1.1 Specialist post 16 education placements are commissioned for a small number of learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities on a cross border basis. These placements are made for those learners whose needs cannot be met on a day to day basis in any of the 25 FE institutions in Wales. These placements are identified by a number of professionals. Great care is needed when placing these young people in specialist residential placements. The Children's Commissioner for Wales is concerned about the involvement of the young people in the planning of these placements and how the young people's welfare is safeguarded in these placements by Welsh local authorities or the Welsh Assembly Government. Given the special needs of learners, there needs to be a clear commitment to ensuring the quality not only of the learning experience but also the pastoral elements of the specialist educational placements.

1.2 We are aware that these placements can cause considerable disruption within families and that, although there are appeal mechanisms in place, these may be not be available to children and young people. Through discussions with the Welsh Assembly Government we have been notified of plans to amend the appeals procedure to allow children and young people themselves to raise an appeal to the Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales (SENTW) and would welcome a similar policy change in other areas of children's services..

1.3 Estyn's [1]evidence to the Additional Learning Needs Legislative Competence Order of the National Assembly for Wales highlights a number of other issues for post 16 learners. Of particular concern are the statements at paragraph 21 about the lack of guidance for post-16 learners and the difficulties around the transfer of records leading to disruption of the young person's education and the statement about the lack of access to transport at paragraph 27.

1.4 Post-16 providers

21. The lack of a statutory framework and supporting guidance for post-16 learners with additional learning needs hinders the process of transition from school to further education, training or employment. Careers officers help pupils with SEN to gain access to post-16 provision that is appropriate for their needs. However, schools and LEAs do not normally pass on pupils' records, statutory assessments or statements to post-16 providers. As a result, post-16 providers often have to make a fresh start with assessments, leading to delays in providing the necessary support.

22. Estyn produced reports in 2004 and 2005 on provision for learners with additional learning needs in further education (FE) colleges and work based learning companies.

23. These two reports highlighted many ways in which going to FE college makes a positive difference to the lives of young people with additional learning needs. However, there were also some shortcomings, including the limited opportunities for progression within or from FE for learners with severe or profound learning difficulties, the lack of support for challenging behaviour and limited access to specialist mental health services.

24. Overall, the main focus in work-based learning is on immediate programme outcomes, such as securing employment or a qualification, with less attention paid to learners' other needs.

25. Few learners with additional learning needs progress from college to work-based learning or employment. Many of these learners need much more support to enable them to use public transport because they lack the skill and confidence to travel independently.

26. By extending the scope of legislation to education and training for 'all persons', irrespective of age, the proposed order will open the way for improving transition arrangements from school to other providers.

27. It is, however, very important to recognise that lack of access to transport is a major barrier to equality of access to education and training for learners with additional learning needs and disabilities.

2. Specialist health provision

2.1 There are a number of areas of specialist health provision that are of concern and have been raised by health professionals with the Children's Commissioner for Wales. One such area is that of neonatal care in Wales. In North Wales, the three NHS Trusts often work together in order to ensure that services are available if any one Trust is at a crisis point. This can often result in young patients and their parents and carers having to travel considerable distances and often over the border into England. Unfortunately, in some cases there can be a difficulty in getting records transferred back from English inpatient areas. In South Wales, there are no managed clinical networks for neonatal care as yet. The lack of a dedicated and properly equipped neonatal transport system in Wales with was another concern. Given the recent report into maternity services in England, this is an area that requires further consideration.

2.2 Many health professionals expressed concern that Health Commission Wales undertook a review of neonatal services in Wales but that the report of this review has still not been published.

2.3 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is another area of serious, long term concern in Wales. In 2007, the Children's Commissioner for Wales produced a report, Somebody Else's Business, which attempted to scope the accessibility and provision of CAMHS across Wales. The report highlighted concerns around the specific exclusion from access to CAMHS services (stated within Health Commission Wales' commissioning guidelines) of young people aged 16 to 18 who are not attending full-time school and for those children and young people with a primary diagnosis of a learning disability. There is also a severe lack of specialist provision within Wales for those children and young people whose challenging or violent behaviour requires medium and high secure CAMHS placements. which result in placements being made in England. There is currently no provision for inpatient treatment of eating disorders within Wales. Children and young people are required to travel to England for treatment. There are often problems with the long term funding of these placements by Health Commission Wales. In some cases funding ends before therapy is complete.

2.4 Some areas of Wales have a concentration of residential children's homes as well as many foster care placements. Research has shown that 49% of looked after children aged 11-15 have mental health problems[2] . Powys Local Health Board have reported to us that two thirds of all referrals to CAMHS are made in connection with looked after children from out of county (including from English local authorities) who have been placed in Powys. This causes a great strain on services in the county.

2.5 We are aware that children have been placed in England from Wales without notification to the relevant English social services and health services (as set out in the Welsh Assembly Government guidance, Towards a Stable Life and a Brighter Future). This has led to inappropriate service provision and placing the child at risk. We have intervened on occasion to safeguard the child's welfare and to secure funding. Advocacy service providers based in England are often not available or may not provide advocacy when a child is placed over the border. This office has often strived to fill this gap to safeguard children's welfare and rights. In addition visits by social workers or independent visitors do not appear to be happening regularly, despite a statutory requirement to visit every six weeks, leaving these children potentially more vulnerable.

3. Transport links

3.1 Currently there is a debate around where the neonatal level 1 and 2 units will in future be located in Wales and the links with units in England particularly along the North Wales/ Cheshire and Shropshire border. This is more specialised care and there are clear impacts on families who have to travel considerable distances to visit the child must be considered especially since, for some of those children, stays in Level 1 and 2 can last up to 2-4 months.

3.2 Concerns also surround the public transport links that families of children and young people may have to use to visit children and young people who may be detained in Young Offenders Institutions in England, for example, Stoke Heath and Ashfield. Similarly, there are no Mother and Baby Units within the secure estate in Wales.

4. Broadcasting

4.1 The Government of Wales Act 2006 enables the Welsh Assembly Government to make Assembly Measures that have the effect of amending primary, Westminster legislation. This is an important extension of devolution and yet is has received very little media coverage outside of Wales. It also means that central legislation and devolved legislation will continue to diverge. It is important that the media reflect this and inform the public.

4.2 When it comes to children's services, the media make great mention of "Every Child Matters" (ECM) the guidance arising from the Children Act 2004. There is, however, little mention of the fact that ECM applies only to England and that quite different arrangements exist in devolved administrations. We are aware that this results in confusion even amongst professionals.

4.3 Our experience shows that a number of major policy announcements from central Westminster government are not covered by the media in a way that provides the public with a clear picture as to whether these announcements apply in their nation.

4.4 We find that the education subsection on the main BBC news site often contains a vast majority of stories that relate to England only and there is a lower level of coverage of educational stories relating to the devolved administrations.

4.5 Additionally, there have been several major enhancements of children's rights in Wales that have not been replicated in England and which have notably received little media coverage - even in BBC Wales news. For example, the placing of the establishment of school councils as a statutory duty and the duty to allow secondary school pupils the right of appeal against exclusion from school. A cynic may be forgiven for thinking that the lack of news coverage of these items has more to do with not wishing to encourage requests for similar enhancements in England. Nevertheless the children of Wales are not well served when these important changes are not given adequate coverage.

15 February 2008

[1] Proposed Additional Learning Needs LCO Committee - The National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) Order 2007 Response to consultation Her Majesty's Chief Inspector for Education and Training in Wales

http://www.assemblywales.org/bus-home/bus-committees/bus-committees-third-assem/bus-committees-third-aln-home/bus-committees-third-aln-agendas.htm?act=dis&id=60175&ds=11/2007

[2] The mental health of young people looked after by local authorities The Stationery Office. ISBN 0 11 621651 4. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/hel0603.pdf