[senco-forum] [SENco-forum] Advice Please- use of EP service

Dear All,

I originally asked for advice about how to make best use if this service and
I am grateful to those of you who responded.

As it now seems to have become a request for me to justify why I have taken
this route, I will respond as follows:-

1. I do have the training to understand the recommendations in an EP report,
that's not a problem for me/us.
2. I have already established a local mutual support group of SENCos and
SLTs and others in the independent sector, who meet half-termly to share
ideas and support each other.
3. All or most of these people share my wish to have access to an EP who
will come into school, employed by the school, and work closely with us.
None of them have achieved it, I don't know the detailed reasons why.
4. I expressed this wish to the LA EP who comes in to work with us in
connection with a child with a statement. This person has a private EP
practice but felt that if we obtained private services then there could
potentially be a conflict of interest. A discussion was had with the LA and
my HT and an arrangement has just been made.
5. I am looking forward to being able to better support a greater number of
children at a lesser cost by this route.

That's probably all I want to say on the subject for now.

Mary

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of
SEN at tringham.net
Sent: 07 April 2008 08:48
To: Becta Senco
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] [SENco-forum] Advice Please- use of EP service

Perhaps we should approach the problem the other way round and ask EP's if
they would be willing to spend 6 hours in school and write 3 reports for
£600 a day and all could benefit.

Currently around £400 per report if done independently by a parent and why
it is not often done unless said parent is in pursuit of a statement.

EP reports do not necessarily give all the detail one might hope for
especially if you are hoping to get a simple list of all the support a child
needs to access education on a equal footing with peers.  Or they drop hints
such as 'handwriting is untidy and referral to OT ....or any other
agency...could be appropriate'.  This ends up as being a multi agency task
and why it is imperative that SENco's have better (and free) access to
training on identification and assessment to rule out or support lesser
problems.  This way few actually need the services of an EP.

Even if the report is excellent with a plethora of test results and encoded
paragraphs of support needs I have found the schools do not know how to
decode the report for detail or know how or what to implement unless it is
spelled out in black & white - did I mention more access to training?

If you are getting an EP in spread the cost and make it a SENco cluster
training a day on EP report reading and then a 2nd one on assessment test
application and interpretation.

Sharon Tringham

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