Oscar’s story

Oscar, 15, has ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). He loves science as every question has a clear formula to find out the answer. He struggles with daily life as it is not so easy to understand.

Unmet needs

Oscar has always been an able student and was predicted A*-C grades in many of his subjects. However he found the social side of school a challenge. He found it hard to adapt to the changes throughout his school day and the behaviours of his peers confused and scared him. His grades begun to decline and he started to accumulate detentions and short term exclusions.

Oscar’s parents felt that his school was no longer meeting his needs and began to have conversations with school about their concerns and if the school could be doing more to support him. It was at this point that the relationship with school broke down as school felt that Oscar’s difficulties were due to poor behaviour, rather than unmet needs and did not feel there was a need to gather assessments from external agencies. Shortly after these discussions and a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder Oscar was permanently excluded from school.

Applying for a EHC assessment

The family begun working with SENDIASS after meeting them at an event aimed at families with children with SEN (Special Educational Needs) in their local area. They had been discouraged from making a request for an EHC assessment as Oscar had been excluded from school before interventions could be put in place.

Both Oscar and his family were reluctant to communicate with his previous school due to the breakdown of the relationship therefore the SENDIASS worker helped them to draft communication in order to gather school views and further evidence as well as manage the school responses in a way that kept the process moving forward.

Regaining academic ability

After being strongly discouraged from applying for an EHC needs assessment and being told that Oscar would not meet the criteria for an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC plan) the Local Authority decided to issue a plan for Oscar.

Oscar has now been placed on a pre-16 course at his local college and is regaining his academic ability having been recommended for a higher level science GCSE than he was originally enrolled on.