LKS

Helen the statement was issued on the 15 Feb. and I received the standard letter from the LEA, so technically they've done nothing wrong. BUT they assured me the only thing changing on this statement was the naming of the placement of his secondary schoo. I really really didn't realise that they might sneakily try to put something different in. I shall never trust them again ( not that I did anyway!)

Hi everyone I have an 11 year old son with Aspergers. He was diagnosed when he was 5. My daughter who is 8 with learning difficulties is 'on the autistic spectrum'. During one appt. with the consultant with my son, the consultant noticed certain peculiarities with my husband ! He spent quite a lot of time asking him questions and was positive that he had Aspergers as well. As everyone else says it depends what good a diagnosis would do. My husband was according to his mum an unhappy and different child. he was miserable at school and miserable growing up. When I met him I found him very funny, in a nice sort of way, but he can be very removed. The biggest problem for him is dealing with problems that might not be problems for anyone else. This resulted in him having a mental breakdown in his thirties. So in hindsight if we had understood his difficulties more he wouldn't have had to go through this miserable time. On the whole he copes very well, has a job but his friends think he is 'quirky'

Spoke to IPSEA. She was great but did say as I had missed the 2 month appeal deadline, if I went to tribunal I probably wouldn't get very far as the LEA had sent out the standard letter stating if I didn't agree with the statement etc. etc. She thought the LEA had been very sneaky but wasn't surprised. She thinks the bit about 2 and a half hours of teaching is a bit ambiguous and I should try to get them to clarify this. Son has never had extra teaching in primary but if necessary works in smaller groups in classroom. She thought that I should ask for this to be tightened up for secondary. Also she thought it was necessary to ask the LEA to specify what they expect the secondary school to provide at school action plus. There were a couple of other little things that she thought would be good to add to the statement. If I can get the LEA to agree to this then they wiil send me a new proposed ammended statement and then I can make sure I check really carefully! But she did warn that the LEA do not have to change anything on this statement. If I don't have a satisfactory outcome of this review I am going to call her again and she is going to help me compose a letter to the director of education to express my concern at how this statement was issued. She believes the funding might now be going directly to the secondary school, but really this should have been discussed with me and explained.

thanks jaded up very early this morning couldn't sleep . The school my son will be going to is a mainstream secondary school. I feel so stupid for not checking this statement, just goes to show how you can get caught out. I have always checked the others so thoroughly I am going to make sure I'm waiting at 10 ready for IPSEA to open. I tried to see if the LEA had a copy of their complaints procedure to download but couldn't find it. The review is Monday! Should I try and get it postponed

Without wishing to repeat myself my head actually wrote to me when I complained that I thought ***** wasn't getting the full support mentioned in statement and said, "you will appreciate that the 15 hours of L.S.A. support per week mentioned in *****'s statement does not mean that it is a requirement that he receives 15 hours each and every week.

Hi everyone, was just going through all of my paperwork ready for annual review for my son next week. I had already been through it before, this was just a final going-over. On previous threads I had mentioned how my LEA were a bit slow in sending out the ammended statements naming the secondary school in February. In fact I was told they were supposed to send a proposed ammended statement and then we had 15 days to appeal. We however just got an ammended statement and when I queried it the officer at the LEA said as long as I was happy with the school that had been named that was O.K. I thought I had checked it quite well because all that was supposed to change was part 4 the placement. While I was going through it today and picking out relevant bits to discuss at the review I spotted something that had been added! aaaaaahhhhh. It still says ***** will receive 15 hours of learning assistant support per week (this was section a in the educational provision, but added on in section h it says support to meet *****'s sen will be the equivalent of 2 and a half hours of teaching and 5 hours of learning support assistance per week. What the hell does this mean . Further on next page funding to meet the provision as outlined above will be through the devolved resources allocated to schools by the LEA for children with SEN, in addition to what the school is expected to provide at School Action Plus. I already new a bit about the funding issue but really they have added 2 things to this statement without my agreement. I feel such a fool for not checking everything, but as I said I thought the only thing changing was the name of the school. Have I completely messed this up Please all give me some advice

LEAs must take whatever steps they think appropriate and thats where a lot of the problems lie IMO. My LEA seems to think schools should inform parents about PP, schools think its LEAs job and so on and so forth In my children's schools SEN policy it states ***** school recognises parent partnership. Well whoopee doo. Most parents reading that will think its something to do with the 'partnership' between schools and parents! Our PP has 4 paid members of staff but has also been asking for volunteers. A friend of mine who's son has AD/HD and is on SAP recently had someone from PP go in with her when the school were threatening to exclude her son. PP managed to diffuse the situation and get everyone talking again. KarenT if nobody can come with you from PP when you have an I.E.P. meeting, don't sign or agree to anything there, ask if you can take it home with you to have a look at (maybe discuss it here) and then send it in with any ammendments and suggestions ! It worked for my daughter , although I'm not sure if the school appreciated it

Hi everyone have been busy checking out all of the information! Zemanski not in Leeds, in the south,but speaking to several friends they have had exactly the same problem with their LEAs countrywide. Don't know whether I've already mentioned this (I find myself becoming very confused lately!) but the head of son's primary school is recommending that son receives 10 hours of support (not the 15 he currently gets) at secondary school. How bad an idea is that when transition is a time when everything can go pear-shaped.

Have spoken to IPSEA. they were very understanding but said it doesn't really matter where the funding for the statement comes from, as long as my son receives the hours as stated. I think there will be a great temptation for schools to lump together a lot of their sen pupils in order to cut costs. I just have visions of me for ever checking that the school are providing what they are supposed to. I thought that the funding for my son's statement would follow him to his next school. It doesn't seem quite right to me. I believe in Hackney they are proposing to protect funding for support written into all those statements in place as at 31/03/05. Another case I suppose of LEA's doing what they want.

Whoops meant to say funding for high incidence statements has already been allocated

Hi SS I'm quite new to this forum so I might not be as much help as some My son has whats called a high incidence statement, which he's had for 3 yerars he's in year 6 now. High incidence means for conditions that are more common such as Mild learning difficulties, Speech and language disorders, EBD ,Aspergers and a few others! Low incidence statements are for the less common disorders such as Severe learning disorders, Visual impairments, hearing impairments and language impairments. On My son's statement it says he will receive 15 hours of learning support assistance in addition to what he receives at school action plus. I have been told by my LEA that they will not be issuing statements for high incidence conditions anymore. (In fact they said that if we were going through the statementing process now my son would not be statemented) The funding for these low incidence pupils has already been allocated to the schools, but guess what the funding bears no relevance to the support these pupils need. Instead its based on some wacky formula regarding free school meals and average reading age of pupils. As you can imagine this will be an increased burden on schools and will probably make the taking of sen pupils even less popular But SS sorry if I've painted a negative picture, go for a statement IMO. Everyone in education will probably tell you you've got no chance but they are bound yo say that. I have been onto IPSEA as well they have been great, they know exactly which way to point you. Don't give up.

Have finally got through to IPSEA The lady confirmed what you have all said that it is the LEA's responsibility to ensure that the provision in the statement is carried out. Suggested I download that letter on their website and get it off to the LEA pronto, recorded delivery. She also suggested I remove myself from the game of postal tennis that the head seems to insist on playing with me. I am sending a copy of statement to them as we have an annual review 28th June. Can anyone advise if there is anything they wished they would have asked for on their children's statement prior to transfer. Thanks all.

HH how'd it go was thinking of you

Hello my son is 11 he has aspergers and is statemented. He receives 15 hours of learning support assistance per week in addition to what the school are expected to provide at school action plus. Does he receive this I think not. In his statement it says ongoing advice from the O.T. and input from the specialist teacher for autism. (these last 2 are far too vague I've since found out) My daughter has MLD speech aphaysia, epilepsy and is on the autistic spectrum and is statemented to. She receives 25 hours of learning support assistance per week in addition to what the school are expected to ............. etc. She has Sp&lt twice a term O.t. weekly. Hope this helps.

Wow thanks everyone. The pupil transitition workbook is great have downloaded it and will take it into son's class teacher v. soon. Needed to mention one other thing. When it got to the 15th feb. this year I had not received my son's proposed ammended statement. I rang the LEA who told me we would be notified the same as everyone else on the 1st March, otherwise it wouldn't be fair to other children! When I told them about the cop and the fact it was law that we should be notified by the 15th feb they said we can assure you we follow the cop. I was on that b****y phone all day. Finally got a call from the Dof E's secretary at 5 to say the statements were being sent out that day and that they had always intended to send them out then I am just trying to give you an impression on how clued up and helpful my LEA are. Anyway when I managed to get a copy of my son's sen records from the LEA there was a letter to the headmaster of his prospective secondary school. It said all the usual things about offering him a place blah blah THEN it went on to say that as ***** is considered to have a high incidence statement , funding to meet the provisions of his statement will come from funding already allocated to the school through its sen formula. This formula is based on something stupid like how many kids receive free school meals and the average reading age of the new intake. lReally not much to do with my son's needs. I think for something as important as this the LEA could have mentioned it to me. I know what this means ,the secondary school are going to have to meet his needs from insufficient funds, they probably wont' do so I shall be contacting the LEA again and so it goes on and on. I'm sick of it

Hello HH glad to be on board. God I wish I'd known about this forum a few years ago! I had received some very helpful advice from the TES website but unfortunately you often come under attack from people in the educational profession. My only trouble with asking for any info from school or even offering suggestions is that they react so negatively and seem to take everything as a personal attack .

I asked to see my son and daughter's sen records that are held by the LEA. they have got them! First I had to write to the data protection officer, he passed me on to the sen dept. who checked with the legal dept. to see what I was entitled to see,who said I was entitled to see them all, so they passed me back to the data protection office, who forwarded me on to the sen officer! I was invited in to look through their files, I could then mark anything I hadn't got and then they copied me. What a performance. there was a lot of rubbish in the files but some very interesting reports as well. I am in the process of trying to get my children's sen records from school.If you manage to, let me know how you did it please!

thanks so much everyone, being able to 'talk' to you all has made me feel so much better. Isn't it amazing that schools and Lea's never bother to provide you with info that helps. I have to be very careful how I deal with the school as my daughter is still there if she wasn't ! I shall spend a very happy afternoon checking out all these suggestions. Thanks again.

Hi I am new to this forum, but it came highly recommended by a poster on the TES website. I have 2 statemented children, a boy in year 6 with Aspergers and a daughter in year 3 with mld speech aphaysia and epilepsy, she is also on the autistic spectrum. My son receives 15 hours of learning support assistance per week in addition to what the school is expected to provide at school action plus. (it has always been impossible to tie the school down to what they are providing at SAP) When I asked the LEA they told me it was up to individual schools to decide what they provide at SAP. I have found out in the last 6 months that my son has not been receiving this support. I'm not talking about the school encouraging independence and the L.S.A. keeping a low profile, I'm talking the L.S.A. working in completely different year groups in completely different parts of the school.When I queried this with the head he said 'You will realise that the 15 hours of support stated in**** statement does not mean he should receive 15 hours per week' My son recently is also the only person in his class that was very behind in history and science. The teacher handed back his books and left it up to him to decide when he would complete this work. As you can imagine he found that an almost impossible choice. The school have said he needs very little 1:1 support now, but howcome he had been allowed to get so far behind, and as he is due for his annual review soon and about to transfer to secondary school I am confused and worried. Sorry to ramble but I won't even start on my daughters problems! I keep them at this school because there are some wonderful staff there but also because there is very little alternative