Draft statement wording

[V1971]

My son's draft statement seems pretty good but there are a few points that concern me.

 

Part 3 section (f) reads:

TO BE PROVIDED BY THE LOCAL AUTHORITY:

The programme to support G's needs will be provided by the school from its total delegated budget in the context of the whole school inclusion policy. This will enable the school to provide 35 hours from a Teaching Assistant per week for his needs.

Don't you think it is ambiguous since it doesn't say 'dedicated' or 1:1?

 

Section (g):

TO BE PROVIDED BY OTHER AGENCIES:

Speech and Language Theraphy

 

Who are these other agencies??

 

And what about this:'S&L involvement will take the form of 'Termly blocks of up to six weekly individual or same group sessions per term, to last up to a maximum of 40-45 mins depending on G's motivation and concentration on the day'.

This is vague and basically means that even 1 group session a term is ok (!!) but unfortunately it matches what his S&L therapist wrote in her report. I have already asked her why she wrote that and she told me that her boss (Local Authority) wouldn't allow her to be more precise. What do I do?? He sees his S&L therapist once a week in a group session and once a month at home (1:1) at the moment.

 

It then says 'the above S&L recommendations represent G's current needs and form part of G's educational needs. These recommendations are subject to annual review and may be amended at any time by the S&L therapist if G's needs change'. Am I right in being worried about this bit and how do I persuade them to take it out?

 

Please help!

Edited July 5, 2007 by V1971

[V1971]

Anyone please?

[madme]

Hi. I would not be happy with the wording. I suggest that you contact IPSEA and/or the NAS education helpline. I think you may have to get your own SLT report as clearly the are not acting in his best interests- if the SLT is in PT 3 then legally it has to be provided by the LEA. The fact that the LEA has an agreement with Health is irrelevant. Ask them to remove that part about to be provided by other agencies and write to them with your suggested amendments- you will need a report to back it up particularly as it sounds like you will have to go to tribunal to get them to reword it. Yes you do want 1:1 inserted.ACE do a brilliant book about SEN and statementing its about �13. Good luck

[jlp]

On our statement it simply says 'G will recieve full time support on a 1:1 basis' I'm happy with this. It also says that the support assistant will recieve training in Autism Spectrum Disorders and that 'G will have 1:1 support on any school visits or activities outside school (trips, future swimming lessons etc) which were felt to be appropriate to him with consideration to be given to modifications if necessary to assist his participation.'

 

Our speech therapy bit is ###### and says he needs to maintain his progress in certain speech sounds and talking more slowly and that his progress will be monitored at 6 monthly intervals. This is Speech Therapy's fault not the LEAs as Speech Therapy wrote a 3 sentence out of date report on him. Hopefully they've done a new one now (although they've decided he's too uncooperative for 1:1 therapy, grr if they got to know him and how to handle him it wouldn't be such a ordeal) which will be added.

[Kathryn]

I think you're right to be concerned about the bits you've highlighted here - the 35 hours is not dedicated 1 1, according to the wording here, and as you've already sussed, the SLT is too vague and doesn't specify a minimum level of support as it should do. Beware the "up to" phrase!

 

See the pinned thread in this furum on "Checking the proposed statement." - some good links there.

 

K x

[Karen A]

Hi .Yes TA support wording is ambiguous.If you are expecting 1:1 then you need to get that noted in more specific detail.As it stands it appears that the TA could cover a group or the class.

It is worth asking Parent Partnership to offer some guidance if they are helpful in your area.They may help you tighten up the Statement.Karen.

[V1971]

Thanks everyone, much appreciated!

[mossgrove]

The programme to support G's needs will be provided by the school from its total delegated budget in the context of the whole school inclusion policy. This will enable the school to provide 35 hours from a Teaching Assistant per week for his needs.

 

I don't think there is s state school in the country that has a enough money for a full time dedicated TA sitting in an existing budget waiting to be spent. As a minimum the school could meet this criteria by making sure that there is a TA in the class at all times, who could be available as required to anyone who needs it. In which case the head of school may well simply look to use the SEN budget to pay for the existing dedicated TA rather than paying for him/her from their normal budget, so there may actually be no additional provision at all.

 

Another area where you need to be careful is the 'will be provided by the school from its total delegated budget' part of the statement. IMHO that has no business being in a statement at all. The statement should state what will be provided, how that is funded is a matter for the LEA and the school to discuss but need not concern you directly. The LEA have a legal obligation to provide what is set out in the statement. The school are not released from their part of the deal if they say thay have run out of money in the budget and they should never raise this as an issue directly to parents.

 

 

Simon