North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has today called on the Education Minister to respond to the Flintshire parents who feel their children with diagnosed or suspected Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are not being properly supported.
Speaking in the Welsh Parliament this afternoon, Mr Isherwood referred to the excellent work being carried out to support children with ADHD at Shotton’s Ysgol Tŷ Ffynnon, the first in Wales to be awarded 'ADHD Friendly School' status by the ADHD Foundation, but told the Minister that according to his constituents, some schools in Flintshire are failing.
He said:
“I was also hugely impressed when I visited Ysgol Tŷ Ffynnon as an exemplar that others need to follow, because Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - ADHD - can be masked in an educational environment and ADHD, or other related conditions, are not as a result of environmental issues or bad parenting.
“How do you therefore respond to the Flintshire constituents with children at other schools, whose e-mails in the last month alone include: 'My son was not afforded decision-making that afforded for his behaviours to be fully investigated, and to be put onto a waiting list for an assessment. Instead, once again, it was determined to be a parenting issue, and not ADHD, Autism or spectrum related conditions'.
'I am caring for a teenage boy with ASD and ADHD. The school have labelled us as “parenting problems” and reported us to Social Services’, and ‘CAMHS in my experience fail to provide an adequate assessment outlining the needs of the children, and openly admit they won't consider ADHD until at least 7 years old. The issue I have with this is the strong genetic history of both ASD and ADHD in our family, and that the two combined present very differently to just one or the other condition on their own.'”
The Minister said the work being done at Ysgol Tŷ Ffynnon shows that “excellence in this area is achievable”, and that “training for professionals with regard to a range of additional learning needs is an important part of our £20 million transformation programme for Additional Learning Needs”.
ENDS
Picture Caption: North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood with pupils and staff at Ysgol Tŷ Ffynnon in Shotton in January.