Hi, has anyone been successful in applying for an SDS budget to employ a PA to support a child in primary school? If so I would be grateful for any information on how you requested this, thanks.
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Hi Lesley,
Many thanks for the query and welcome to the SDS Forum.
I think that’s a really good question.
In many ways, the answer depends on the circumstances that the child/young person is in and what their particular need for support is. It also depends on who holds responsibility for meeting that child’s needs.
It sounds like you might be looking for support for a child within school, which would relate to that child’s educational needs. The Local Authorities responsibility is to:
‘*provide your child with an education that helps them develop their personality, talents, and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential’ (Additional support for learning: a guide for parents and carers - Enquire).
So if this is the case and it’s clear and agreed that a child would need additional support for learning, say through a classroom assistant, then the school and the Education Department would need to look at providing that support.
If there is a reason that means that a child would need a certain person to provide that support, such as a PA employed by a parent, rather than a classroom assistant employed by the school, then it might be important that this is clearly understood, agreed and included in a Child’s Plan.
So I think the reason why a PA is needed might be the important question to answer for me.
To me. there seems to be no reason why a PA couldn’t be employed to provide the support needed - provided this was appropriate and necessary. In terms of other people being successful at achieving this, I’m not sure. I think if you can see the need for this, then my thought would be to include this need for support in the Child’s Plan and to get other professionals agreement to support this.
I would be really interested to hear how you get on. Whoever is the Named Person for your child could support any application for this funding - although this may be ‘passed on’ to another Social Worker to look at - I’m not sure exactly how the system might work in your area. One thing you could do is connect with your local Independent SDS Information and Support service, who, might be able to support you further with any future application. If you were able to let me know what area of Scotland you’re in I could share their contact details with you.
Hope that sounds ok for now.
Many thanks,
Mark