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CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

INVOLVING PARENTS, CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS

The Views of Parents

56. Parents should be fully involved in the recording process. They should be able to contribute to every decision and the education authority should if necessary assist them so to do. That, however, does not mean that because they have asked for, and received, the views of parents, and, having given such views full and sympathetic consideration, the education authority are necessarily bound to accept them.

Rights of Parents

57. Parents have certain statutory rights with which authorities must comply. Sections 61 (Assessment), 62 (Recording) and 63 (Appeals) of the 1980 Act lay down procedures under which parents may make representations and submit evidence to the education authority during the process of determining their child's special educational needs.

Full Involvement of Parents

58. Education authorities should, however, encourage the involvement of parents beyond this minimum statutory requirement. Co-operation by parents will be helped if the authority provides them with written information about their rights and duties as parents, and the ways in which it hopes to involve them in the 'proposed assessment. Parents should therefore be given written guidelines covering the authority's duties and practice in recording to assist them to contribute to the assessment. Education authorities should also ensure that parents are informed about the purpose and implications of opening a Record of Needs, the procedures involved, and their rights to participate in the process. Education authorities should ensure that all advice- written or oral- can be easily understood and is well presented. Premature references in communications to enforcement powers under the 1980 Act, such as an education authority's powers to compel parents to submit children for assessment, are unhelpful and may, understandably, be regarded by parents as threatening and coercive. It is worth considering in corresponding with parents whether, on some occasions, a reference to a statutory provision may be best explained without repeating all of the words contained in the Statute, but care must be taken to be accurate.

Information for Parents

59. All contacts with parents, -particularly when giving information, should use straightforward, plain language. Parents should also be informed at the outset of the names, addresses and telephone numbers of persons and organisations whom they can consult or talk to during the assessment process. In particular, the authority must inform parents of the name and address of a person in its employment from whom they can obtain advice and information, preferably someone who knows the details of the child's educational difficulties and whom parents may approach for advice and information about their child's special educational needs (section 61(3)(d) of the 1980 Act). Care should be taken to ensure that parents understand the difference between the function of this person and that of the Named Person whose name will be entered on the Record of Needs and who has formal responsibility for giving advice and information about their child's special educational needs (see paragraph 121.)

60. Wherever it is likely to be helpful to parents, education authorities should make guidance leaflets available in languages used by ethnic minority groups, and in Gaelic. Special arrangements may also be needed for parents with hearing, visual, reading and other difficulties and, occasionally, for oral or written translation. To ensure better involvement of parents, on occasion an interpreter may be required.

Confidentiality and Access to Information

61. The nature of the confidential relationship between parents and children with special educational needs and the professionals who work with them is based on two principles. First, clients expect that the information they give to professionals will be treated in confidence and that all reasonable steps will be taken not to divulge it to a third party. Second, clients expect that information held about them by professionals will be generally accessible to them. Difficulties will seldom arise in a context which is marked by clear, written policies, communication of these to clients and a general confidence on the part of children and their parents that these principles are being upheld.

62. Access to a Record of Needs is governed by the Education (Record of Needs) (Scotland) Regulations 1982 (see paragraphs 210 to 214). N.B. It should be noted that the Record of Needs itself, and the information gathered during, or relevant to, the assessment process, are not subject to the School Pupil Records (Scotland) Regulations 1990 (which cover other information of an educational nature not held on computer) or the Data Protection Act 1984 (which pertains to computerised information).

The Particular Rights of Young Persons with Special Educational Needs

63. Young persons are given specific rights by the 1980 Act. They:

Parents Expressing Views about their Son or Daughter who is a Young Person

64. It may be, however, that because of his or her impairments, or for other reasons, the young person is not capable of exercising these rights. Section 60(5) of the 1980 Act gives the young person's parents the right to request an assessment for him or her. Section 61(7)(b) of the 1980 Act requires an education authority which is assessing a young person for a Record of Needs, where it is satisfied that the young person is not capable of expressing his or her views, to invite his or her parents to give their views about the young person's special educational needs and the measures required to meet them. This principle of parents expressing views and making representations on behalf of a young person whom -the education authority considers incapable of expressing his or her views on these matters is applied equally to the exercise of the other rights described here. References later in the Circular to "parents or, as appropriate, the young person" and similar references are intended to include circumstances where parents act in relation to their child, where a young person acts on his or her own behalf and where, in the circumstances described in this paragraph, the parents act on behalf of the young person.

Extension of Partnership to Include Children and Young Persons

65. Frankness and openness between the parents and providers will significantly help smooth the recording process. The feelings and perception of the child or young person should always be sought and where possible taken into account. It is particularly important that the concept of partnership should, wherever possible, be extended to include older children and young persons.

Help of Friends

66. Some parents or young persons may wish to bring an adviser or friend to meetings held prior to a decision being reached of whether or not to open a Record of Needs. Education authorities should welcome and encourage this. Information provided to parents or young persons at this stage by education authorities should offer the opportunity to do so. Parents may wish such a person to act as an unofficial Named Person (see paragraph 82). At a later stage that person may well become the Named Person. Authorities will, however, wish to make it clear that the involvement of an unofficial Named Person at this stage should not be taken to mean they have prejudged the outcome of assessment or that recording is a foregone conclusion.

Assessment

67. Whether or not they eventually have a Record of Needs opened for them, children and young persons with special educational needs stand the best chance of receiving the quality of education they require when their needs are assessed thoroughly. Well structured assessment procedures can ensure children are properly catered for in their first years at school, and that their needs are provided for promptly and appropriately. This requires close co-operation between parents and all the statutory services and a full understanding by each of the participants of the part that they, and others, play in this process.

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