nicadh

Hi - LA have finalised DD's statement and it is still woolly vague and useless overall. Up to this point I have been happy to challenge them and do all the fighting myself but now I am facing probably the biggest hurdle of all and wondering if I will be better with someone specialist to help me in all of this? What have other people done in the same situation? I know it will cost us, and I know there is a lot of good free advice out there still too. I am yet to call people like IPSEA about the appeal anyway and statement only just finalised so I have a small amount of time in hand to consider things first. Who did you use if you did use professional help, were you happy and roughly what sort of costs might I expect? Background - LA have refused at every step of the way re SA, then issued NIL and in each case had to put tribunal paperwork in place and then the LA backed down before a hearing each time. Thanks

Thank you Sally - Will take a note of things with me to talk about! Could be a long meeting!

I haven't been involved with them (PP) though aware of them. I am perhaps wrongly? suspicious of them and which side they are working for! Meeting the head teacher again tomorrow on her own so will help not having the LA EP breathing down my neck and I know the info won't be relayed straight to the LA either. Hopefully will get a better understanding from her about things on her own as usually she is very supportive and the one person I have been able to rely on in all of this so far. Fingers crossed.

Thank you Sally. I knew I wasn't talking rubbish this morning (had a team around the child meeting at school) but hard when faced with a room full of people who all seem to be talking at odds with me. I will keep plodding on at this and we will get what she needs here even if we have to fight over it at tribunal.

Thanks again Sally! Another question you might be able to help with... Is there any legislation/code of practice that you can point me to that I can use to argue against the school being involved with the decision in how much provision will be given for DD in her statement. (Currently proposed statement says DD will be given access to _____hrs per week etc. Then a note in the proposed statement that they will talk with her current school and the junior school she will transfer to in September about the amount of provision to be listed here. I haven't actually named a school for part 4 yet anyway so that is a big assumption on their part I think!!).

Is it the named case officer who makes the final decision or the "panel"? I'm questioning based on something I read on another forum that suggested the case officer makes the decisions, but in that case what does the panel do? Can anyone point to relevant points in documents that confirm who should do what? Thanks

Thanks Sally - the private EP report suggested a minimum of twenty hours of LSA support and there are plenty of quotes that will help fight for full time in class I think. The proposed statement has a ____ in place for the number of hours with the suggestion the school will be consulted about the level of support!!!!! My current thinking is mainstream for her while it works - she is very happy there which for me is a big plus point. If with support she is failing then I will have to reconsider. My one reservation about a unit or SN school is that DD focuses a lot on the bad behaviour of other children and gets very upset by it. I would expect therefore in a SN environment there is a higher chance of her being upset by the actions of others and for now at least I don't think that is going to be helpful to her. I think realistically we may have to reconsider by secondary level at the latest though. There is a lot to think about...but I'm sure you know that already!

Thanks Sally Easier said than done but I will try not to get too worked up! Quick question about wording 1:1 provision. I want DD to have full time 1:1 in class and to be able to participate in small groups for things like social skills. Full time 1:1 in class would be 25hrs, but if some of the small groups (eg literacy/numeracy) were held in class time would that affect what is written down re 1:1, or would she have 1:1 support within these small groups? Hope that makes sense. Thanks

Hi Sally - the independant report is dated April 2012 so nice and recent. My daughter is currently in year 2, but year 3 will be a new school as currently she is only in an infant school. We have a place for her in the Junior school we want for her so that shouldn't currently be an issue with naming a school I don't think. We will see if she can stay in the mainstream system longer term with support but may have a fight later on I guess about that if needed. Yes, the EP report from the LA is ridiculous - totally wooly statements about "access to" and "consideration should be given". I spoke to her and contacted her by email and asked for the provision to be specified and quantified and I was told that they don't do that. I quote the SEN code of conduct to her in writing to say that this shouldn't be policy and was told that I raised an interesting point! From there I pushed again for the report to be reviewed with specified and quantified provision put in place. I was told by the EP that she could do this if a tribunal requested it!! I then stated that I was asking and finally got a response in writing the the SEN panel of the local authority make the decisions about the level of provision and so she would not be doing it. It is an absolute disgrace, but since I have it all in writing I will use this to good effect against them if I need to. I'm sure a tribunal will take a dim view of their actions and it should make the private EP report all the more important in my arguement for what is needed and should be provided as there is no other provision suggested to compare against. Will take a look at the IPSEA site - thank you again.

Sally you are a superstar! I have been playing with words all evening and you have clearly set out what I wanted to say. Thank you. Re the EP - there was no indication of how much help was needed for my daughter in the report from the LA EP, but the private one says at least 20hrs support. There are references to quite a few things in the LA EP report that need to have some sort of provision put in place but again no specific guidelines from the LA EP about who/how much etc. I had asked a while ago about this being done as I had to appeal against a NIL and wanted evidence that the NIL was inadequate - the evidence was not forthcoming but I have a paper trail declining to specify/quanitfy - but the LA did eventually back down without a hearing thankfully.

Hi - am currently responding in writing to the LA to reject the proposed statement and detail the changes I would like made. Overall the document is appaling but I have a fair idea on how it should read in that it should be specific, quantified etc. Currently there is a lot of "Opportunites to....."Staff to encourage X to...." Intervention provided to enable...." How do I put these into quantified provision?? I get the idea of saying " X will receive y hours per term (every six weeks) of direct therapy delivered by a qualified speech therapist" and "X will also receive daily speech therapy of 30 minutes 1:1 delivered by a qualified LSA experienced in working with children with ASD and Speech, language and communication disorders. How then though do I reword phrases such as "Opportunities to implement language and communication strategies across a range of learning opportunities." Do I need to reword this even? I can't say I really understand what it means in most cases worded this way and it would be quite difficult to define I think in terms of hours/when/who to deliver etc. Can I lump them into areas her IEPs should focus on - but then it would probably become an overly complex IEP and not then especially useful. ?? I have asked the EP to quantify provision and she has refused!!!! (I have it in writing so all to my advantage in the long run perhaps?) although I do have a private EP report too that is quantified so from that point of view it will now also be harder for the LA to argue against the private EP recommendations I think too. Thank you in advance.