won our tribunal but Lea still dragging their feet.

[bensmum2]

Having won our tribunal and had our preferred special non maintained out of area school accepted by them, 2 weeks after the decision, the lea are still refusing to name a date for my son to start school and it seems there's nothing i can do. They have these time limits for the lea to do stuff, but if they don't, the tribunal don't actually do anything , you have to go to the dcsf who i have been to several tiems in the past and got nowhere.

The lea officer who is dealingw ith it was off for a week, and now she is back she can't amend the statement or send the contract to the new school until next thursday and wont even give me a provisional date until she has doen this, even though the school have held a place for him for 9 months now and transport is already in place for another pupil.Ot wpuldn't be so bad but he is in year 10 and is missing coursework !! any ideas anyone?

[Yossarian]

AFAIK the LA must comply 5 weeks from the day after the decision. I read it either in legislation or SEND guidance. You may well be right about non-compliance and D of Ed, but I suggest phoning SEND for a steer

[Kazzen161]

It might be worth copying in your MP to any correspondence with the LA (stating that you are concerned that the 5 weeks allowed is nearly up, etc) - that tends to get things moving!

[Kathryn]

Hi Bensmum,

 

Very frustrating! Strictly speaking, they still have 3 weeks to amend the statement but they are acting unreasonably in not giving you a date - no reason why he couldn't start school in the meantime. Just keep pestering them.

 

If they do breach the time limit, this is something the Local Government Ombudsman could take up - they investigate LEA maladministration which includes delays in carrying out procedures. They now have greater power to investigate SEN issues than they used to. It's worth giving their advice line a ring tomorrow.

 

More information here:

 

http://www.lgo.org.uk/publications/fact-sheets/complaints-about-special-educational-needs/

 

You could also write some letters, one to the Secretary of State for Education one to the Director of Children Schools and Families at your LEA, copy it to their director of legal services, your MP, and your local councillor. Keep it short and sweet, just say that in failing to make provision for your son as directed by the SEN tribunal, the LEA are in breach of their legal duties. Briefly say how this is affecting your son's education.

 

Still may be worth ringing the Department of Education (formerly DCSF) as well, they may take it up straight away and a swift phone call to the LEA may work. You say you've had no luck before, but as this is a clear case of non compliance they may act more decisively.

 

If all else fails you may have to consider legal action but try the above first.

 

K x

Edited September 26, 2010 by Kathryn

[bensmum2]

Hi Ladies , thanks for the swift responses, i know they have 5 weeks to amend the statement, but only 2 weeks to amend the named school which is a bit silly cos thats part of the statement, the tribunal told them exactly what to put in the statement so its not rocket science for them lol. There doesnt seem to be a time limit on them actually allowing him to start at the shcool though.#Thanks for all your suggestions, but during the past year i have been refused help from my MP becasue the lea tried to say we were causing our sons problems and they were threatening child protection, despite 4 or 5 doctors letters going back a couple of years, so when i went for help to the mp he said he couldnt help me and i had to "co-operate" with them lea. I emailed and rang the dcsf and wrote to Ed Balls 3 times and got standard replies, the sdcsf did ring the lea once but were told the same about child protection and they said there was nothing they could do. i went to the ombudsman because of the way the lea was treating us and also as they failed to provide an alternative form of education even though my son was unable to go to school due to how ill it made him, they took over a year to decide on the case and in the end i lost!!! so the lea dont see them as a threat anymore cos they are a total waste of space,I have also written and emailed the director of childrens services on many occassions and in fact only wrote to him about an unrelated issue 2 days ago,a previous letter i had sent being answered by accusing me of being a liar. But if you ask me he remebers my name from when the lea tried to say we were abusing our son, so he won't listen to anything i say !! Unfortunately we can ttake legal action either as we dont get legal aid , earleir in the year we had to pay to go to court to get access to our grandson and it floored us financially and on top of that i have had to hoem school my son ofr the whoel of year 9 and pay for 2 college courses and a private tutor for him , plus it has cost over £3,000 for all the private reports for the tribunal and we are still paying that , this has really floored us and if it gets any worse we might have to sell our house !! it seems we will just ahve to wait till theya re ready, i will try the dcsf again tomorow and send, i was even thinking of ringing the education welfare officers, my sons education is non existent right now and being in year 10 he is missing important coursework he hasnt even made any choices for his exasm necasue we didn't now where he would be. The lea know all this but are sill taking as long as they can. I will get onto it again tomorow again , It seems the fight never ends !!!

[Sally44]

It seems like they've thrown mud at your families name and it has stuck. Has there been any investigation into child protection issues and you were exonerated? Have you looked at slander or libel? I know you are not covered for legal aid - is that something that could change. If so consider that as an option to clear your name. It is almost like a bad credit reference against you and is a 'card' they seem to have used every time to discredit your complaints.

 

I too have tried the LGO and found that they can't make a judgement on anything that any other body or procedure could deal with. So if it can be dealt with via SEND or Judicial Review etc they will not rule in your favour.

 

I gave the LGO details of explicit examples of what I considered maladministration. The LGO saw it as a case for judicial review, which I cannot follow as that Statement has now been superceded by a new one. So the LGO could not find in my favour! They found it 'reasonable' that part of his Statement had not been fulfilled for nearly two years due to staffing and absence issues and were happy with 'assurances' from the LEA that that same provision would soon be in place! It still is not. And now I have a Statement that does not even contain that provision.

 

I think the LGO can only help in very specific cases.

 

I think you should speak with SEND first about the timescales and what procedures you should follow if it is not complied with. If you can use Judicial Review, that is usually the most cost effective way of proceeding as you would pay the initial £300 fee for the solicitor to apply for JR and then the solicitor is working for your son (meaning all work is free as he is a minor) and not you as parents.

 

Talk about flogging a dead horse.

[Kathryn]

I too have tried the LGO and found that they can't make a judgement on anything that any other body or procedure could deal with. So if it can be dealt with via SEND or Judicial Review etc they will not rule in your favour.

 

Bensmum is in a different situation to yourself. Paying for legal assistance at this stage is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut,in my opinion.

 

This is not within the remit of SEND and it is within the remit of the LGO. JR is not automatically granted and requires legal involvement, therefore is costly unless you get legal aid and it's not necessary to go down this route first before appealing to the Ombudsman - in fact it is more likely that a court will expect all other remedies to be tried first.

 

Very frustrating Bensmum, but you're now in a different situation to before so don't let that put you off complaining and persisting. And remember, Ed Balls is no more - it's now Michael Gove.

 

 

K x

[Sally44]

Bensmum is in a different situation to yourself. Paying for legal assistance at this stage is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut,in my opinion.

 

This is not within the remit of SEND and it is within the remit of the LGO. JR is not automatically granted and requires legal involvement, therefore is costly unless you get legal aid and it's not necessary to go down this route first before appealing to the Ombudsman - in fact it is more likely that a court will expect all other remedies to be tried first.

 

Very frustrating Bensmum, but you're now in a different situation to before so don't let that put you off complaining and persisting. And remember, Ed Balls is no more - it's now Michael Gove.

 

 

K x

 

I understand what you are saying. But the LGO's remit is rather hard to pin down.

I think it is worth phoning them and ask for a straight foward answer about whether this is something they can handle.

And maybe speak with SEND to see what they say is the appropriate procedure.

The LGO will probably say "send in your complaint and we'll look at it", and some months down the line you could get a response that is not in your favour because the LGO seems to accept any 'assurances' they are given by the LEA and "do not question any professionals opinion" even when it is contrary to information and provision contained in a Statement.

 

My understanding is that the LGO WILL NOT HANDLE anything that can be dealt with via SEND or Judicial Review or any other body or procedure. Which leaves little else left.

 

And although this may appear like a sledgehammer to crack a nut, this is a very old and hard nut. And even a solicitor's letter threatening JR may get the job done.

[Kathryn]

My understanding is that the LGO WILL NOT HANDLE anything that can be dealt with via SEND or Judicial Review or any other body or procedure.

 

Just to repeat what I said before...

 

This is not within the remit of SEND and it is within the remit of the LGO. JR is not automatically granted and requires legal involvement, therefore is costly unless you get legal aid and it's not necessary to go down this route first before appealing to the Ombudsman - in fact it is more likely that a court will expect all other remedies to be tried first.

 

Your understanding may be out of date. The LGO's remit has recently been widened to include a greater range of SEN issues.

 

K x

[bensmum2]

Thanks again everyone, i am feeling more positive today as we have been for lunch at the school, my normally quiet,hesitant son was laughing and joking with the others, he played wii on a 50"lcd screen and had a big crowd of girls round him (if you can call it a nig crowd in a school with only 40 pupils) He loved it and was so different because he feels he fits in there, i was watching him with tears in my eyes.

Sally we DID get our name cleared as whilst all this was going on he got his diagnosis of Aspergers, and they still forced him to go back to school , but when he ran out i decided enough was enough and we asked the social services to help, they did a report saying although he has complex needs, we are such good parents that we meet all of his needs (which of course means they dont have to help us, but once he's in school i wont need them anyway!!),but once they have said these things and it only ever got as far as an initial secret meeting between people who had never met us, it was just the phone calls to try to "dig some dirt" on us !! Thyey never actually accused us to our face, just said it was being considered,Since i deregistered him tings ahve been much better and now we have won our tribunal, the only thing left for them to do is delay !! While i was writing this i had a call from a lady who is helping me , the lea have todl ehr they will have things in writing by thisweekedn and as long as the school return their copies early next week , they will discuss a start date. so fingers crossed it will be 11thoctober all being well, this ahs been such a long time coming thanks again ladies x