statement hours

[bluefish]

Hi, As I have been told that 6 3/4 hrs per week is the max "a child like mine" is entitled to I was wondering if any of you could give me some examples of the statemented hrs you managed to get so I could have an Idea of what is possible for my next meeting?

 

Ds is 5 in september and has a dx of ASD/HFA

Would be really greatful if any of you could pm me or post with dx(if you have one) and hours awarded?

I know it all depends on each child but it would help as a guide to prove my point to lea.

Obviosly I am not asking anyone to give personal details just something like... AS 12 hrs etc

 

Not sure if it would help but just want to be able to tell them I know it is not true that his dx is on a chart and that comes out with 6 3/4 and thats that.

Thanks in advance

[jomica]

Hi,

 

When my 4.5 year old started in reception he had 31 hours' support - every hour of every school day was supported. He's now 11 and it's down to 17 hours. His diagnosis is high functioning autism.

[Suze]

hi my son was statemented at 7yrs, he had 15hrs.One hour was for typing skills as his handwriting is so poor, 2 hrs were for specialist literacy as he is dyslexic too, the remaining 12 hrs were used up in the classroom for an lsa to support him.He is dx with dyspraxia, dyslexia, AS, and auditory processing problems, he has a high IQ but works at 3 yrs below his age due to dyslexia.This was one reason he actually got a statement.His primary school did,nt use his statement to his best advantage ..........however he has transferred to high school now and is supported full time in a unit.

[JsMum]

Hi, J recieved a statement at 9yrs after been on early year to school action to school action plus, I was at the time very happy that J recieved his 16 hrs LSA and specialist teaching, he goes to secondary school in september and he was going to recieve 29hrs in a mainstream, however he is going into either a LEA special school or the specialist school I have found because his needs wont be met in a mainstream school even with full time statement.

 

J is severely effected by dyslexia, prossessing, sensory, and has a diagnosis of ADHD/ODD, and Dyslexia and ASD/HFA has been confirmed.

 

Only sign when you are happy with the hours you know your son NEEDS.

 

Most statements now are only issued above 15hrs as the hours can be met by the schools SEN budget obvousy there will be some statements that issues hours such as 5hrs, or 7hrs or higher, but realistically you need to be looking at least 15hrs or above.

 

JsMum

[bjkmummy]

Hi, J recieved a statement at 9yrs after been on early year to school action to school action plus, I was at the time very happy that J recieved his 16 hrs LSA and specialist teaching, he goes to secondary school in september and he was going to recieve 29hrs in a mainstream, however he is going into either a LEA special school or the specialist school I have found because his needs wont be met in a mainstream school even with full time statement.

 

J is severely effected by dyslexia, prossessing, sensory, and has a diagnosis of ADHD/ODD, and Dyslexia and ASD/HFA has been confirmed.

 

Only sign when you are happy with the hours you know your son NEEDS.

 

Most statements now are only issued above 15hrs as the hours can be met by the schools SEN budget obvousy there will be some statements that issues hours such as 5hrs, or 7hrs or higher, but realistically you need to be looking at least 15hrs or above.

 

JsMum

ben has a unit placement attahced to a mainstream school - think its officially 25 hours - ben has high functioning autism - he is quite able but is behind in his learning

[JsMum]

ben has a unit placement attahced to a mainstream school - think its officially 25 hours - ben has high functioning autism - he is quite able but is behind in his learning

 

I read the school plus post I now realise your ben doesnt have a statement, but nothing stopping you asking for an assessment.

 

There is no units attached to mainstream secondary schools here, there is a learning suite but only access it for a short period of time like a couple of terms, J will require a unit for years, also its the actual enviroment that will also be a concern, socially, emotionally and mentally, J can not cope in a small primary school with crowds and noise, in a large secondary with over 100O older children (not littlies anymore, but big strapping lads) he will be extremely vunrable.

 

J needs a special school for secondary, J is only able if he has 1-1 but then you have to add on his behaviour/social difficulties on top of that and if he doesnt want to do something, then he wont, no matter who is with him, he needs a small group and work he is capable of doing and specialist management hence the tribunal for the specialist placement.

 

 

Added on,

 

( at his mainstream secondary school the Detention which is considered isolation consists of a small room with partitions, work set out to your ability an 1-1, this is part of the learning suite, I have the feeling that he may enjoy detentions)

 

Like to also add that the learning suite is for a whole range of special needs, including severe behavioural issues that may actually increase Js difficulties, its not a spesific unit for ASD but a general suite for ALL special needs, including serious mental health and emotional problems.

 

 

JsMum

Edited June 2, 2008 by JsMum

[julie1]

my son has h.f.a. he is statemented for 19 hours and only just gets by. He is now so far behind the other children in his class i fear he will never catch up. Sadly he is aware of this and no longer wants to be in school.

my daughter who has a severve language disorder poor memory, and 1st centile on all visual perceptual skills, has 18 hours on her statement. however we are going to tribunal to try to increase her hours and get her into a specialist school for children with language dissorders.

[BusyLizzie100]

DS2 is 8 and has ASD. His Statement came into force a month after he started in Reception. We were initially given 9 hours, which we queried. The LEA finalised it at 12 and the school put in another 3 to make it up to 15.

 

However, if you go down this route, make sure you get the additional hours the school is adding in written into the Statement - we had a verbal agreement which was forgotten by Year 2, when I found out school had withdrawn the additional 3 hours.

 

Since then, school has had to steadily increase the hours up to 18, by which time we were appealing against Statement which had been amended to reduce SALT.

 

The LEA settled just before the tribunal date in March and agreed to 24hrs and 45mins 1:1 LSA support - none of this 'will have access to' because that's too vague. They added OT, too, and quantified the SALT much better. I just wish they'd given him the number of hours he obviously needed right from the beginning!!

 

Now we are trying to get a statutory assessment for DS1, who's 10 and has AS. We tried once before and were turned down and decided not to appeal until we had a clearer case. We feel that the time has now come, but already people are saying we won't get a Statement. Well, I've got news for them: We will!

 

My advice is stick at it. There should be no blanket bandings for a 'child like this' as each child should be seen as an individual with individual needs. Push them for all you can get. I wish I had earlier for DS2.

 

By the way, anyone seen interesting article in the NAS mag Communication - Ed Balls talking about how LEAs should not use blanket policies and if they did, his department (Children Schools and Families) would be very interested in investigating?? He also refers to how LEAs should not apply criteria for STatementing so rigidly, as each child should be seen as an individual. Don't know much about the guy, but I just might photocopy the article for my boys' head teacher!

 

Edited to add: My LEA now does delegated funding, so in new Statements the number of hours is not even written on. Although, it obviously can be done for individual cases - when DS2's Statement was amended, it was after the new delegated funding had been introduced. His hours hadn't changed, but the wording had; it read something like '12 hours from the school's own SEN resources'. My friend's son received his Statement at the same time, with no hours on it at all. There was an unofficial verbal arrangement that he would get 9 hours a week, but my friend worked out this would mean he'd get less support than he did before the STatement!!!

 

Also, my LEA operates an 'exceptional needs' system - any Statement with more than 15 hours is funded directly by the LEA, so not from the school's delegated funding. DS2's head put his case before the exceptional needs panel six months before the tribunal and was turned down - ie he didn't need more than 15 hours according to them - and yet when we appealed they agreed to nearly 25. They really make you jump through hoops...

 

Good luck.

Lizzie

Edited June 2, 2008 by BusyLizzie100

[teachermum1]

Ja was statemented at 3, just before school. He got 18 hours of class support time and 5 hours of lunchtime support. He had no dx at the time. Now, a dx of ADHD and a dx of autism later, he gets 33 hours.

 

There is no limit on hours; the hours just have to be enough to meet the child's needs, whatever they have been identified to be.

[bluefish]

THANK -YOU all so much for your replies!

I must admit when I received the proposed statement I was absolutly gutted. Then when I had meeting with his named officer, someone who has NEVER met my child tried to educate me on the help he "needs" and is "entitled to" pretty much pushed me over the edge. NOTHING from the specialist advisory teachers report had been mentioned, nothing had been clearly set out, people who have only a vague knowledge of ASD ie the salt report and ep had been mentioned. Main factors had been omitted ie no sence of danger or personal safety and sensory issues(as clearly mentioned in sat report) also unpredictable behaviour!

My son is very bright BUT he is also autistic. He will need help to learn in a different way from that of his peers. He has many "unuseable" skills ie number recognision, any number both forwards and backwards but can not yet count five items on the table. He can "read" random words but has no understanding of phonics and does not assosiate sounds with letters.

His communication is probably his greatest difficulty, he speaks beautifully but makes little sense, he repeats from tv and books or situations that have happened before. If you met him (on a good day) for an hour you may not realise these complex issues.

I am SO frustrated that as a parent I am having to fight so hard.

EVERY CHILD MATTERS- early identifcation and early intervention. What is the point of them identifying and dx'ing him if No early intervention going to happen?

I said to LEA officer,it's not a badge of honour to have x amount of hours of sen statment! I am fighting for it because he NEEDS it! I am sure I am not the only one that thinks that the day our Children no longer need a statement is a day we dream of and will crack open the champagne.

 

Sorry to rant!

I have been told as my ds is hfa he is only able on the LEA table of support to get 6 3/4 all of your replies help me to be sure in my fight that its all down to money the lea are prepared to spend. So thanks again.

Please keep posting- Knowledge is power

[Karen A]

Hi bluefish.I think it would be worthwhile appealing and not agreeing to the proposed statement if you are not happy with it.

Any statement that the LEA issues should be based on an individual assessment of your child's needs and clear documented quantified provision to meet each specific need.It is not legal for LEAs to use blanket policies in order to decide on provision for categories of SEN...so don't let them try it...although they often do.

The IPSEA website is very helpful.I will find the link in a mo.Karen.

[Karen A]

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

This might be useful.IPSEA also run a help-line although it can be busy others have found them to be very good.Karen.

[bluefish]

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

This might be useful.IPSEA also run a help-line although it can be busy others have found them to be very good.Karen.

 

Thanks for the link Karen very helpful. lin

[LizK]

My son has HFA and has 25 hours on his statement. However he actually gets fulltime 1-2-1 throughout the day and we are currently trying to get his statement amended to reflect this

 

Lx

[CEJesson]

When my statement came through I was entitled to 7.5 hours of support + the option to go into the Learning Support department whenever I needed to. When I was 15 the hours of support was reduced to '7.5 hours maximum but only when needed' - usually I had about 5 hours of this. The option to go to the Learning Support department still remained. My Learning Support Assistant remained in my form group throughout the five years and was initially in 7-8 lessons per week, but it eventually was reduced to just maths/geography lessons plus the form time.

Edited June 6, 2008 by CEJesson

[Kathryn]

By the way, anyone seen interesting article in the NAS mag Communication - Ed Balls talking about how LEAs should not use blanket policies and if they did, his department (Children Schools and Families) would be very interested in investigating?? He also refers to how LEAs should not apply criteria for STatementing so rigidly, as each child should be seen as an individual. Don't know much about the guy, but I just might photocopy the article for my boys' head teacher!

 

Yes, I read it too. I wish I could believe it was more than just empty political rhetoric (I'm tempted to say a load of B***s)- are we seriously expected to believe that the government has been unaware of the creative ways LEA's continue to sidestep the law? Complaints to the secretary of state take months and months to reach a conclusion, which is usually a letter to the LEA saying very unconvincingly "naughty naughty! Don't do it again".

 

Good luck Bluefish, keep fighting on

 

K x

Edited June 6, 2008 by Kathryn

[CEJesson]

Complaints to the secretary of state take months and months to reach a conclusion, which is usually a letter to the LEA saying very unconvincingly "naughty naughty! Don't do it again".

 

Ahh yes, the typical government attitude of "we messed up, we will not directly admit we were wrong but we will announce restructuring to hopefully prevent it from happening again"

Edited June 6, 2008 by CEJesson