Janet O'Keefe, Speech and Language Therapist

Tania Tirraoro is a mother of two sons who have Asperger Syndrome, a wife, author, journalist and the founder of the special needs jungle website. The special needs jungle is a solid resource for suggestions, advice and tips for parents with children with special needs.   She has personal experience and writes about life, the care of her sons with special needs and much more.

Tania is one of the four keynote speakers at this year’s Towards a Positive Future Conference having attended as a delegate last year.

“The event was held at the Mary Hare School for hearing impaired children near Newbury. The school does inspirational work in providing an education for its pupils, helping each through individually designed hearing equipment. As a non-maintained state school, the school’s head, Tony Shaw, said they are ‘not considered to be part of inclusion’ and have had their funding cut by central government. This, despite the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, himself having a sister with a hearing impairment.”

Her talk will provide feedback for one of the pathfinder sites for the UK Government Green Paper on Special Education Needs:’ Support and Aspiration, A new approach to special education needs and disabilities’.

The Green Paper states that every child needs the right resources early in life to reach their full potential. The need for resources is in great demand with the growing identification of over 2 million children and young people who are in need of support for their needs.

IPSEA were among many charities, support groups and individuals who responded to the 2011 Government Consultation on the ideas published in the green paper. IPSEA, who represent parents who have had difficulties with their school or Local Authority, replied: “In many cases, by contacting us and using the existing legal framework, these parents have achieved a satisfactory outcome for their children.  Where we oppose any of the proposals in the Green Paper, we are aiming to ensure similar outcomes in the future – and to protect the existing rights parents have.”

“We question whether currently parents see Local Authorities as having a role as champions for vulnerable children and families. In order for that to be achieved there needs to be a re-building of trust and confidence. It is essential that Local Authorities apply the SEN legal framework in a consistent manner in order that no postcode lottery exists between geographical areas in the delivery of provision.”

Tania has been informed that there will be NO White Paper published.  Instead the UK Government will soon issue a new document called “The Way Forward”.  This will set out that:

• There will be a new SEN Code of Practice by the academic year 2013/4.
• The Education Health and Care Plan will replace the Statement of SEN by 2014.
• There are no plans to remove parents’ right to appeal.
• The EHCP will still have statutory protection.
• Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy will continue to be funded by education if an educational need.
• Money allocated per child will be up to £10,000 per child based on a needs-based formula and schools can commission services directly from this budget.
• Personalised budgets will come in in September 2013 controlled by parents.
• Screening at 2 to 2.5 years is to be reintroduced with the training of an additional 10,000 Health visitors.

Tania Tirraoro considers that  Local Authorities are still seeing parents as ‘separate’ and on an ‘opposing side’.  Book now to hear Tania and other speakers at the Towards a Positive Future 2012 conference.

There is much uncertainty at the moment amongst parents and the professionals who work with pupils with special educational needs on what the current legal position is regarding the new health, education and care legislation being brought in by the current Government and what the timescales are for the changes. 

We are delighted that Clive Rawlings is one of the four keynote speakers at the Towards a Positive Future conference to be held in Newbury on 16th June 2012 and he will be able to ensure that delegates have the up to date position.

Clive is a UK leading specialist education law counsel, who advocates in the High Court, County Court and Special Education Needs and Disability Tribunal. His previous career as a teacher and education officer for children with special needs, has given him particular insight into the educational provision that is required to support children with special education needs and enable them to access the curriculum.

Clive is also Panel Counsel to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Clive’s talk will include an update of the Green Paper pathfinder site results and the up to date legal position for parents needing to appeal the content of their child’s Statement of Special Educational Needs to SENDIST and the implications for the professionals involved in supporting these children following The Education Act 2011, Health and Social Care Act 2012 and SEN reforms.

Clive has been at the forefront of education law and public law since 1994.

“He has a formidable legal mind and is able to dissect the most complex of legal arguments.”

 “He instills confidence in the client and is good at managing expectations”.’ Chambers UK 2012

Clive Rawlings is a “formidable advocate…” Chambers UK 2011

‘Clive Rawlings impresses “with his preparation and attention to detail, and has the ability to dissect legal arguments in a simplistic way which provides confidence to clients”Legal 500 2010

Book your place now at www.wordswell.co.uk to attend the Towards a Positive Future Conference 2012 today and hear Clive live!

This book is essential reading for anyone currently involved in the upbringing and education of a child or children with special needs. In this well documented and skillfully edited volume, our current process for ensuring a ‘special’ child is appropriately educated is clearly and comprehensively explained. 15 real life stories of special needs children illustrate perfectly the many facets of the problems that face those who are intimately involved with educating children with special needs. We have all known the frustration and coldness of bureaucrats who count the pennies and tick the boxes with scant regard for the identity and needs of the individual’s life they are affecting. The personal accounts in this book bring home the difficulties many have experienced in understanding exactly what was wrong with their child, what effective and positive steps could have been or were taken to address their child’s needs and how these were (or were not) applied (promptly or otherwise). No punches are pulled. There is no kowtowing to those authoritative officials who have learned to become more efficient in their job by making hard and fast decisions that have ignored the human, emotional needs of the people involved. Reading such stories should give new heart to people who may be struggling to cope with a cumbersome, and seemingly cold and indifferent system. They are not alone. I write not as an entirely uninvolved individual, for I have had my own 19-year battle with authorities in seeing to the needs of my husband who has had increased requisites as his health has deteriorated and I have been observing the difficulties my own daughter has been having with her severely disabled child. To return to this excellent book: by way of essential contrast, it also highlights the positive side of the children’s achievements, no matter how small. It makes clear how it is important for us to change our attitudes in dealing with our children’s individual impairments and with the authorities that seem to be at odds with their statutory role to support these needy children. The final mission statements exhorting us to be the instigators of positive reform in this field are inspiring and worthy of adopting. It is not ‘the system’ but ‘we’ who can effectively improve matters. Armed with the expert knowledge and lists of supportive organizations and people in this book, and driven by our passionate involvement, we should be able to ensure that the future of our special needs children will be much improved.

Written by Dr Rosemary Westwell PhD, MA TESOL, MA Ed, B Mus, BA Hons

PhD thesis “The development of language acquisition in a mature learner” : http://eprints.ioe.ac.uk/48/

www.reviewsrjw.wordpress.com

www.elyforlanguage.wordpress.com

Inez Brown is a Senior Associate with Anthony Collins LLP in Birmingham where she leads on the educational support for individuals. She has vast experience in educational matters providing support on statutory assessment of children with special educational needs and admission/exclusion issues arising from maintained schools. She has experience of dealing with appeals to the SEN and Disability Panel. In the wider field, Inez has also been involved in a number of judicial review cases appealing a failure to comply with the provisions of SEN statements together with a failure to undertake the relevant social care assessments or produce a care plan. Inez has experience of dealing with the practical side of litigation – of issuing proceedings, liaising with the court, other solicitors and Counsel. Inez also has extensive experience representing claimants in Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury claims with a proven track record of achieving successful outcomes for her clients. Currently she leads on a wide range of cases including medical misdiagnosis, obstetric cases resulting in severe brain injury including cerebral palsy, road traffic accidents resulting in brain damage, fatal accident claims and hospital acquired infections. Clients praise her proactive approach and ability to explain the law in simple terms. Inez’s excellent approach to individuals ensures that their needs are always her primary concern.

Friday October 14th 2011 

9.30 am – Registration and Refreshments

 9.45 am – Welcome to Mary Hare and the Arlington Arts Centre – Tony Shaw

 9.50 am – Welcome Address – Robert Ashton

10.00am – Keynote Presentation – Kevin Geeson – CEO, Dyslexia Action ‘The impact the SEN Green Paper could have on literacy and the long term economic and social problems that getting it wrong could cause’

10.45am – Presentation – Inez Brown legal implications for children with special needs, current funding arrangements and future funding arrangements

11.30am – Presentation – Louise Wilkinson the issues that children, young people and their families face following the devastation of childhood acquired brain injury ‘The Hidden Disability’,

12.15 am – Exhibition, Networking, and Lunch

1.00pm – Charlie Mead – how Acadamies can find ways to meet the needs of students with complex needs

1.45 pm – Presentation – Prof Heather van der Lely “The grammar and phonology screening (GAPS) test: quick, simple, affordable and accurate: so why isn’t there national screening?”

2.30 pm Refreshments

2.45pm – Ian Ross – Negotiation, Mediation and Conflict Resolution

4.45pm Robert Ashton/Janet O’Keefe/Ian Ross – Clarity Foundation

5.45 pm – Closing remarks from Janet O’Keefe and end of Day at 6pm.

Please book your place at http://www.wordswell.co.uk/conference/

Educational psychologist warns that young vulnerable people miss out under present system

A new foundation which will enable practitioners to join together to provide multi-disciplinary specialist services for children with special educational needs is being launched next month – and could transform the present fragmented and bureaucratic system.

 The Clarity Foundation hopes to attract health and social care providers, as well as education specialists, to join as members who can be referred to families and local authorities as approved providers meeting statutory guidelines. 

 The foundation is the brainchild of speech and language therapist Janet O’Keefe and Robert Ashton, best selling business author, social entrepreneur and campaigner, who are passionate about providing a new joined-up efficient system which supports children and their families with educational support, while at the same time eliminating unnecessary duplication and bureaucracy.

 It will be launched at a conference entitled, Towards a Positive Future, aimed at parents and professionals, to inspire, share experiences and discover how they can achieve more for children with special needs. The conference is being held on October 14-15 at Arlington Arts Centre, Newbury, which is based at the Mary Hare School for deaf children.

 There are currently 1.7 million children with special educational needs in England who require support for wide ranging conditions, from dyslexia, dyspraxia and Down’s syndrome, to autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

 Janet says: “We believe that having a one-stop shop is the best way to enable parents and local authorities find all the support services desperately needed by children with special needs, and that our foundation is the most practical and efficient way of ensuring that those services are integrated and coordinated.  We need to bring practitioners from health, education and social care together and plan for the future while the present guidelines for new contract arrangements is under review.  Our foundation will be a valuable database of all heath and social care providers, as well as education specialists.

 “Additionally, we can streamline time consuming and expensive administrative processes. For example, we can help with criminal bureau checks and professional indemnity insurance.  At the moment, if a practitioner is not directly employed by a school or local authority, every school they visit should conduct its own CRB check.  Many practitioners regularly visit 20 schools a week sometimes in several different counties and are therefore checked 20 times.”

 Robert says it makes good sense to become more efficient during the present changes:

 He says: “However you feel about the Government’s “Big Society” agenda, the fact is that the worlds of education, health and social care are undergoing massive change. The Clarity Foundation is being formed to help parents make sense of those changes, and in parallel to help practitioners create their own enterprises. That way both groups can connect, create opportunities and meet the needs of young people striving to overcome disadvantage.”

 Specialist speakers include educational psychologist and former head teacher Charlie Mead, who has worked with children with severe emotional and behavioural problems and special needs for 20 years. He has grave concerns about the present system and highlights failures he has observed, leading to neglect in some cases for vulnerable young people.

 He says: “Charities are afraid to stand up for their clients in case their funding is withdrawn. Academies are afraid of further failure by taking on exactly those students who would benefit most from their resources. Children and Family Services have neglected the vulnerable due to bureaucratic inertia and a lack of consistency. All these situations can be changed if the interests of the child are put first.

 “When working with highly vulnerable children in care, many of whom have been sectioned, it is clear that the recession is having a considerable impact on the young people and their families – especially those who cannot cope emotionally, are addicts, are sexualized early and have been abused.  They need expert consistent provision – not piecemeal services from organisations who are threatened by lack of funding.”

 Other key speakers are Kevin Geeson, CEO of Dyslexia Action, who will highlight the impact of the SEN Green Paper; speech and language specialist Prof Heather van der Lely, who will highlight her simple test for an early diagnosis of specific language impairment; and both Sandy Burbach and Alex Kelly, who will describe the importance of developing social skills and self esteem in children.

 Janet is also launching a book she has edited at the conference also called Towards a Positive Future which includes stories, ideas and inspiration from children with special educational needs, their families and professionals.

 Full details about the conference can be found at their website, Towards a Positive Future: http://www.wordswell.co.uk/conference/

 There is a range of ticket prices: parent £90 (one day) £155 (both days); second parent £60 (one day) £120 (both days); professionals £200 (one day) £385 (both days).

 Media requests can be made to press consultant Ellee Seymour on 07939 811961, email ellee.seymour@btopenworld.com