesn't want the label there is nothing to stop the provision from being provided or you keeping records of what you do.

 

As a SENCO I use provision mapping and pupil profiles rather than IEPs

[eyfs1966]

I agree with holly even though the parent doesn't want the label there is nothing to stop the provision from being provided or you keeping records of what you do.

 

As a SENCO I use provision mapping and pupil profiles rather than IEPs

 

Hi Marion, could you explain a little more about mapping and profiles versus IEPs for the uninitiated like me!!!!

[Marion]

A Provision map is a way of identifying and matching the provision you provide with the needs of the children in your setting.

There are a number of models used by schools but I think the most useful in a non school based setting would be by area of need from the CoP

Provision within the four areas of difficulty identified within the Code of Practice:

Cognition and Learning

Communication and Interaction

Emotional, Behavioural and Social

Sensory and Physical

 

Derby have produced guidance

 

http://www.derby.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/374CE...sionmapping.pdf

 

I'm in the process of producing pupil profiles for all children not just those with SEN and I also record individual and group provision.

provisionplanningsheetblankmk2withnotes.doc

ExamplePupilProfile_no_name.doc