bjkmummy

Yes re input being minimal. Current school have said Joe can stay in the interim on the basis interim only and they expect autism outreach to be in school one full morning per week. Will email lea and say that's min I would accept but in it is interim only until they find a suitable special school. The cuurent school say so far all autism outreach have done is advise - she is the only person, works part time only and term time only. We have 7000 kids in county so she will be pretty stretched - I know 40 kids have statements so must be at least a 100 kids she supports. No one at his school has asd qualification. The other school has someone who is very qualified however I don't think long term they will place him in the other school and I'm confident that I can knock it out. They haven't even consulted them yet. If they really wanted him to go there they could move him in a week so we keep saying no and keep up the pressure whilst also gathering evidence we need.

got the minutes from the meeting today - they are looking at the school with the autism unit although dont mention the unit just the school. they seem to be making much more in the minutes than i remember about autism outreach who has yet to even see him - they want her to go in and work with joe and then if she 'cures' him he should be okay - she has only been in post since may and is not a qualified teacher. we agreed to joe staying in the school in the interim only whilst another school placement is sought. that is also said in the minutes and how we want a specialist placement but then the lea refer to joes statement as a 'mainstream' statement hence why an alternative mainstream is being sought. they accept his current school cannot meet his needs. its all very wishy washy and ive gone through and lots of things have been said - im worried about the part where it seems as though i agree that if autism outreach working with him is a 'success' then i would agree to him staying at the school which i absolutely did not agree to - how do you measure 'sucess' - it does then say i said it would be unlikely i would reassess and basically leave him in the current school they state that an OT cannot make recommendations about school placement - 'the LA did not accept that it was within the remit of an OT to make this type of recommendation'. it does mention how we keep stating that we want a specialist placement so thats good but i was very disheartened reading it especially as they are clearly still thinking mainstream is the right enviroment it also says that the lea have 8 weeks from review to finalise the statement - i said they had had 6 weeks so they will try and finalise in 2 weeks - what they are going to finalise i have no idea as they agree with none of our evidence whatsoever. they want NHS OT for 'balance' so it seems that they accept no evidence from our OT, teacher, head teacher but will accept the recommendations from autism outreach who is not even a qualified teacher. they also contradict themselves by saying our OT cannot make recommendations then it says this ' mr lawes queried what would happen if the NHS OT assessment recommended Joe needs special schol they replied that the OT will be part of the evidence considered' she actually said that they would accept the NHS OT recommendations in the meeting. they now say the OT assessment 'might' happen over the summer holidays whereas last week they were saying that it will probably happen - noone has yet contacted me. at the end the LA agreed to contact the school =- they havent yet and they did put that they would either in the minutes. teh head is unhappy as noone from the lea has contacted her to explain what is going on. the LA also said in the meeting autism ooutreach not yet seen Joe as the school had not completed the necessary form they had sent them - when i spoke to the school they said no form has ever been sent. in the minutes this has changed to that we agreed to complete the form to share information about Joe with autism outreach so - i am going to respond and say i dont accept the minutes as accurate and again list the areas where i think things have been missed out, words have been put into our mouths etc. a friend read it earlier and she was shocked at all the poor grammar so i need to change that as well!! re the other mainstream with unit - dont think the lea have realised yet that the school have closed most of teh asd provision as of yesterday!!!

thanks sally - the current LA maintained school he is in clearly cannot meet his needs which the school have stated over and over again - will be interesting to see if the LA do mention again about moving him to another another mainstream school which was one he went to last year and it went terribly wrong as the LA said he could have an autism place which they put in writing even though he didnt have a statement and the school dumped him in the mainstream - i moved him after 6 weeks to this school and then got a statement. I did lodge a complaint last year about how he was treated so that will be logged somewhere. the LA are now trying to say he can go back to that school but in the specialist provision - ive told them no way - hes been there and he failed, i have no trust in the school whatsoever. they had 2 specialist classes there - one class closes today (my elder son is in that class) the school have closed it with no real mention to anyone. the other class has non verbal children in it so would nto be a suitable peer group for Joe - also have it in writing from the head of the school that she owuld not place a verbal child in the class plus Joe would be expected to be in mainstream 50/50 and they dont always get support in the mainstream and the school is a very busy and noisy school with more than double the number of children than are at his current school.

just wrote a long reply and it disappeared - the OT report list in details all the recommendation and support from OT he would need including the level of qualification and how many hours OT support he needs in a year. she does also say that he will never cope in mainstream PE so more specialist placement needed but due to all of his sensory issues he needs a specialist school where they will have more staff qualified to help joe plus the enviroment will be better for him - the report is incredibly detailed and she has done an amazing job - the lea even did say that it is a very good report and everything is quanitified in it - the lea just dont accept it and still want the NHS OT report for balance but we still have had no contact to say when this will happen. we should get the minutes of the last meeting on friday then we will amend them if needed - if no minutes arrive then we will type up our own and send them to them. we should have some type of statement back by the end of next week as the sen officer said they had to finalise withn 8 weeks - her saying this was wrong but ipsea have advised me not to correct her but also to make sure that the conversation is in the minutes. my head hurts even more as i get various members of the lea phone me to offer 'support' as they are worried about me. been told to day that they dont understand why school have said they cant meet his needs but allow him in school part time when they should exlude him - what the school are doing is not consistent, with extra support Joe will be okay, that all the special schools are full, that i have to allow the lea the time they need, nhs OT report is really needed blah blah blah - decided from this point not going to speak to a single person from the LA as they are all in it together, all singing from the same hymm sheet - they must really think i am completely stupid and that my comments are not being fed back. made it completely clear that i will fight for Joe to get him the right placement. im amazed at all this compassion and yet not one single offer of anything helpful whatsoever just more LA jargon

no - he will be year 4 in september, this is going to drag on and isnt going to be resolved anytime soon. thank you for the emails - has given me plenty to think about - my concern now is that the school i favour most at this stage has OT come into school one day a week - is this enough or do they ideally need someone on site much more - our OT has dx him with senspry processing modulation

my dh was at the meeting as well and we both did take notes - will carefully check the minutes when they come as i am expecting that things have been omitted - toward the end of the meeting it was agreed that joe staying at his current school is an interim measure only and they will look at school placement once they get their NHS OT report but i dont believe them - think they are stalling for time and will probably back down but they will take us to hell and back first before we get there, my next headache which im already thinking about is getting an ed psych report done but dont have a clue where to start with that

his current mainstream have made it clear they cannot meet his needs and theres lot of evidence etc - will be interesting when the minutes from the meeting arrive to see if the lea have left the comment in - if not i will be asking questions! they want an nhs OT report but they are stalling over that as well. they are just stalling over a child who is in school part time only at the moment. the other school i think they are trying to consider does have autism class but the children are very severe and the head has said she would not place a verbal child in the autism class and i have that in writing plus i have no trust in that school - my elder son there and leaves next week. they do expect the children to access the mainstream and it is a school twice the size of the current school. joes school have done everything that they could for joe - it mainstream that is not right - he needs an asd specific placement. this is also his 4th primary and he is only in year 3 so the next school has to be the right school not a cheap stop gap for the lea! i will try and speak to the school again tomorrow and get the head and class teacher to put in writing more about joe. then await the statement coming back in the next 2 weeks which i know it wont but if im honest that could work in my favour as again will show the lea delaying yet again.

hes in a mainstream primary - only attending mornings and the meeting today with the lea decided that hes not coping at this mainstream school so another mainstream school could be the way forward - really not quite sure what to say. they also said that after following an emergency review they have to amend the statement within 8 weeks - they dont accept our amendment or the schools recommendations so as they have had 6 weeks we told them to finalise in 2 weeks which they tenatively agreed to. they say he can continue at his present school in the mornings - maybe he could work in a corridor by himself with support. they want him to be seen by their nhs OT as they say our private OT cannot make recommendations regarding what would be a suitable school placement. they say the school have not provided any evidence that he is not coping or that they cannot meet his needs. they also say that autism outreach have yet to be involved because the school have not given me a form to sign which they sent to them. school say no form has ever been received via LEA my head hurts right now - oh and of course them not accepting he needs a special school is nothing to do with money. they cannot understand why a statement only 7 months old is not working.

just been into drop joe off at school and the class teacher and head teacher were waiting for me. class teacher was so upset about what happened yesterday that she has obviously spoken to the head late last night. the head is furious. i didnt realise whilst i was out of the room the the lea boss said that she wasnt aware that there was evidence in the papers - the class teacher asked what she meant and listed down all of the things of the boss said - all of these documents were sent to the lea on 1st june. the head has sent several emails to the lea this morning and has reaffirmed that they cannot meet his needs -at was she has also highlighted that they already have all of the evidence they need and she wants to be at the meeting on friday. she has made it clear that the sen officer is not telling teh boss the true story about joe and his needs. i think the sen officer has been very economical as to what she has said to her boss. the boss yesterday had no idea about what was in the paperwork although was quick to say there was no evidence so feeling more positive today as the school are fighting as much as we are and are as upset as what we are. class teacher gave me joes report this morning - he is behind in all academic areas and this is the child that could be gifted. think he will go to the OT place - but i know the report will not be as detailed. i will do the letter after fridays meeting re OT seeing him school which means that if they want to do it then its going to be sept at least if they agree so its a long time ahead unless they do somehow manage to do it by next thurs and OT agree to come to school. i dont know yet who the NHS OT is - i have an idea but will need it .confirming for the LEA who they are using

also sally - re the OT report LEA are going to do - we will have to take him to a proper OT assessment centre in the next county so quite a way away - they have already said that the do not wish the OT to see Joe in school - which our OT did - my husband did question this and asked how is that right as did the class teacher - the class teacher made the point that when our OT came she saw him in a PE lesson where Joe bit his toes so much they were bleeding and the NHS OT will see none of this. also just been going through the ed psych reports and its all very wishy washy - i know if i contact him he will never commit to anything -if we go to tribunal then we will be getting a private ed psych report. that said i spoke to the NHS OT a couple of weeks ago as my elder son saw here - we talked about Joe and she said it would be here that the LEA will get to do the report - she said she would speak to me first and if possible would like to see the private report. a few days later she phoned to ask if she could use my two boys as an example of how varying NHS OT services are as they are trying to commision sensory intregration and wanted to use my boys as an example of how one child gets OT as he is being seen for hypermobility and the other boy has been refused due to sensory intregration which the NHS here do not commision

thanks sally - thats helpful as always x - i got more upset than angry hence why i left the room as i couldnt bear to listen to it - whatever the lea are up to the did not want everyone in the room to hear for some reason. i feel that they have enough time already andif they dont agree at this stage then they should just re issue the statement so we can get to tribunal asap. i hear what you say about putting in writing and i will ensure i do that - i have started printing off email and so far no response from them. i was going through my paperwork earlier and time and time again i have said this is urgent, if a delay let me know, im happy to work with them to sort out suitable placement etc etc - im hoping if i give them enough rope they will hang themselves. hubby is speaking at the next meeting and he made it clear today he wants clear timelines but i think we should listen to what the lea have to say - pass it over to them - just one question - if i do say no need to wait for Ot report from them would this look bad on me at a later date at tribunal as it appears that we are not giving them the opprotunity which we are - we just dont want to wait 2 months whilst they ponder. also im conscious that the schools are going to start closing next week and i need to get it in writing that they would be willing to offer joe a place at my preferred school before the schools shut otherwise it will be more delay. if i start the appeal now - its looking like christmas/feb before we get to tribunal. they have already wasted 6 weeks to get this far plus they have had our OT report for 8 weeks already

i do have it a letter from the paed plus the sicknote from a few weeks ago - the school have a vomiting diart. the head is off school tomorrow so will email her and try and speak to her on thursday - she wasnt at the meeting but the class teacher was and she was outraged at what was being said. in her folder she showed me before the meeting that she had his school report - i noticed that all the area of learning were amber which means he is struggling. our OT report was done in april so i need to i guess get the LA one done by sept but its just delaying tatics - i would rather now that they have said there is no evidence that he is struggling academically - which is a lie - move to tribunal asap. the school is an academy so has no ties with the LA - my only problem is that the head is pregnant and due to go off on maternity leave in oct with baby due in nov but she has put it in writing thhis at the school cannot meet his needs and that she also accepts the OT report as an accurate reflection of Joes needs. Its a mess it really is - i know you said this would happen but when it does it hits you like a lead weight. joe has a paed appointment at the beginning of next term so if this is ongoing will get her to sign him off. this is going to go to tribunal - im still in shock that they said there was ne evidence that he has detoriated - i just cant believe they said it. the meeting today was a support meeting lead by another agency so they took the minutes - i did walk out for quite a lot of it - the main meeting now is friday when they will really show their hand as its just us and them - she didnt want to speak today at all and was very cagey about everything. my husband said i was quite argumentative but she wound me up so much. he is going to lead the next meeting - i think that i will get my best friend to come along as support for me - she has a sen child but has never had to cross swords with the lea so hopefully wont be a conflict for her

meeting today was awful! they state the lack of response has been as sen boss been on leave and sen officer has been off sick. in the meeting it was the sen officers boss and she said did i get the message she left on my phone this morning - i said no - when i got home and checked it was left at 12.45pm - meeting was at 2pm! She did not want to discuss joe at all and wants to discuss it with sen officer and myself and husband on friday morning. she made it clear that they are going to get an NHS OT report. They clearly do not think he should be having a specialist school placement even though school have said and put it in writing that they cannot meet his needs. Their OT assessment will not see him at school but at a centre quite a few miles away from here. They mentioned the cost of transport for a specialist palcement and the rules about travel time. She said there was not enough evidence that he was detoriatinng which at that point for his class teacher was going to hit her - class teacher made it clear that joe is failing in all areas academically - lea revert back to their ed psych report bit of course only hightlight the one area that has showed progress and neglected to mention the area he detoriated in. in his statement where it mentions the targets the head had written against every target 'ongoing' lea taken this to mean that hes doing fine - class teacher said no - that means he isnt achieving them hence why they are ongoing! that they would have expected him to reach these targets so i expect this is the way it will go - lea will dig their heels in on friday - the will do an NHS OT report - they will then consider it and then tehy may or may not amend the statement -- emergency review was 31st may - i honestly cant see a decision being made before october if not beyond. they are going to drag this out - what happens in sept - noone knows -again they say it will be discussed on friday. they are playing for time and what with the school holidays etc looming this is going to run and run. he is still only in school in the mornings - no sickness today and yesterday but he has had bad days each day - the teacher is struggling - if he stays at the school past sept his next teacher is a newly qualified teacher , head is going off on maternity leave in oct so god knows who we will get next. she also said that an OT report is not enough evidence to show a specialist placement is needed neither is the mainstream school saying he needs a specialist placement so im in limbo a bit - very very upset - dont know which way to turn - i would rather they said now they dont agree a change in school and issue the statement back so we can get onto tribunal asap rather tahn waiting to oct and then them still refusing to amend the statement

no - even if he doesnt return in sept im going to ask for him to stay on the school register - its the part that school have said they cannot meet his needs but the lea just walked out and left him in a school that cannot meet his needs and now wont speak to me! had no reply to the email from tues - just rang the sen officers boss and shes not in so left a voicemail making it clear i want to know what is going on. IPSEA told me to contact them if i got no response so just spoken to them and emailed their previous advice and waiting for them to call me back just so when i go to this meeting on tuesday im sort of prepared and to get answers to any questions that i might need. its just so frustrating to be met with a wall of silence - he was sick 5 times on wednesday and he was only in school for 3 hours

well i asked for a reply by return on tuesday and still no reply - they are deffo up to something..... i have a feeling that there is a panel today - im not going to chase them again but when we come face to face on tuesday i want answers and also why they are deliberately delaying. he was sick 5 times yesterday morning. i am now accepting that there will be no school place for him in september but im shocked and disappointed at the games the lea will play.

Thanks Sally - you are a star - will send the email now and then will wait a week - got a meeting next tues and depending on what happens will then contact ipsea for further advice

well its been 2 weeks and ive heard exactly nothing so will email them again - i did hear back from ipsea - basically what they are saying is that the code state that a statement has to go through annual review process every year so on a 12 month cycle - this means therefore as my statement was issued in novemebr 2011 they have until nov 2012 although ipsea feel that if a early/emergency review is called then this strictly shouldnt be followed - quote from ipsea ' when LAs arrange an early review then they sometimes argue that they need not complete the process and make a decision until the anniversary of the previous review. IPSEA believes that this is an unreasonable interpretation of the law in an early review situation and if this happens I am to contact them . It is open to me to press the LA as regulary as is necessary by contacting them by telephone, asking whether the reivew has been completed. If I believe they are delaying making a decison without good ground i need to contact ipsea to get advice on what to do. Joe since starting mornings last week was sickness free for the first 2 days only - the sickness has now continued so has made no difference really except i suppose to the number of times he is being sick. I am now going to email the sen caseworker and copy in her boss - i dont want to get their backs up but think they are deffo trying to delay t hings - anyone have any suggestions on how i should word it - going to email as then have a copy of what is being said and usually if i phone they just ignore my phone calls - also how do i send an email with an attachement to show that the email has been read? the emergency review was on 31st may so a month (nearly 5 weeks) has now passed and i know exactly nothing about what is going on

as far as im aware there is no time limit which adds to the frustration but i will email ipsea to double check - i have an early support meeting on 10th july - so 2 weeks today - this apparently is higher than a TAC/CAF though not sure how true that is. i have emailed the lady organising it and she has just confirmed that the sen officer will not be there but her boss will be who is actually quite a sensible and reasonable person - i had hoped she would be at the emergency review but she didnt attend so that makes me feel a little better. so i will leave them to it for 2 weeks and will ask questions at the meeting. parent partnership now say that it looks like they are not opposing the OT report so not sure where that leaves us. Parent partnership helpfully finish work nexy week until sept so looks like im going it alone whether i like it or not.

thanks lancslad - lack of patience is my downfall - at this stage im just going to let them get on with it as its out of my hands really - the sen officer is very stubborn and i know the more i push wont make a blind bit of difference - she will take as long as she likes.on the positive - joe did just morning at school today and for the first time in a couple of months we have had no sickness :-))) im slowly realising that he is going to be out of school come sept and he will be at home - this isnt something that is going to be resolved overnight and im in for quite a long journey - as long as it means he gets the right placement at the end of it thats whats important - just wish the lea would learn to stop talking in riddles so that we are all clear on what is happening but maybe thats a wish too far!

yes - will leave them to it for a while longer - its just frustrating not knowing whats going on - ive heard rumours that they may try and get an OT report themselves but they will also have to do it privately as our area do not commision sensory intregration therapy so it ironic that after having a go at me they will need to do it privately as well! i have a meeting on 10th july when all parties including lea should be there - bit like a TAC etc so thats the worse case scenario for hearing anything further.

hi, joe is school placement is breaking down. he is not coping and has been vomiting every day - last week he was signed off sick by the gp for a week - hes gone into school today for the morning only - will collect him at lunchtimes every day now until the end of term emergency review held on 31st may - we had a private OT report done which recommends special school placement. school state they can no longer meet joes needs and he needs a new placement for sept. lea then went away from the meeting to consider the new docs - then basically silence all the paperwork went back to the lea the next day on 1st june but then somehow it went missing according to the lea and they didnt recived it until 13th june - so things very stressful here with joe in and out of school, not looking like he has a place for sept and the lea playing their best poker face. i spoke to lea officer on 15th june when she said paperwork only just been received and that it would be looked at the following week which would have been last week. anyway got a letter in the post this morning and i really dont understand what they are trying to say so wonder if anyone else can understand lea language! 'as you are aware from our telephone conversation on fri 15th june, the local authority recieved the annual review documents from the school on weds 13 june. the local authority has been in receipt of this paperwork for a week. i did state that a meeting to discuss the documentation would be arranged as soon as practicable. this meeting was held on tues 19 june 2012. following this further consideration is to be given to the recommendations and any amendments, if agreed, will be made ot the statement. and thats it - what on earth does that mean - when do you think im ever going to get this statement back amended or not so i can get on to tribunal if required. who is doing this further consideration - consideration of what? im just sat here open mouthed and just think this is just a came of cat and mouse whilst an 8 year old boy continues to detoriate - think this letter is in response to an email i sent last thurs letting them know that joe is signed of sick and if they could let me know what is happening - they may have only had the docs since 13 june but really they need to look at themselves and explain where on earth these docs went for nearly 2 weeks! noone can give me an answer to the question which im sure means that they have something to hide.

thats good news sally - such a shame though its taken you a while to get it but good you got there in the end

no - no residential kids at all - he is 9 in september so he will be 9 by the time its over - quite a few children in county go to the same school and travel this distance. my best friends so started there at 7 so did the same travelling. we are a very small county - we only have 40 children with asd who have statements and out of this 12 go out of county and i would say about 8 of them go to this school.

Yes got it in writing from the gp. That's the problem here - as we have no schools in county the kids have to travel to the neighbouring counties so the travel distance is always going to be long. He's too young at 8 for residential

both are day schools - the one i want and the one lea most likely to go for does have places - its about an hour in a taxi. He has after having thurs and fri off school last week been signed off by the gp this morning for a week due to anxiety. last night was horrific = he must have been sick 20 plus times easily. i have a meeting with the head tomorrow morning at 8.30am to discuss what will happen for the rest of the term. gp wants to see if he can go to school part time ie mornings for the rest of the term.