Going to tribunal over SALT

[LizK]

DS1 is five and in Reception at school. We have his first statement review coming up next month. His current statement says 25 hours 1-2-1, school are fantastic and give him fulltime support so not arguing with that one! However he only gets 1 hour a term SALT and no OT figured at all in his statement as they couldn't find time to assess him

 

His speech and language has always been my main concern and it's been a struggle for the last 3 years to to get a SALT to give him any direct work. presumably due to being massively understaffed with enormous case loads they use a consultation model where they observe and get some poor other untrained ###### to do the actual work. I fondly renamed them SAS - Speech Assessment Service- as they clearly do no hands on therapy! This is clearly unacceptable especially when he has an 18-24mth delay in expressive and receptive language and real pragmatic difficulties. I can have a better conversation with my speech delayed 2.5 year old! My worry is that if he doesn't get the input now he will have permanent difficulties that will impact on his ability to learn and make sense and cope with the world he has to live in. In frustration at the lack of therapy we have employed a private SALT to see DS fortnightly at school since February which is having an positive impact. However this is a significant financial outlay and we have omnly engaged her until the end of the academic year. The NHS SALT who is contributing to his statement review saw him today and I know her recomendation will be either one hour observation a tem or half term if we are extremely lucky and we feel this clearly does not meet his needs. It annoys me so much that the professionals make these recommendations based upon what their service can provide not the child's individual needs. The private SALT will be submitting a report too. DSs EP has told me the only way to get more frequent and direct therapy on his statement is to go to tribunal as the LEA are likely to discard the report of the private SALT even though she has had much more direct contact with my son.

 

I'm not sure though whether DH and I have to stomach to go to tribunal or whether it is likely to succeed. I've heard of people going to tribunal to get a statement or increased school provision but not SALT provision. There's also the costs and it would probably be cheaper to continue paying for private SALT if we decided to get a solicitor involved, not sure whether DH and I are up to representing ourselves.

 

Does anyone have any idea or experiences around this issue?

 

Lx

[Kathryn]

Hi Liz,

 

I do know of people who have been to tribunal over this specifically, for similar reasons to yourself and with varying degrees of success.

 

It doesn't make any difference: if SALT is written into part 3, its as much a part of your son's education as school based provision, and the LEA have to make sure it's delivered. According to the law, provision should be based on your child's needs and not tweaked to fit with what's available. (Alas the reality doesn't always match, and I think SALT provision across the country is dire!). So it's worth challenging at tribunal if you can, and you have evidence that extra SALT is needed. You may be able to do something about the OT too.

 

First you have to get yourself into a situation where you have the right of appeal. You can appeal only if the LEA amend the statement in any way: after the next review, or at any other time. If they do, you can then challenge any part of the statement, not just the amended bit. Unfortunately, if they don't do anything to the statement, you can't appeal. A huge flaw in the system, I think!

 

The alternative is to seek a statutory re assessment: if this is refused you can appeal; and if they assess and then refuse to amend, you can again appeal. Obviously this will all take time: and there's a risk during this process that your son might lose the excellent support he's got at school.

 

As and when you do find yourself in an appeal situation,(hopefully after the next review): it's always worth starting the process whatever your misgivings about going to tribunal, I think. LEA's, when faced with a hearing, often become an lot more cooperative suddenly and sometimes magically come up with the goods on or before the day. Organisations like IPSEA and the NAS provide telephone support for parents representing themselves and in some cases they can provide free representation at tribunal too. IPSEA can sometimes arrange further professional assessments if extra evidence is needed in a case like this.

 

Good luck with the review,

 

K x

[Bambi]

I havent sorry, but i wish u all the luck in the world that things work out.

 

Bambi x

[madme]

Kathryn has given fantastic advice. We are in fact in the position where our son's independent specialist school is now saying that he needs 1-1 Social skills/Salt at his forthcoming Review(secondary). We went to tribunal in primary and got proper weekly SALt input. It was stressful but at the same time we made sure that we covered as much as we could and got Ot into part 3. Ipsea are fantastic. By the way barristers now do direct access - and so you could sidestep a solicitor and get advice and someone to do the tribunal for less- just a thought.

Edited May 2, 2007 by madme

[LizK]

Thank you everyone <'>

 

Kathryn that was incredibly helpful though didn't realise that we couldn't appeal if the statement stays the same . However OT are contributing this year which should be incorporated in the new statement so hopefully that won't be a problem.

 

Dealing with the NHS SALT service is a ###### joke I've had a 15 minute rant at the NHS SALT who has done her assessment and is not going to recommend that his statement provision (1 hour a term) is changed. She might consider seeing him half termly though not put that in her recommendations and I wonder now if she is not going to suggest amending statement to try to avoid a tribunal. Every since Adam was diagnosed we've had the importance of early intervention emphasised yet trying to get it a near on impossible. I'm fed up too of the fact that Adam is high functioning and not that severely affected being used as a reason too. The fact that being high functioning brings other difficulties, the fact that having to maintain himself in a mainstream environment brings additional stresses and the fact that the expectations upon Adam for his future are so much greater seems to mean nothing.

 

I don't know why I am so upset, I knew nothing would change but still just want to cry

 

Lx

[jlp]

I do sympathise. We are currently trying to get our proposed statement changed for G (7) where the speech therapy (currently listed in part 6!) is a 6 monthly review and 'Mum to keep up the good work by reminding G to speak slower'. They seem to be obsessing somewhat on his rate of speech, which is too fast, but when I asked the speech therapist about all the social side of speech her only answer was that 'he'll pick that up as he goes along'. It's all incredibly frustrating.

 

Can I ask how you found a private speech therapist and if they were knowledgeable in ASDs? I don't think we could afford regular sessions but I'm wishing we'd had our own assesment done privately before now so we could have included it in the statement reports.

[LizK]

I do sympathise. We are currently trying to get our proposed statement changed for G (7) where the speech therapy (currently listed in part 6!) is a 6 monthly review and 'Mum to keep up the good work by reminding G to speak slower'. They seem to be obsessing somewhat on his rate of speech, which is too fast, but when I asked the speech therapist about all the social side of speech her only answer was that 'he'll pick that up as he goes along'. It's all incredibly frustrating.

 

Can I ask how you found a private speech therapist and if they were knowledgeable in ASDs? I don't think we could afford regular sessions but I'm wishing we'd had our own assesment done privately before now so we could have included it in the statement reports.

 

It's so frustrating isn't it?

 

We found a private SALT through http://www.helpwithtalking.com/ The one we are using has a special interest in ASD though the work she is doing currently is similar to what the generic SALT would be doing if she actually saw my son! It is expensive, it's what we currently use his DLA for. Worthwhile keeping an eye out on the Cerebra website as we got our first 6 sessions free with them last summer as part of a pilot study. I know they have run the pilot again

 

Lx

[pumpkinpie]

Brilliant website and fantastic link!

I have already emailed them! Thankyou

[pumpkinpie]

http://www.ipsea.org.uk/walsallcomplaintresult.htm