bensmum2

I appreciate your replies , this isnt about how much the school costs , it is actually a non maintained out of area special school which is named on my sons statement after the LEA failed to provide a suitable school locally. it is about choice and the fact that his peers who are in mainstream colleges arent forced to do PE or swimming and they only have to attend a few days a week , whereas my son is out of the house with travelling 9 hours 5 days a week , The shcool have chosen all his courses doe him , even forcing him to do english literature for a full year when i objected to it , and thye have even chosen his 6th form courses even though i asked for a meeting to help decide what he should do. His choice has been taken aay x

My son is 17 and in his first few months of 6th form at a special school, he isnt' coping well at all, i have spoekn to him and one of the things he is struggling with is they are encouraging him to "grow up" and take more responsibility for himself , but on the other hand forcing him to do PE and Swimming , both of which he hates. He talks to other people on the internet a lot of whom are at college now and only have to attend a few days a week and are not made ot do pe and get a lot of time off whne he is in all week full time and out of the house 9 1/2 hours every day with travelling. Can i insist he drops pE and swimming ?and that they adjust his timetable so that he gets at least one day off in the week like others his age ?

Hi yes he had extra time and a laptop and scribe , but they put him in for the higher papaers and i knew he wudnt be able to do them, but thye ignored me. i was ocnstantly on their backs last year about why i wasnt seeing any homeowrk or any coursework and thye just kept saying hesup to date and doing well, but if thtas were the case he wudnt have got an f or a u in 2 of his exams , and yesterday they told me more lies which i have found out so am taking this much further , they have entered him for an AS level exam when he has only been on the course 4 months and off for most of that, they told me this is the only time that exam is available but i have found out its done in may as well, they say he wotn pass it anyway , but to em thats just setting him up to fail again x

Thankls ally , i know i shouldnt have let it go this long but he was doing ok, and thne he broke his ankle in the middle of his gcse's and so other things were prioritised and i just presumed they wanted to see how well he was doing before they commited themselves to the changes, the changes actually included less help as at the time i didnt feel he eeded it , but the ankle injury has set him bakc so much , his anxiety has coem back andalthough the school were constantly reassuring me his work was fine and he was set for good grades in the gcse's , he didnt' do well at all, and thye started saying well his course work was no good. So now i have lost confidence in the school as well. He also now goes aprt time to a mainstream ands he isnt coping wiht thta either his old sickness has eturned , i want to sort this out so do need a copy of this revised statemetn so i know exactly what he should have in place . Nice ot hear from you anyway how is your son doing? Hope things are much better for you all x

At my sons review in DDecember 2011, the lea agreed to amend his statement , in june 2012 i contacted them as we still hadn't received anything. They said it would eb amended after his GCSE results in the summer/ We have now had this years review which the lEA didnt attend and still no amended statement. I rnag them today and they said they will "look into it" . so we hav ebeen waiting over 12 months for an amended statment . any advice please ?

Hi Again just noticed in my post above i put they can withdraw the 1 to 1 but i meant to say if it is in the statement they CAN'T withdraw it without your consent at least , if its in the statemwnt theya r elegally bound to do it, x

If he cant cope with going out in the yard he shud be provided with a safe place in school, and if he is statemented this could be included as part of that , if 1 to 1 is written in, they can "withdraw it to give him more freedom" without u agreeing, appealing to sendist will take time and p[robably not get you anywhere , concentrate on sorting the problema he has in the yard to make life easier for him x

of the school wont ask for an assessment from the edpsych , or even if they will , do a parental reuest for a statutory assessment, my son suffered froms chool refusal, same symptoms as your boy , so bad we had to de register him and home school , years 7,and 8 he only spent half the tiem there and they promised loads of helpw hcih never materialised, they went so far as to blame us and threaten to put him on the child protection register even though we clearly had disgnosis of psycho somatic symptoms and school refusal, out of interest he also couldnt not cope with Frenc , whatever we tried and i believe this can be an asd trait , foreign langua ged. I home schooled him thorugh year 9, he stopped vomiting , the paisn reduced, he evens topped wetting teh bed which he had been doing for 8 years, i had ot go private twice for a proper diagnosis, and we had to go all the way to tribunal for a school, we got a statement on pour 4th attempt but they still tried to put him bakc in a mainstream school with over 800 pupils, in the end we won at tribunal, as the lea couldnt provide anywhere suitable for him we got a non maintained out of area special school and he hasnt looked back, no more illness and he has changed os much, he still doesnt do french cos he just cant/ i got a lot of help from IPSEA thye have advice lines and came to tribunal with me. They even have sample letters that u can copy. if u get refused , appeal and go as far as u can , Good luck x

well , my friends son got awarded lower mobility but no care, but better than nothing and they owe her over a year in benefit, its like they totally ignored his IEP and depression and ocd, but he is 16 now and his appeal was dealt with as if he were still 15 so now he us unable to make a main meal for himself comes into play , i have told my friend to get a new referral to camhs and then we will do a change of circumstances , all the Panel concentrated on was could he use the toilet and wash himself , didnt even take into account how much verbal help he needs with over washing and refusing to eat food he hasnt seen prepared and stuff liek that, but small success xx

i really appreciate your response to this , i love the littel 2thoughts" u put at the end , will post agein when we get the results should be today hopefully , win or lose i think i am going to question the qualifications of the dLA tribunal panel further x

yes i agree diagnosis alone doesnt entitle one to DLA it is the degree of help they may need over and above anothe rperson of a simialr age and obviously the type of help, and i am not expecting them to be experts in all disabilities just to have basic knowledge of the problems people are likely to experience, or at least one of the panel members to have such knowledge x

Hi Thank you for replying, i have been helping people with Dla forms just as a personal fried for many years , i have only ever had one refusal and that was overturned after asking for the decision to be looked at again and i myself am registered blind and have been for 10 years, i got dla for 2 years at higher care rate then when i had to reapply they reduced it to lower, their reason was i must be used to ebing blind after 2 years !!! You should have heard my response to that, needless to say, once again that was overturned when i applied for a review.This tiem was for my friends aspie 16 year old, i applied last feb for them, they didnt turn it down till july and it didnt get changed at review so yesterday was the tribunal , there were 89 pages which they didnt evens eem to have read, one of the reasons for refusal was that he didnt get substantially more help at school than other children of his age, but he has an iep for 2 hours a day, plus extra support before and after school and at lounchtime, i argues that thta was substantially more and the panel said they thought it was 2 hours a week !! so even the disability aware lady didnt really seem to know how to read an iep. personally i foight for 8 years for my aspie son, now 16 to get into a special school, i went to tribunal over that and in our case notes there were 599 pages, it was really obvious that all panel members knew every single page and they were brilliant and asked for clarification of anythign they werent sure of.needless to say we won and he is now very happy in a class of 6 coming up to his gcse's, but this dla panel just really didnt seem to understand what we were talking about , we had spent ages talking about the child refusing to move without his mum and then when i summed up i just called it seperation problems, and one of them said what are seperation problems ! we still havent had a decision apparently it's "in the post" and they wont discuss it over the phone, but i was wondering if we do get refused, do i have any redress becasue the panel seemed totally clueless about asd ?

Hi just popped in to see how things are going, sounds like theya re still ok, i know my son is happy at school but he still moans sometimes and says im not going back there, but like u i have told him this is his last chance , he does admit even if he isnt always happy its still the best he has ever had, i told him sometimes in life its time to accept things and make the best of them, i still think its a fab school, iy sounds like your son is acepting what you say too, which in itself is a major breakthrough i think , keep up the good work xx

Went to dla tribunal with my friend yesterday for DLA for her Aspie son who also has OCD, Just wondered if anyone else has any experience > The panel members a gp, a lawyer and a person who was "disbility aware" didnt know what and IEP was, and even when explained ot them , they thought the hours awarded on it were for the whole weeka nd not each day, also the lawyer didnt seem to recognise seperation anxiety even though it had been talked about several times during the tribunal , and the disability aware lady had to explain it to him. Surely although thes people are supposed to be unbiased, they cannot make informed decisions if they know nothing about the disability being discussed / Any ideas anyone ? Should they nto at least have a basic knowledge of the problems that can be associated with the dissability in question, we don't have an answer yet , but i was just wondering if anyone else had any experience, Thanks x

Thank you so much i will look at these links , and look into advocacy locally xx

Hi Thanks kathryn , nice to hear from you, ;life is much different for my family and i now, and definately worth the fight, Sally, it really sounds like your son is doing well getting back into school but our kids are so complex it's hard to deal with everything at once, maybe if he tries medication for some of his issues , it will also help others, i am very lucky in that they did consider nmedicating for his anxiety but in the end they didn't . I would have accepted anything at that time to help.I hope he goes froms trength to strength and his placement wont fail with you behind him , you have given myself and many other people invaluable advice and whatever happens he has you and you will continue to fight for as long as it takes.good luck with everything xx

I am helping my friend with a claim for DLA for her son who is now 16 , she originally claimed last February and was refused, she asked for a review but the decision was the same, he has Aspergers and OCD both formerley diagnosed, he isn't statemented but is on school action plus with an IEP stating he has 2 1/2 hours a day help in school. He has had counselling and she was at one time offered other help, but struggling to come to terms with the diagnosis, she din't take that help and just tried to cope herself. The reasons for refusal include His ocd make it easier for him to cope with his Aspergers and she has never taken the help she was offfered. At the time of applying she didnt have a copy of his school iep, but for the appeal she obtained a copy and sent it in, they refused to accept it as evidence , saying new evidence can't be used for the appeal it has to be on the evidence that she sent in at the time . I did tell her to get him rereferred to a child psychologist for an up to date report, but the Gp said he had depression and that needed dealing with first so nothing has been done about the psychologist .originally we went to the CAB and they promised to represent her at trbunal but due to cutbacks they have now said they can't attend. I have done loads of DLA forms myself for others and also have a son with Aspergers who gets Dla and know her boy well , but have never been to a dla tribunal and really need as much advice as possible so i can help her , Thanks guys xx

hi sally, i've not been on here for ages but i am so glad to see that things are going so well, it makes a huge difference having the right school, my son is still doing well, the lea attended the second annula review which my son ran himself, introducing everyone and putting his own views as well, and after us preparing for a massive fight for post 16 next year, the lea simply said ,"we have no intention of removing him from this school for post 16" , and this was even sweeter coming from the lady who had been refusing to help us for almost 8 years was an even sweeter vistory, i just cried wiht relief !! He also gets one night residential paid for by soc services as respite, he still isn't happy about that but he is grwoing all the time in confidence and self belief, he was even headmaster for the day and had the main part in the dchool christmas play last month, i'm sure your son will grow more and more in this new school and although my son still has separation problems we are slowly getting there with everything else. he is also now doing his duke of edinburgh award somethign which i never thought he would achieve , but he is already half way through it , good luck with your son , i'm sure he will just continue to progress more than you ever thought possible xx

So glad for u Sally,your life will change now, u will have more time for you and not need to worry as all his needs will be met, there is a time scale for the lea to sort this all out, but in our case they didn't keep to it and the tribunal admitted there wasn't a lot they could do about it, but it has been ordered by the tribunal and it will happen and it will be the best thing u have ever done , believe me xx

Hi Sally , i've not been on here for ages , just thought i would see how things were going, such good news, i am really happy for you, your son will dos so well wiht the right help, our la took a week short of half term to sort my sons place at his new school last year. but it was so worth the fight and the wait, he settled in straight away and is doing really well, he is such a different child now , he is 16 now and even joined in his own birthday party instead of spending the time in his room like he used to , he has made friends and is happy to og to school, last week he was "headmnaster for a day" voted in after a panel interviewed him !! His classes are usually 6 or less and he really is thriving. He even ran his own annual review i was so prous, and the lea have agreed without any fighting that he stays on for 6th form with his statement still in place. I really hope your son settles in well and is soon as happy as mine is, it will change your life, it has ours good luck xx

My son has gad and Adpergers and school refusal, he went to camhs for over 12 months and it didnt make the slightest differnce,i also home schooled him for a year through year 9 hilst fighting for a statement. He is now in a special independant school out of the areapaid for by the lea. I think if your daughter wants to go to college she is going to have to get used to going out of the house, in my opinion, and home schooling post 16 would not help her overcome her fears, and i would be surprised if you did get benefits extended beyond 16 if she is not registered in full time education but am not really sure about that. I also have an elder son of 26 who never got a statement , and since he left school he has struggled and gets no help, all i have heard from professionals is "why didnt he have a statement?" and noone will help him !! i fully undertand school refusaland gad my son has them both, but being in her last year she needs to really do her best to go,for the social aspect if nothing else. the only way forward i can see is a statement, once she has that she can keep it till she is 19 under certain circumstances. when i was home schooling my son in year 9, i asked the college if they could help me and they found him 2 part time courses, preparation for working life and functional skills not the highest level in the world but it got him into a learning environment with other students 2 mornings a week and taught him practical things and menat he was still going out into the world, before this he was spending almost 24 hours a day in his room. Maybe you could have a word with college if thats where she wants to go and they might suggest a course which she could do now, the lea might even apy for it, but if you do deregister like i did u will find you will have to pay all the fees. My son was only 14 when he spent a year in ccllege, he wasnt happy but it was much better than school. when i aske dhim why, he said it was becasue there was no silliness and bullying and they were all more grown up xx

Hi please dont take this the wrong way , but you are very lucky to have an lea that have already agreed to pay for transport or your son,most people even when they get schools , still have to fight for the transport.I think it is worth giving one of these schools a try , he will have an escort in the taxi who will probably keep him occupied and there are games and stuff he can take and if you vary it he shudnt get bored ,my own son (although he is `15) travels an hour each day to school , he never complains of being bored as they talk about things i give him a drink and snack for on the way home he has severe anxiety and panics easily but he always arrives home really calm even when they are in rush hour traffic. If the lea are already saying your son can go out of area then i think you are in a good position to look at other out of area schools including independant espcially as they cant provide him with a place anywhere until september. i also know of people who travel locally on school buses to special schools and some travel over 1 1/2 hours round the area picking others up before they even get to school, and that school is only about 3 miles from their home x You can always thinks about moving if and when he is settled in a good school,if you still feel you need to x

Hi Sally , i cant believe you are still going thorugh this, my son is so settled at his new school now and i ahve the days all to myself i was just thinking about all of you on here who helped me so much so thought i would see how u r all doing. Firstly i tried going down the route of asking the tribunal to disregard the lea as theyw ere late with their submissions every time, and once they even asked for extra time a day after the stuff should ahve been in. it was really a waste of time and effort as the tribunal gives them mmore tiem to reply every tiem and i applied for their evidence to eb diosregarded 4 times during our appeal , even once we had it there was loads of reports with up to half their content missing, the tribunal did nothing, you are better concentrating on your actaul case. if the lea have omitted soem of the evidence you sent, then you put it in again. dotn wait too long for ipsea contac them again , u need to get your working document looked at and their people will do that for u, but if i were u i woudl look at it now and see what u want to say and have that ready fro ipsea to give them a starting point.Ipsea rewrote mine so much so that now he is a special school it is too specific cos eh gets help all the time but the school work with it. my lea ttook their ep to the trbunal but when they asked her directly what are the pros and cons of each school, she said she cud only give the benfits of the special school we wanted!!! I think u have been to tribunal before im not 100% sure, but if not i can assure you theya re very very fair, even if we had lost our case i said from day 1 we had a very fair hearing and everyoen in the tribunal knew our papers inside and out even though there were 599 pages !!!

Hi if the lea can't provide a uitable school to meet your sons needs then u can find your own and go to appeal , its a slow process but it cud be worth it in the end and then if you win at appeal they wud have to pay for transport,, open days and parents evenings are only a few tiems a year and most schools would make special arrangemnts if u arent able to attend on the given date,my son is now in a special school about an hour away and transport has to be provided cos they said at the appeal they could only offer him one school locally and the panel agreed it wasnt suitable so the lea had to pay for transport too. The school he goes to now costs the lea over twice what a local mainstream wud even though they are supposed to consider reasonable costs and the transport alone costs £110 a day, they said that "reasonable costs can vary depending on the circumstances " and the circumstances were that the lea had no acceptable place for him and he needed to go to a school with full support and very small classes, that the unusually high costs incurred were reasonable under the circumstances, since he started there i ahve found another parent who lives locally and she takes me to open days and stuff as i dont drive either x

Hi Sally, i have spoken to send and we could apply for the statement to be changed, but the lea have agreed to change it at annual review. His statement was originally done in January , so his annual review date is january although it can be done before then, school are planning to hold the review in november though, so this can get sorted out. School have already got an OT assessing him , so she will then comment on the schools existing programs and how they would benefit him and then , as you say we could insist they attend the programs if they still disagree and they wont want to do that, as they will also have to attend review meetings!! these parts of the statement were written by ipsea, refused by the lea but then ordered by the tribunal,although thee lea did suggest the regular meetings! but whn they were written it had to be done to cover the mainstream too. I dont belive ist such a mess now i have had all this advice, i believe its a battle of wills between the B**** at the lea and myself!! At the end of the day, the judge coudld ecide i dotn get my money back, but if the lea dditn appeal against the tribunals decision, they cant try to say its not right just because i am trying to claim expenses. The funny thing is, they keep going on about "the public -purse can't afford this and that, but it would be cheaper as well as very beneficial for my son to stay overnight 2 days a week as most of the other children do,and the other child he shares the taxi with does too. So getting him the taxi when she is staying, costs them a lot more than if they paid for the residential nights, and once my current appeal has gone in, im going to apply for the residential on the grounds that it would benefit him and save the "public purse" thousands over the 2 years he will be there !! So i guess my fight will continue lol x