Briefly, my son has been attending nursery for about 8 months now, he had a special educational needs worker there, but generally gets on well and keeps him self to him self, we worked with the play school to reduce his hours appropriately to allow transition, he does 2.5 hours a day. We trialed lunch 5 months ago but he wasn’t ready for this, he is now however well settled and changed he is more manageable and understands some words such as no.
We have since been trying to push to increase his hours to full time which is 30 hours a week.
Below is an email from the nursery, and my intended response - I’m looking for some Feed back on whether or not my response is appropriate I can sometimes be very to the point so always good to have a second thought.
Note - they recently failed an ofsted inspection However their SENCO wasn’t highlighted as a concern, and my eldest son also attended her who is autistic and went into mainstream school and is hitting all his targets. So I have no concern as to their report in regards to my son’s individual care.
Based in the uk not the states.
Nursery - We are emailing you with an update on our current staffing situation and the effect this has on your sons sessions.
Unfortunately, we are in an extremely difficult position at the moment whereby we are unable to enrol anymore new children who are entitled to funding, due to our recent Ofsted grading.
This has a knock on effect because it means that we are not receiving income that would enable us to employ another member of staff, which would in turn, would enable us to free up another member of staff to support him to be able to increase his sessions to include lunch club sessions. Lunch time is also when management cover staff to be able to have their lunch breaks.
We know that this is difficult for you as you are keen on increasing his sessions but we hope that you understand our reasons for being unable to accommodate this for you at the moment.
I believe that during your recent meeting with Blank explained that we were looking to employ another member of staff, however, we are not having much success in the recruitment process at the moment and we know that this is a nation wide problem but we have also recently discovered that financially, we are unable to manage expanding our team.
If our situation changes at any point, we will of course let you know and we can discuss an increase in his sessions but for now, we hope that you understand the difficult situation that we are faced with.
If you have any questions or anything you would like to discuss with us, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Proposed response -
Thanks for your email unfortunately as you can appreciate this news is disappointing.
I understand that your funding has been cut effecting your ability to be able to employ another member of staff, I also understand that a member of staff is on maternity leave however this is no excuse not to be able to facilitate someone who is already on your register.
I would understanding if my son was a new starter given your circumstances you could refuse him access to hours and I would accept that.
However he has been enrolled with you for some time now and always with the intention of taking him on full time. We have been more than flexible on adapting his hours to your recommendations to ensure smooth transition for both Finley and you his provider with the end goal of increasing those hours.
Per the ofsted report in December you are listed as being able to facilitate up to 60 children during this period You had 37 children enrolled which means you were operating at 61% your capacity two months ago.
Unless you are now operating towards full capacity I do not comprehend how you are unable to find means to facilitate him
As a result of your unfortunate circumstances Finley is now being denied access to his full entitled hours because it is understood he requires more support than other children.
He has every right to be in full attendance just as much as any other child in your care. But he is being treated less favourably and is now put at a disadvantage because of his needs related to his disability which is indirect discrimination.
If you do not have the appropriate means to fully facilitate a disabled child from start to finish then you should not be in a position facilitate at all.
To inform that you do not have the staffing to be able to increase Finley’s hours raises a major cause for concern if you are unable to facilitate him for more than 2.5 hours a day how can you be in a position facilitate him at all a concern which is only amplified if it is in fact the case that you are not currently operating at your full capacity.
My self and partner have showed understanding and have been more than happy to work with you until you could find a solution to the problems you have been presented with.
However the situation has now changed to the point where we as his parents need to question if his best interests are being met.
The last thing that me and partner wish to do is remove him from a setting in which he throughly enjoys and in which he has created a trusted bond with his SENCO worker.
Partner and I have come to the agreement his best interests are currently not being met or prioritised.
It is in his best interest to be in a setting that can facilitate him for as many of his hours as he can tolerate in order to give him the best chances of developing his social skills and of course in preparation for his eventual transition into schooling.
To which we consider time spent in a nursery setting a detrimental factor in increasing the likely hood of him being able to potentially attend a mainstream school.
Currently It feels there has been no real meaningful attempt to try to increase his hours and see how it goes, instead it now comes across that it’s easier to approach it as simply not possible due to the current circumstances you face.
If there is definitively no room for compromise or an appropriate time frame to which we can suitably addressed this then we will have no other option but to make the difficult decision to remove him from your care and put him in a setting that has the means to facilitate him allowing him to reach his full potential.
Submitted February 24, 2024 at 12:46PM by Winsomelosesome23 https://ift.tt/9LjBQOS
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