speech therapy provision

[isaacsmum]

Have just recieved Isaacs proposed amended statement and its slit my wrists time again

 

They are once again being deliberately vague and not specifying hours etc. Im in the process of putting together a letter stating my concerns and wonder if anyone could advise.

 

In part 2 of the statement it states that isaac has Special educational needs in terms of expressive and receptive language (which is good) BUT it does not state specifically that he needs speech therapy. Should I ask them to put this or will the above be enough?

 

In part 3 the only ref to speech therapy is that there should be "a structured language development programme, in conjunction with the speech and language therapist ( as directed by the relevent NHS trust)."

To me this is a get out because it could simply mean advice being given to school and no speech therapy at all. I want them to be more specific but have been told that due to the shortage of speech therapists available they will not specify amount of speech therapy to be given. Should i request that they specify eg 1 hour a week (which he has at the moment despite nothing quantifiable in statement) and risk having to fight it out at tribunal or do I accept that if there are no speech therapists available theres nothing they can do?

 

There are other issues in the statement including that it does not quantify funding but this is the one that is bothering me the most.

 

The thought of having to go through all this AGAIN fills me with despair.

 

lucy

[oracle]

Lucy I will hold up my hands and say I know very little about statements - but I am learning fast because now that I am helping to run a parents groups I need to know about these things.

 

I attended a talk given by IPSEA and what was left imprinted in my brain, is the fact that ANY Statement that is worth the paper that it is written on need to be specified and quantified. They could not hammer this point home strongly enough.

 

From what I have read in your post the provision is neither specified or quantified so I would certainly be doing something about it if I were you. As there are other issues also bothering you why not give IPSEA a ring. They are the experts and they will give you the advise that you need.

 

Here is the link to their home page http://www.ipsea.org.uk/

 

Carole

[mossgrove]

It is sadly the case that LEAs are prone to writing in phrases like "The school will aim to" and "wherever possible" into statements. This is because it allows them to fail to meet the spirit of the statement without breaking the letter.

 

Sadly, you do neet to keep sending it back until the vagueness comes out. There may be a support group locally or someone like the parent partnership may be able to helpyou with this.

 

Simon

[nellie]

Statements must be quanitfied and qualified. I would certainly give IPSEA a call. IPSEA or the NAS will check the statement for you and tell you how it should be written. You will find their contact details below.

 

SEN Support and Information Services, SEN advice, information and support

http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=676

 

Nellie xx

[Helen]

Lucy,

 

For any SALT issues, a valuable source of information is the AFASIC website:

 

http://www.afasic.org.uk/f_helpline.htm

[Joe's gran]

Hello isaacsmum,

We are just going through this with Joe's proposed statement at the moment. We were advised on here to contact the NAS on 0845 0704002 to speak to an educational advocate.

We did this and she was wonderful. We photocopied and mailed the proposed statement to her and by 4pm the following day she had checked the statement , phoned my daughter to discuss it and then emailed the relevant points which needed amending + most importantly in your case the legal grounds for the changes.

Seems to be working in our case,

Good luck.

Joe's gran.x

[isaacsmum]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

 

I have spoken to a very helpful lady from the N.A.S. educ. advocacy service and have got some useful quotes from the IPSEA website (couldnt get through on the helpline,theyre obviously swamped due to seeming complete inability of LEAs to write statement clearly meeting kids needs) I have completed my letter of concern and feel a lot less stressed than yesterday altho still a long way to go.

 

I think what fills me with despair more than anything is this long term never ending battle just to get a reasonable level of support.

I work with kids with SEN myself and I know that schools and LEAs have limited budgets but if I hear one more "professional" argue that they "have to prioritise" and x wont get any help because there are x number of children who have much greater difficulties I will personally wring their condescending necks

Its like going to the doctors with a fractured toe only be told to go away and live with it because mr x is much worse off he only has one leg!

 

Sorry to rant so much but ive had the week from hell

 

1) The school I teach in was OFSTEDed last week and I was told that the special need kids i work with were being "denied access to the curriculum" due to the fact that i was withdrawing small groups to work on social skills, communication skills and fine motor skills using carefully worked out small steps to meet their indiv needs but thats not good enough because theyd missed the vital text on plant growth that they couldnt have followed nor cared less about.

2) My sons beloved SSA who has been with him full time for the last 2 yrs came round to say she was finishing at the end of term because she only wanted to work with foundation stage children.

3)The dreaded document referred to above

4) Last but definitely not least, my 40 th birthday ( i dont know how that happened im sure im only 19)

 

So I apologise for my incoherent ramblings but thats my excuse and im sticking to it OH BOTHER ITS TEN PAST 3 IM LATE FOR THE KIDS

LUCYX

[sonia]

Isaacs mum,

The support I got from an education adviser at the nas was fantastic. Any provision must be quantified. This is how my sons satement reads,

 

" A language development programme, devised in consultation with a speech and language therapist, to include a block of seven sessions(approximately 30-40 minutes in duration) per term of speech and language therapy. This input may include individual sessions, small group work, observation and liason with staff as appropriate. This should be followed by opportunities to generalise and develop skills in class across the cirriculum. The speech and language therapist is to review and evaluate the programme on a termly basis School staff to be able to ask for advice directly from the speech and language therapist as required".

 

IF the provision is not quantified they could realistically see a child once a year!!!!

 

Sonia x