Adding hours to a Statement

[BusyLizzie100]

DS2 has his Statement Review on Thursday and we want to ask for an increase in his hours. Can this be done through a Review meeting? Would it need a new assessment?

 

He currently has 12 hours on the Statement and 3 hours provided by school, but changes in the LEA's SEN funding mean the school may no longer be able to put in their 3 hours, so we want it written into the Statement.

 

Has anyone any experience of this, or any advice?

 

Lizzie

[Kathryn]

Hi Lizzie,

 

An amendment can be done after a review, another assessment is not necessary, so theoretically, you could get the extra hours here.

 

If they refuse to amend the statement at all after the review, you have no right of appeal.

 

You can request a reassessment which gives you the right of appeal 1) if they refuse, 2) if they assess but don't amend the statement afterwards 3) if they assess and do amend the statement. A lengthy process though!

 

That's what the law says - hopefully someone will come along who has direct experience of this.

 

K x

[UltraMum]

LOL - we are facing this tomorrow but to add hours for transition to secondary - what Kathryn has said is correct ... the statement can be amended after the review. Make sure that you state at the review that you want the statement amended to show the amount of support that your child receives at present ... make sure that this request is included in the school's report that they send to the LEA (ask for it to be amended if it hasn't been recorded)

 

http://www.ipsea.org.uk/caselaw.htm#Pittick

 

It seems to me that you need to ask the LEA to specify all the provision that DS2 is to receive, including the school support, in Part 3 ...

 

And here's a good quote to hit them with from the SEN Code of Practice: (para 8:34)

 

"the second sub-section (that is the part headed Special Educational Provision to meet needs and objectives) should specify all the educational provision the LEA consider appropriate for all the learning difficulties identified in part 2, even where some of the provision will be made by direct intervention on the part of the authority and some of it will be made by the child's school from within its own resources, and some may be made by the health authority"

It's up to the school to sort it out if they reckon that they cannot continue to supply this amount of support ... it's not your problem ... BUT, by having it included in the statement, if the school really can't supply this support then the LEA will have to cough up!

 

The LEA obviously won't want to do this as they probably know this part of the law and, again, Kathryn is correct that you have no right of appeal if they refuse to amend the statement. HOWEVER - there are then 2 routes open to you ...

 

1) ask for a reassessment but then you are into the 26 weeks before anything gets done ... more if you end up going to appeal

 

OR

 

2) you can ask for a judicial review on the grounds of illegality, eg a statute places a duty on a public authority and that duty has not been carried out. This is quicker as the appeal for a review has to be placed within 3 months of the 'illegality'. If you want to go this route I suggest contacting IPSEA - they can recommend a solicitor who specialises in this stuff (!) and it is possible to get legal aid on behalf of the child to fund the legal side.

 

Hope this helps ...

 

[Do you know I was just moaning to a friend about all the hassles we've undergone with our LEA but it comes in handy sometimes!!!]

[BusyLizzie100]

Thanks, Kathryn and UltraMum for your replies.

 

That's really useful information. I actually managed to get through to IPSEA on my first attempt today (!) and they gave me some good advice, too. In fact, I think we're going to ask for the Review meeting to be postponed for a fortnight so that we can include some new evidence (have splashed out on an independent SP & Lang assessment, but the report isn't ready yet).

 

The problem we have with the additional 3 hours that the school has been putting in, is that we have nothing in writing. Aaaaagh!

[Deedee]

Hope its ok to just add my question on here as its about the same thing

My son's speech therapist has advised a move ideally to a speech specific unit attached to mainstream still.LEA has said call a review and we'll see if we can add in more hours speech therapy but my son needs fulltime support so I think he'd be better in the base too.Can they insist he stays at his present school and if he does can I fight for more hours as well as the SALT ?

[summertime]

you can fight for whatever you feel your sons needs are, if you are turned down you can appeal and then if needs be take it to tribunal for a final decision