“With a significant increase in the amount of children officially diagnosed with PDA, Pathological Demand Avoidance, as part of the Autistic profile, may I therefore ask:-
What plans/structures are already in place with you as an Education Department to ensure long and short term educational fairness for the children and what resources and training and understanding do you have in place for you as Education Department Staff, staff in schools and centres and indeed as a Council?”
Minutes:
“With a significant increase in the amount of children officially diagnosed with PDA, Pathological Demand Avoidance, as part of the Autistic profile, may I therefore ask:-
What plans/structures are already in place with you as an Education Department to ensure long and short term educational fairness for the children and what resources and training and understanding do you have in place for you as Education Department Staff, staff in schools and centres and indeed as a Council?”
Response by Councillor. Glynog Davies, Cabinet Member for Education and Welsh Language:-
I realise that you do have a great concern in this area. It’s a very complicated matter and you know that and a lot of us are aware of that. It is a very important question and it is a personal question to yourself and I would like to say that I am very pleased that this condition is being recognised. If you go back a few years the label of “naughty children” would have been given to those who are now autistic. We have moved on considerably from there. Inclusion and ensuring the very best for every learner, I want to emphasise that – for every learner in our county is a priority for us. It is a priority that we consider regularly as an Education Department. Just as important for us to make sure that we do provide the best, we have to update our own information. Information in this area changes regularly and we are learning all the time about it and our understanding is just as important. How do we go about responding to the news that we receive. I understand, according to the National Autistic Society, PDA is a profile to describe those where the main characteristic is that they avoid expectations and tasks. We have better understanding of this all the time. It is a profile on the spectrum itself. The autistic spectrum, you have to remember, is a very complicated and widespread one but what we are discussing now, the PDA, is a profile on the autistic spectrum. The children and young people avoid day to day demands. They use strategies as part of this avoidance if you like. PDA individuals share autistic characteristics, what is familiar to a lot of us but they also have many other characteristics which is relevant to this PDA profile. So, with these learners we have to work in a very different way and collaborative methods of teaching and regular daily tasks are much more effective working with them as individuals. I have to emphasise that PDA is a diagnosis which is relatively new and we know that but despite it being new Carmarthenshire has raised awareness of it and I want to emphasise that. We have genuinely been raising awareness of this condition. Training involving PDA is very important and it has been now included into the training provision of the Authority. We had to put a lot of steps in place immediately to make sure that we were aware of the condition and also how to adapt our way of working. By now all the schools in the county are aware of PDA even though it is quite new and that it is part of the autistic spectrum. Training is provided and it has been given to those who are coordinating Additional Learning Needs and that information is available to all the staff of our schools. We share this information on our information sharing systems. We had an expert, Laura Kirby, to provide specific modules for us and all this is available online and there are videos which have been prepared and they are available as well to support pupils who have PDA. If they want, our schools can also ask for further specialist advice from our Psychologists. We have Behaviour Support Officers and they provide support to our staff and we have Advisory Teachers for autism and who are experts in this field. When we appoint staff to work in the autism area they have to have a specific understanding of PDA and how to put strategies in place Very often we refer schools to the resources from the PDA Association. I have looked at their website and it is excellent, and it is worth reading. In an area which can be so complicated and I realise that parents do have a big concern about this and we want to work together with parents by sharing information if possible. Very often, what works for one learner might not be suitable for another learner, so we have to discuss very carefully. Over the next academic year we will be providing training in relation to awareness of PDA and this will be further training. This sharing of information has to happen on a continuous basis as we learn more and understand more and we will be sharing all that information with the ALENCOs in the schools. This is done via the ALENCO Forum. I want to emphasise once again that we are genuinely doing our very best to ensure educational fairness for all our learners but you are more than welcome, like any other parent, to engage with us as a county if you have a specific concern that you want to address.
Supplementary question by Rev Angharad Griffiths:-
How can we move forward as a department and parents to ensure that there are less failings and less failings of our children in the current education system please?
Response by Councillor. Glynog Davies, Cabinet Member for Education and Welsh Language to the supplementary question:-
I really do sympathise with you personally and I am sure that we as a Council really do sympathise with you. The only thing that I can guarantee is that everything we are learning and the latest developments about this condition - we receive it and we understand it and then we share that information. If you see any weakness in any part of what we are offering at the moment, as I said earlier, I am very keen to hear.
I would very much welcome any further comments that you have. I can give you my word that myself and the Director will meet with yourself and any other parent to discuss your concerns. I can’t say more than that but we are learning more and more about the condition all the time and we are sharing that information.