Educational provision for children with an ASD
Dear Stockport Borough Council,
Please can you send me any council documents relating to Stockport's educational provision for children with high-functioning autism/ Aspergers e.g. the SEBD review which took place in 2009 and any meeting minutes which refer to the need for extra educational provision for these children.
Please can the education department also send an estimate, based on their knowledge of out-of-area/ independent school expenditure, of how much money would be saved each year if there was a free school in Stockport for children with Aspergers/ high-functioning autism who were unable to attend mainstream school(excluding free school costs).
From a previous FOI request, I know that 2.5 million is spent on out-of-area/ independent placements, but I am assuming that some of those placements are for children with classic or more severe autism.
Thanks,
R Holt
Dear Mr. Holt,
Thank you for your request for information regarding which has been given
reference 4120. Please quote this on any correspondence regarding your
request.
Stockport Council will respond to your request within 20 working days. If
there will be a charge for disbursements e.g. photocopying in order to
provide the information, we will inform you as soon as possible to see if
you wish to proceed; however such charges are usually waived if they
amount to less than £10.
Yours sincerely,
Corporate Information Services
Confidentiality: This email, its contents and any attachments are intended
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Dear Miss Holt,
I am writing in response to your request for information below (Ref 4120).
The response to your request has been prepared by the relevant Council
service and is as follows:
The Secondary Behaviour Review which drew to a close in September 2010
focused its attention on secondary-aged children with social, emotional
and behavioural difficulties in Stockport. Behaviour difficulties arising
as a result of other childhood disorders such as Autism were not included
in the scope of the review and as a result, recommendations for autistic
children do not feature in the review notes or final write up of the work.
With reference to the second point in your email: It is impossible to
calculate or assume any such saving as no such free school exists and
there would have to be a proven track record of such a school successfully
meeting (or having the staffing qualifications and expertise to
potentially meet) the needs of children with Asperger’s or high
functioning autism in order to fulfil parental preference requirements and
to satisfy the outcome standards expected both by Ofsted and the Local
Authority.
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request you are
entitled to ask for an internal review. Any internal review will be
carried out by a senior member of staff who was not involved with your
original request. To ask for an internal review, contact [1][email
address] in the first instance.
If you are unhappy with the outcome of any internal review, you are
entitled to complain to the Information Commissioner. To do so, contact:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
[2]www.ico.gov.uk
01625 545 745
Yours sincerely,
Corporate Information Services
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Dear Stockport Borough Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Stockport Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Educational provision for children with an ASD'.
I accept the first point about the SEBD review but obviously the second point about savings in expenditure if such a free school did exist should be answered with the assumption that the free school would be a school which a) had sufficient expertise with pupils with ASD to be a feasible option for the LA to name it on children's Statements and b) parents were choosing for their children.
I obviously understand that such a school does not exist and am therefore asking for possible figures based on the future possibility of one existing. I would like the LA to work on the same presumption and find it quite obstructive that they have not inferred that from my question. The DFE guidance on Free Schools suggests that LAs should be offering this sort of information as a matter of course.
I would like an estimated answer to my second question, please, which should be calculated on the basis of the amount of money currently spent on children with Aspergers/ high-functioning autism who attend independent or out-of-borough placements.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ed...
Yours faithfully,
R Holt
Dear Miss Holt,
The service dealing with your request has stated that following your
further email below - which has clarified that there are no savings
assumptions attached to your request - it will provide the costs, number
and year groups of pupils with ASD placed in Independent specialist
provision by the end of this week.
Yours sincerely,
Corporate Information Services
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Dear Miss Holt,
The information you requested has been prepared by the relevant Council
service and is as follows:
There are currently 36 pupils placed in Independent/Non-maintained Special
Schools by Stockport CYPD who have ASD as their main assessed need (there
is no separate categorisation of High Functioning ASD, the figures
provided refer to the total Spectrum of Needs across the category).
The average cost per annum per pupil is approximately £35k.
The pupils are placed in two main INMSS settings and their current year
groups are:
Year Group Number of Pupils
Y7 5
Y8 4
Y9 5
Y10 6
Y11 6
Y12 2
Y13 2
Y14 6
Yours sincerely,
Corporate Information Services
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Dear FOI Officer,
Can I ask if there are any further documents to follow relating to my first point?
Please can you send me any council documents relating to Stockport's educational provision for children with
high-functioning autism/ Aspergers e.g. the SEBD review which took place in 2009 and any meeting minutes which refer to the need for
extra educational provision for these children.
The SEBD review was only an example but I would be grateful for any documents regarding educational provision within Stockport for children with ASD.
Yours sincerely,
R Holt
Dear Miss Holt,
The relevant Council service has confirmed that there are no further
documents held in relation to this request.
Yours sincerely,
Corporate Information Services
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Dear FOI Officer,
Can I please clarify that the council is stating that there are no documents/ meeting minutes/ emails/ reports whatsoever about education for children in Stockport with an ASD?
Yours sincerely,
R Holt
Dear Miss Holt,
I am informed that the wording of your request below has now substantially
changed the nature of your request; therefore this will be treated as a
new request but under the same reference number for ease. You will receive
a response as soon as possible, or at any rate by 30^th June.
Yours sincerely,
Corporate Information Services
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Dear FOI Officer,
I'm not sure that I see any substantial difference between my original request (13th April - A), my reminder on the 30th May that the first part of my original request had possibly not been addressed (B)and then my final clarification on 2nd June (C).
"Please can you send me any council documents relating to Stockport's educational provision for children with
high-functioning autism/ Aspergers" (A)
"I would be grateful for any
documents regarding educational provision within Stockport for children with ASD." (B)
"Can I please clarify that the council is stating that there are no documents/ meeting minutes/ emails/ reports whatsoever about education for children in Stockport with an ASD?" (C)
The wording is very similar in each with the words "any" and "documents" repeated in A and B, and expanded upon in C. In all three, the words "educational"/ "education", "Stockport", "children", "ASD"/ "autism"/ "Aspergers" appear.
I do not consider this to be a new request and so I would be grateful to have this information as soon as possible, given that the 17th May deadline is long gone and all I am still asking for is access to "any council documents relating to Stockport's educational provision for children with (high-functioning) autism/ Aspergers", as per my initial request.
Yours sincerely,
R Holt
Dear Miss Holt,
I am writing in response to your recent request for information which is
still being dealt with under the reference FOI 4120. I apologise for the
delay replying.
There is a wide range of documents related to ASD provision in Stockport.
This range includes:
• Care Pathway 1, 2 and 3 for referral and assessment for school
aged children with suspected ASD.
• Health Scrutiny Committee Report – Stockport Services for children
and Young People with ASD -03/04/2007.
• Developing ASC provision – Creating Specialists within the
mainstream. (Priestnall School, GD, Morewood Jan 2008).
• Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew (2009).
• ASC/D Provision Map 2010.
• New ASD Pathway for Intervention (2009).
• Learning Support Service and Inclusion Co-ordinators / School
Improvement Team Training Schedule September 2011 to July 2012. This
includes:
– An Introduction to Good Practice in Supporting the Child with
Autism.
– Supporting the child with SLD / ASC and Challenging Behaviour.
– Multi-Sensory Learning, an Introduction to Good Practice
Supporting the SLD / ASC Child.
– Autistic Spectrum conditions 1 and 2.
All of the above documents can be forwarded to you if these are required.
As there is a large amount of information, we did not want to forward this
all to you if it was not what you required. Please specify which documents
you wish to be provided with.
In addition to the above, CAMHS have their own timelines and procedures
they follow; there are also minutes from ASD Pathways meetings which are
held four times per year. If you require any of this information, please
specify which.
Yours sincerely,
Corporate Information Services
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Dear FOI Officer,
Please send me all of the information, electronically if possible, to save paper.
Yours sincerely,
R Holt
Dear Miss Holt,
The information is only available in hard copy and is unsuitable for
scanning; therefore copies have been put in the post today and sent your
home address.
Yours sincerely,
Corporate Information Services
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Dear FOI Officer,
Thank you for the bundle that I received by post. However, there were two documents missing.
o Health Scrutiny Committee Report - Stockport Services for children and Young People with ASD -03/04/2007.
o New ASD Pathway for Intervention (2009).
Please send these to me as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
R Holt
Dear FOI Officer,
I would also like the minutes from the ASD pathway meetings that you initially offered previously.
Yours sincerely,
R Holt
Dear Stockport Borough Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Stockport Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Educational provision for children with an ASD'.
By law, I should have received the full set of information weeks ago and am unsure why a relatively simply request should take so long to complete.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ed...
Yours faithfully,
R Holt
Dear FOI Officer,
I received the outstanding information today. Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
R Holt
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Sheila Oliver (Account suspended) left an annotation ()
Dear R Holt
The Council is awful at responding to FOI requests and I believe one of the FOI officers used to actually work at the Information Commission, so there should really be no excuse for this.
The inference must be that this Council has very much to hide.
Sheila