The number of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) but no statement has increased in the last year.

It makes my blood boil that children do not have statements of their educational needs as that way schools and education departments do not have to provide it. I have had to pay £600 in two years for assessments for my dyslexic child and still the school gives her no help at all.

Schools receive central funding to support children on the SEN register - statement or no statement. It is up to the school however on how they disseminate this funding for use with children on the register. Schools should therefore be providing SOME support for your dyslexic child.

Many local authorities are now entrusting 100 per cent of funding to their schools, for them to have more autonomy in how best to meet the needs of their pupils. The assessment and statement process has been an issue for some time. Due to the decline in the number of formal assessment requests received by local authorities, there will, of course, be fewer pupils with statements. Schools are being given additional funding to meet the needs of these pupils, without the school taking the formal assessment route. However, there is a big concern about the destination of this money as it is not ring fenced and schools can use this for the things they believe that are priority. Evidence from recent requests for help from nasen members is indicating that even those children who have a statement are not always receiving the support that is indicated in the statement. Although there is anxiety about the reduction in statements, I must stress that there should be greater concern about the transparency of how the SEN budget in a school is being spent. Lorraine Petersen, CEO of nasen

I know the feeling.  Children with statments get more funding (apparently) but how do we know it is being spent on our child in particular. 

We need to make a stand against this and find out exactly where the money does go???

 We have just begun the statementing possess for our 15 yr old son, he has Aspergers  it could take 6 months, even then he might not ge. t it it is ridiculous that this will take so long  it has taken 2 years for the school to act on this, by the time it goes through he will only have about a year left at school, in the meantime his education is going down the pan.

I work in a secondary school where I was employed to fill the post of an SEN teacher. However, I now mainly teach mainstream subject classes. This is incredibly frustrating and of deep concern, both for me personally, for the SEN department, for the school and for those students with SEN. The SEN department is now a member of staff short because of this.

The school has a high proportion of students on the SEN register for various reasons, and it is not uncommon to have a mainstream class where 10 or more students have SEN. As a mainstream teacher, it is very clear to see that the needs of ever student can not be met in every lesson they have, due to the class sizes, lack of support and other demands placed on teachers. In my current school there is a higher proportion of students with BESD than in previous schools I have worked in and this obviously has a major impact on the other students and the general teaching and learning process.

I personally think that with the gradual closer of Special schools, mainstream education requires more SEN staff, more specific training for SEN and all staff and more opportunities for students to receive targetted intervention: such as speech and language therapy, behavioual support and the development of communication skills. The latest initiative of SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) is, I believe, valid and appropriate and has particular relevance for those working within SEN, but in order for it to be well received and effective, the training of staff needs to be supportive and pratical.

There are a huge amount of dedicated, skilled and passionate people working within education at the moment, but at times it feels as if teachers and support staff are being asked to do their jobs with one hand tied behind their backs. SEN staff have a vast amount of administrative duties to undertake with regards to SEN students and members of the department where I currently work have given up some of this allocated time so that they can give hours back to supporting SEN students. This 'squeezing' of time and resources is not an effective way to provide the best support we can for our SEN students.