The UK laws/Acts on which the Special Educational Needs (SEN) system is built are solid & of the belief that every child in this country has the right to an education & the right to educational support in order to reach their full potential, without discrimination. This responsibility falls under the Local Authorities (LA) ie your council whose actual use of funding received for Special Education Needs is nowhere nearly closely monitored enough & the sad reality in todays world is that these local authorities are completely inundated, both ill & short staffed + budget strapped so it has become a nightmare process with lengthy delays, so many frustrations & parents are being left to fight for every single step of the process. Their own resilience, education, know-how is tested to the limits in a system that is not meant to be means based. The sad reality is that increasingly parents are having to fund their own private assessments (Ed Psych, SlT, OT) & diagnosis for their child in order for their actual needs to be believed & accepted. https://www.gov.uk/rights-disabled-person/education-rights
All parents/carers of autistic children seeking a specialist school, be it specialist therapy in a learning support department in a mainstream school; an autism unit attached to a mainstream; an autism specialist school and/or a specialist residential school will require an EHCP (legally binding document of many pages & many sections) that can either be applied for by the parents themselves or, by the SENCO (special education needs co-ordinator) of their child's current school. This is a Govt/State operated system applied for at local level & all the specialists are lying/working under this umbrella that is again, not means tested ie if you can afford the fees for these private specialist schools it does not guarantee you a place and your offer to pay fees will not be accepted, you have to apply via the EHCP process.
An EHCP stands for Education (school), Health (medical) & Care (social services) Plan (used to be called a 'Statement of Need'). Bear in mind that this covers three departments with three different budgets/funding sources who will take every opportunity to fob your child's need into another department to fund. Your wording needs to be accurate, precise & most importantly in the right sections of this document. This EHCP now incorporates both the opinions/voice of the autistic individual & that of their parents. Initially it is reviewed 6 monthly thereafter annually & be aware that any significant changes tend to only happen at the end of a Key Stage (search National Curriculum).
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Why is it so hard to find the right school? There are many reasons really so let's start at the beginning. Your child is four years old & will be turning five in the coming school year so you register them via you local authority (LA)/council website. You can go down two roads here. Either you simply register them for their local mainstream primary, say nothing about their special education needs & wait for the teacher or SENCO to come to you with any concerns. Sounds drastic but, they are only four year olds whose development, especially socially, can simply be resting on its laurels & then suddenly six months later, they catch up. The risk also though, especially with girls, is that they very quickly learn to mask their autistic traits that can mean no concerns are ever raised until they are much, much older. So, your child is in the school, cannot be kicked out & depending on what those teacher/school concerns are, what the school can reasonably provide in terms of support they may suggest they need to apply for an EHCP that will eventually allow the child to receive specialist support in the current school that the local authority will fund. Or, the result of that EHCP process may mean the local authority suggesting a school change to a more specialist placement. Typically, that will be an autism unit attached to a mainstream primary where your child will be required to mainstream for a part of every day eg a subject lesson they are at the same level as their mainstream peers in.
If you are planning on starting your child at an independent/private school because you can afford it & the class sizes are smaller etc, the advice, as shocking as it may sound, is again, to not mention any special educational need. If you tell them, the vast majority of them will do everything in their power to suggest your child is not suited to their school. The specialist education therapists & professionals including Ed Psychs's, SlT's, OT's are all in the state system in the UK + parent bodies of independents can be errrm, not terribly accepting & also ruthless behind you/your child's back with the school heads (somehow feel it's their right since they pay such big fees).
The other road to take is to either register your child for a mainstream or independent & tell them on day 1 of the additional needs your child is going to require. I'd suggest requesting a meeting with the school SENCO soonest & getting on board with them to lay out how communication will work. It would be incredible if the class teacher communicated openly with both the entire class and their parents both informing them appropriately & setting out their expectations in terms of behaviour, discrimination & judgement etc. but, sadly, I can almost guarantee that is not going to happen. You may even find your child doesn't receive a placement all due to any old excuse like "no places left/available" they can get away with... If you know your child will absolutely not cope in a mainstream classroom at age four due to their autism &/or additional needs you can also choose to not start your child (keep them at home) at the offered placement & apply for the EHCP yourselves requesting a specialist provision. Be aware that many, many families are being repeatedly rejected even at the first stage of this EHCP process (that takes min 5 months/20 weeks & that was pre covid) so you are advised, if you can, to seek private, specialist reports to prove your child's needs. I wish I had done this sooner actually, they give you a much more personal, informative, in-depth, clearer picture of where your child is at compared with the LA's Ed Psych 1 hr visit & subsequent short/basic report.
Our own experience was to send in a privately obtained diagnosis of nonverbal autism at age four & being told they did not really recognise the report & did not see any issues or reasons why we shouldn't simply register our four year old in his local mainstream primary! You have to stick to your guns, know your own truth & never give up. They will do anything in their power to avoid time & money spent, you assume they are the experts in the know who have your child's best interests at heart & will place them in the best possible setting but, sadly, that is not the case. They are not interested in your child, approach this system now with the attitude/remit of allowing no-one funding (rejecting each stage of the process at least once as standard practice it now seems, so you have to be ultra, ultra resilient & fight all the way). They seem to assume we, as parents are making it all up, trying to buck the system for money/favours or, are simply terrible parents whose children would be fine had we raised them properly to the age of four. Thanks to this, you will be spending an awful lot of time talking, writing, ticking boxes about all the things your child cannot do, it is soul destroying.
I am being a bit of a meany here with all the doom & gloom of how hard this is going to be & especially towards the Local Authorities. I am not going to apologise, no way but, I will say that it is important to bear in mind that the law requires them to see each individual child in the best possible light & place them wherever possible in a setting to be on a par with their peers so that they can reach their fullest potential. Sure, it means they end up with better jobs, paying more, that grows the economy & they paying higher taxes but, from a parenting perspective it is a really good thing. Autism specialist school fees per child are extortionate (due to very high staff to pupil ratios & specialist facilities + therapists) & beyond what even wealthy families can sometimes afford & yet, this country has committed to providing for them. That is a whole lot more than many, many other countries around the world currently do. So basically, & being a bit crude here, your child will start their education in the highest, most mainstream, closest to home, cheapest for the Govt option possible & as special education needs come to light they will be considered ie you will have to fight for more specialist (& costly to the Govt) schools from there ie it works from top to bottom, not bottom to top.
There are many types of autism specialist schools, including different residential options & many of them are independent or have other part private financial set-ups that is neither here nor there since every child who attends has to have been referred to them with an EHCP via the local authority. You do not need to stick to schools in your county so search high & low and beyond the list the LA will give you as possible suitable placements. Book school visit appointments (many have 4/5 month waitlists even for a visit) & know beforehand the school you feel is right for your child. You can list that school as your preferred place (you will preferably need to be able to prove it is thee only school that can meet your child's specific needs) & they, by law, have to refer your child's EHCP to that school for your child to be considered for a place. A great place to start looking is local or national Autism magazines for specialist school adverts. There is also a fantastic resource & book called "The Good Schools `Guide - Special Education Needs" & get Googling. You can also research Home Schooling options to fully understand what all the options involve. https://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/special-educational-needs
Finally, loooong blog, apologies, when dealing with your Key Worker (assigned once you have been approved for an EHCP), the SENCO's, teachers, heads etc be extremely polite (like you're standing at passport control), always, always & be mindful of how their hands are often tied too. But, also be very, very persistent. You can save help move the process along by being vigilant and acting as a go-between with the LA & the school ie an awful lot of phone calls & chasing & very politely but insistently checking on where documents are at & who is waiting for what, & keep things moving along & in motion.
