Tribunal a week on tuesday

[JenRose]

Ed psych hasnt seen dd for a year now.

 

We are at tribunal on 20th of May to get her asessed (hopefully).

 

Ed psych phoned yesterday she said she needed our written permission to go in and see dd next weds as she hadnt seen her for a year.

 

DH said i dont think she,s in that day anyway cos we have an appointment elsewhere -which we have.

 

Our private psych said this is naughty of the Ed Psych to wait until the week before the tribunal and go in as she can do a verbal report

on the day, but we wont have anything in writing to see beforehand and that the tribunal may well adjourn it on this basis.

 

someone has suggested to me not to send dd into nursery until after the tribunal.

 

wondering if anyone has any advice.

 

thanks

[Flora]

Jen,

 

They are obviously playing dirty (again). They'll either be seeking an adjournment or they are sending the EP in to gauge your chances of winning so they can decide whether to concede at the last minute or not.

 

I don't know what you should do about sending your dd to nursery. I can see exactly why you are considering not and the reasoning behind that. Hopefully someone might have some insight into the best thing to do.

 

Flora

[pumpkinpie]

Problem is by not sending her in you maybe making it impossible for the lea to make a decision as they rely on the ed psychs opinion.

Im not a big fan of ed psychs but if you have other professionsals on your side saying she needs support ( you said you have an independant psych), surely you have enough to warrant a statement?Am I writing the meeting is just about whether or not to statement her and not about whats going to go in it - for that their ed psych will have to do an indpth report?

[Annea]

Hi Jen,

 

We are having a similar situation.. we are going to tribunal to challenge sections 2, 3 and 4 of my dd statement and she has not been seen by ed psych for 11 months, even though the paediatrician stated she should be seen and my daughter is now a non attender.

 

The ed Psych has suddenly decided she wants a series of sessions with her to assess her and create an action plan that will get her back into main stream < we have a provisional place at a priory school>

 

SHe came to see her at home last week and my daughter refused to see her, then the ed psych gave two more dates both of which she has her tutor here so I have turned her down.

 

The way I see it, is if my daughter wasn't high enough priority for her to be seen when we felt she needed it, I'll be blowed if she is high enough priority to be seen now they want to build a case against her getting independant placement.

 

Because of the pending tribunal, we are so very busy with meetings and she has tutition every day in the afternoons, so if the ed psych can fit in with my dd, and if my daughter wished to see her, she can. If not then she will just have to explain to the panel why she has no current information on my daughter to present.

 

Good luck with your appeal.... I maybe being childish, but I wouldn't bend over backwards to assist them in making your life difficult! If she has no report, then the panel will have to just take account of your independant report!

 

Anne x

Just to add as I didn't see your reply pumpkin,

If Jen has an independant report, this will be taken into considerationw tih all other independant and non independant reports. My independant report states clearly what provision she should have in her statement, so just because the LEA psych hasn't made time to see her, then it shouldn't hold things up. It will just show her in very poor light.

Edited May 8, 2008 by Annea

[JenRose]

tribunal is because lea have refused to do a stat asess.

 

yes, our psych has said she needs support.

 

problem is his report has gone in as late evidence as he wasnt able to asess her when intended in feb before cut off as she was ill on the day he was due.

 

although i did send it in last week and the lea have a copy of his report.

 

sendist woman told me that if the ed psych goes in next week she will have to present it as late evidence on the day and then the panel will decide whether or not to accept it if they accept her reasons for doing it so late.

 

think the lea are taking a big gamble on this as panel may not accept ed psychs evidence.

 

BUT theres the little matter of nursery putting dd in all day education as opposed to the 2.45 hours a day that all other children get, their refusal to explain in writing why and what they,ve been doing with her, ive sent the letters to nursery to sendist and asked them to include them as late evidence as well.

 

the past 3 tribunals they have all dropped out the day before BUT they havent sent an ed psych in the week before when it was DS.

[Annea]

As your report has gone in <even as late evidence> within the legal time frame, then it will be given due consideration along with all other evidence.

 

At our last tribunal, the school turned up with evidence on the day and we were asked if we wanted it presenting, it actually strengthened our case as they had made a booboo, but we could have refused.

 

You could refuse her report being presented and say something like, it has been put together in a rush, and that you have not had time to read it through to ensure it's acuracy and as such you don't feel it is safe evidence.

 

The tribunal guidelines are very strict on what is and isn't allowed and they will make it clear that all parties have had the guidleines and should have abided by them. Late evidence is considered only if there was no way it could have been presented earlier. I doubt that An Ed psych doing a panic assessment to strengthern their case would fullfill the criterior. But even if it did I am sure you can still ask that it not be allowed.

Your letter regarding the moving of your daughter from class to class could be considered late evidence because the situation is current and could not be foreseeen when the initail case documents were prepared.

 

You might find they still drop out at the last minute....

 

Anne x

[madme]

We had this before our tribunal. We allowed the LEA ed Psych to observe but no assessment as we said that there had been enough previously. He said in his report that son didnt present as anxious or asd- of course we had removed him and placed himin a more appropriate school at our own expense- he also said that didnt seem dyspraxic- we had a fun time dealing with that at tribunal- and we did win. LEA also came to the triunal with late SALT evidence which we objected to and wasnt allowed and so we won on SALt provision. Dont bend over backwards to assist them. What amazed me was that faced with a ribunal sudenly the LEA ed psych was allowed to comment on placemernt and provision but they claimed previoulsy that they couldnt.

[Tjololo]

Good luck with your impending Tribunal, hope it all goes in your favour....however, I'm not sure I understand why the LA would drop out of a Tribunal the day before? (novice here). If they drop out again, then does that mean that you will get your dd assessed or not? Does the LA drop out like this to stall for more time? How can they get away with doing this so many times? Just curious, if anybody knows

[Annea]

It's not a case of dropping out as such as deciding not to oppose the statement, It can be a stalling tactic in itself.

 

My daughters appeal was dropped, we then had to wait for the LEA to draw up the statement which was rubbish so we are back to square one now and waiting to go back to tribunal as we are appealing against the various parts of the statement.

 

If it had gone to tribunal initially, the finer details would have all been sorted back then!

 

I am not sure about multiple times either but assumed it was different children?

 

Anne x

[Kathryn]

Hmm,

 

Just my opinion based on what you've said here but -

 

I'd be inclined to let the assessment go ahead - if the EP is going to make an idiot of herself over this -don't stand in her way! I think the Tribunal panel will take a dim view anyway of the timing of this. They will also soon suss if the report has been written merely to prop up the LEA case: they know all the tricks.

 

As has been said, you can still object to the late evidence on the day of the hearing itself. Be prepared though for the possibility that the LEA may be planning to object anyway to all your own late evidence. This is all preliminary business which will have to be dealt with before the hearing and may well result in an adjournment if there's a lot for the panel to consider. So you may have to steel yourself to come back another day.

 

Tjololo, LEA's play the timescales very creatively - they gamble on many parents dropping out before the day - and a lot do - so they'll hold out as long as they possibly can.

 

K x

[Flora]

If it had gone to tribunal initially, the finer details would have all been sorted back then!

 

Anne x

 

Anne, I may be wrong but I don't think this is the case. When you go to tribunal for refusal to asses, the panel don't have the power to order the LEA to do anything but assess the child, they can't instruct the LEA to actually make a statement or what to put in the statement. I may be wrong and hopefully someone will say so, but as far as I understand things the panel can only make an order based on what the tribunal is for.

 

Flora

[Annea]

Hi Flora, I didn't make myself clear,

 

we are going to tribunal to appeal against the content of sections 2,3 and 4 so this will be sorted in tribunal and will be based on eveidence supplied.

 

Going to tribunal to appeal against decision not to statement will only order the statement not (as you rightly say) the content. <although I believe they do make recommendations?>

 

I was thinking it would have happened a lot sooner because in our case, we got close to tribunal date then they dropped out, then we had to wait for them to write the statement and now we have had to go through all the stat time frames again! If they had sorted it out immediately the finer details would be sorted by now.

 

Sorry am tired not sure I have confused myself even more!

 

Anne x

[Flora]

Hi Annea, sorry I see what you mean now; if they'd agreed to assess in the first place without having to wait months then pull out at the last minute it would all be sorted!

 

Sorry I think I may be a teeny weeny bit pedantic at times! (I do try not to be

 

Flo' XX

[MichelleW]

You are right about LEA stalling as much a possible. DS2 was initially turned down at the request stage, and I went straight to appeal. Fortunately my LEA backed down straight away and decided to assess (but asked me to back out of the appeal - which I didn't need to as SENDIST automatically put it down as if I'd won the appeal).

 

So they assessed, and my ed psych was great - he agreed with me completely.

 

So they wrote the propsed statement, and sent me it by email WITHOUT the reports attached! They expected me to sign it off within 15 days, but I didn't get the written proposed statement and appendix for another 2 weeks! I think they were stalling, expecting me to be so grateful for a statement that doesn't state any provision, that I would accept it!

 

It has now been over a week since I sent my details reasons for opposing the proposed statement, and requesting a meeting - still not heard anything!

 

if you think you have enough evidence to win, then you should be OK to go ahead without the ed psyche assessment, although if you have a clear cut case, then the ed psych assessment should add to your evidence (unless you think that he will be biased - but Tribunial panel should be able to see that)

[MichelleW]

What I forgot to say was that when DS2 was assessed by Ed Psyche, we agreed that I would meet ed psyche at DS2's nursery to have a discussion about his findings. So he spent about 3 hours assessing DS2, then an hour afterward discussing what I wanted for DS2, and also what he had observed. We had a very honest discussion (although initially I felt he was assessing me!!).

 

But if you can make an arrangement so that you are in the building whilst the ed psych is assessing your child, with an agreement that you can have a meeting straight after, you may be able to get an idea of what s/he thinks, and what he is likely to say in his/her report

[JenRose]

dont have a good relationship with the ed psych cos last yr she went in and didnt speak to us by phone or write to us asking for our input.

she then sent the report to nursery who "lost" it and found it down the back of a filing cabinet.

 

she completely disagrees with what we say and the CDC,s findings.

 

also she wants to go in on weds to see dd an hour before nursery finishes and hasnt asked us to meet afterwards.