Q21. What needs to be in place so that children and young people with low incidence, highly complex needs can always access the right specialist placement?

The context: The proposals recognise that a small number of children have highly complex needs that are relatively uncommon which makes accessing support more difficult. The Government will explore options for moving to regional commissioning and regional budgets to improve collaboration and ensure children with these complex needs can access a suitable placement without being affected by regional variations in what is offered.

In your answer, you may want to consider:

• Children who have experienced early trauma, disrupted attachments and time spent in care are highly likely to be disproportionately included in the category of those with low incidence, highly complex needs, as they frequently also have additional diagnoses, including FASD, autism, ADHD and specific learning difficulties, creating uniquely complex profiles of need.
• There are very few settings which can meet the needs of this cohort of children. Too many adoptive families are forced into home educating their children (around 6-10% in any given year according to the Adoption Barometer) – around 80% of these home educating adoptive parents would prefer their child to be in a school if a school could be found that could meet their needs.
• Proposals for regional commissioning of specialist settings must include a requirement for every region to have at least one specialist school for the education of children with a background of complex trauma and attachment disruption.