We are parents of a young man - Thomas - who suffers from Fragile X syndrome (classed as being on the autistic spectrum – this means that he has severe communication difficulties and a very significant learning disability) and we live on a farm in rural South West Scotland.
To date he has attended school locally - being based in Learning Centres - at Whithorn Primary and Douglas Ewart High School, Newton Stewart in Dumfries & Galloway.
Post school, since there exists no local alternative Further Educational provision which can meet Thomas' complex needs, we looked further afield and were offered placement at residential colleges in North of England, for which we sought financial assistance from Dumfries & Galloway Council.
We were very optimistic that Thomas would be supported due to the fact that the local authority was already supporting another young person to attend a college in the North of England. More significantly at a meeting of the Education & Community Services Committee meeting held on 4.1.07 members 'agreed in principle' to support his placement - a further report detailing costs & benefits was to be prepared following an assessment by Psychological Services, together with a draft policy on similar future applications. Our aspirations for residential specialist education were supported by Future Needs Assessment Meetings and interdisciplinary discussions therein, and Dr McKay from Psychological Services completed his part of the report in the summer.
However the matter was delayed from the agenda for several Council meetings until that held on 20.11.07. We were given sight of the report to be presented by the Service Director Schools Services at the E&CS meeting a
couple of days before the meeting. We made written comment based on the 'recommendations to members' contained in the report and lobbied members the night before the meeting (members were recommended not to support Thomas – the main reason being that he was now 18 years old and no longer the responsibility of the Education Department.
We were telephoned late the next afternoon and were informed that the Members had made the unanimous decision not to support Thomas in his FE placement. We are completely devastated on Thomas' behalf. We are not sure whether members reneged on their agreement in principle because of financial considerations or whether it was because they did not agree in principle that young people with disabilities should have further education.
Regarding the age issue, we know that Thomas was not mature enough to go away to a residential college before now and his medical condition is such that very carefully planned preparation is absolutely essential to a smooth transition. This process has been ongoing since January 2007.
We know that this seems to be a uniquely Scottish problem and it would absolutely not have happened if we had lived in England where these type of college fees are funded by the Learning & Skills Council. We are fully confident that had we lived in England, that body would have funded Thomas' placement.
The ruling terminates hopes for similar future applications.
We immediately contacted all our local councillors basically explaining the background to this case (as above).
We received a handful of replies.
Following upon the decision we approached members of Education & Community Services Committee again to implore them to make some sort of contribution - perhaps based on the costs of 34hrs support as quoted by Adult Services in the report presented to the E&CS meeting on 20.11.07. In the new year Adult Services agreed to make a contribution of £15k which is based upon ‘care’ which Thomas would have received were he not to go to college.
We next contacted Alex Salmond MSP, Fiona Hyslop MSP, Nicola Sturgeon MSP and our constituency MSP, Alex Ferguson together with Russell Brown MP & Alasdair Morgan MSP
Claire Neads who works in the Higher Education & Learner Support Division within the Scottish Government replied on behalf of the ministers. She said in her letter that following a consultation exercise in 2005 it became clear that current arrangements were not providing fair and consistent access to further education for young people with complex needs across Scotland and that the government was continuing to have discussions with COSLA etc to address these concerns. She also said that many colleges within Scotland offer a multi-discipline approach to meeting the individual needs of students with additional support needs. She suggested contacting LEAD Scotland.
We contacted LEAD Scotland. Sadly they were no help – they do not offer guidance on further education opportunities and did not come back with any useful information or contacts.
We contacted EGAS (Educ. Grants Advisory Service) who directed us to their online funder-finder which produced no funding opportunities. We contacted Skill Scotland who were very sympathetic and agreed that there were no suitable facilities in Scotland for students with complex needs.
We contacted our local Council for Voluntary Services who were not able to come up with any sources of funding for us.
The only funding opportunity we found was The Snowdon Award Scheme who offer grants to physically disabled students. When we telephoned them to explain that Thomas ‘disability is not a physical one we were told to apply anyway, they were less optimistic when they heard that the grant was for college fees – their grants are awarded usually for special pieces of equipment. Applications are to be submitted by end of May and decisions made by July, and maximum award is £2000.
Alex Ferguson MSP is currently investigating a £2.6m funding surplus in Social Services department of Dumfries & Galloway Council and has arranged a meeting for us with Operations Manager of Community Learning Disability Team in Dumfries to explain & clarify the position of the social work service.
Russell Brown thinks that the answer to this matter probably lies in authorities recognizing that there needs to be more ‘cross-authority’ and ‘cross-border’ working partnerships being developed. He has met with ministerial colleagues in London to this end.
Alasdair Morgan has pressed the government on the apparent lack of facilities in Scotland. They admit that they are unable to identify an individual institution that may be able to accommodate the complex needs of Thomas and other students like him, but that a ‘mapping study’ of the current provisions of further education across Scotland, in relation to students with profound & complex needs, is apparently being undertaken right now.
In conclusion then, our son has complex support needs. There is no college/facility in Scotland to accommodate him. Neither local authority nor the government will fund his placement at a suitable English college. What are young people like Thomas to do and why are they let down so badly by the system? As a last resort and having exhausted all other avenues we are accordingly petitioning the Scottish Parliament to address the situation in accordance with the terms of section 2 of the Petition.
