How the Children and Families Bill will affect parents of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN)
The Government is transforming the system for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN), including those
who are disabled, so that services consistently support the best outcomes for them.
The Bill will extend the SEN system from birth to 25, giving children, young people and their parents greater control and choice in decisions and ensuring needs are properly met. 
With this new system coming into place in September 2014 it is important you know how the changes to the system will affect you and your child.
1. Replacing old statements with a new birth- to-25 education, health and care plan.
What this means for you:
Statements are soon to be abolished and many parents are rushing to get their child statemented. The thinking behind this being that when the new education, health and care plan (EHC) comes into place in 2014, their child will automatically receive a EHC that will last them until they are 25. This is not true, EHC are only for the most complex SEN children who need support from all three services health, education and care. If your child does not need support from all 3 services they will not get a EHC plan.
How is this different to a statement?
To have a statement it is currently based on your educational needs only and therefore children that have a statement purely for education will not receive an EHC.
2. Offering families personal budgets
Parents and carers now have the option to manage their personal budgets. This means you can choose whether to have NHS therapy or private therapy. It also means you can budget based on what you feel your childs needs are e.g spending more of the budget on speech therapy than occupational therapy.
What’s the catch?
Although you control the budget you will only be able to spend it on the services and needs identified in the EHC plan i.e you cannot spend the money on a trips away or activities for your child that are not identified as essential in the EHC plan.
3. Improving cooperation between all the services that support children and their families, particularly requiring local authorities and health authorities to work together.
This EHC is designed to cover all aspects of your child?s care. Therefore, all the services involved with you child should be working together to ensure the needs on the EHC are met.
To find out more information on the Children?s and Families Bill go to the following website http://www.education.gov.uk/a00221161/
How Integrated Treatment Services can help
If you have decided to take control of your childs personal budget and feel that private therapy could be the way forward, contact Integrated
Treatment Services (I.T.S).
We have a large team of multi-disciplinary professionals including speech therapists, occupational therapists, arts therapists and educational psychologists working together to provide a seamless package of care for the child or young adult.
A therapist at Integrated Treatment Services (I.T.S) is available throughout the week to discuss how the Children?s and Families Bill may affect you, answering any questions you may have. We are happy to speak with you over the telephone on: 0845 838 2921 or by email info@integratedtreatments.co.uk.
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