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Parental application for a statutory assessment

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Our son is 12 and has a diagnosis of autism. He's high functioning with a range of specific learning difficulties. He has been educated at home for the past three years because of the problems he had in his last school and because we couldn't identify a suitable secondary school to aim for. He was on SA+ throughout his school career and both his schools (infant and junior) started gathering evidence to support an application for a statement but the application never materialised in either school for a variety of reasons. Although he's intellectually able, his problems with receptive and expressive speech, spelling, writing, arithmetic plus hyperacusis and mannerisms make it unlikely, in my view, that he could cope with mainstream, so we are looking at specialist independent provision.

 

At our request, his paediatrician has referred him to the tuition service and he will have home tuition for up to 16 weeks as part of a transition back into school. The service want the statutory assessment to run concurrently with that and have suggested that we apply for a statutory assessment as soon as possible.

 

Parent partnership have advised putting in as much supporting information as we can with the application, because they felt this can set the tone for the statutory assessment. I've already prepared a full summary of ds's school experience, learning difficulties, sensory problems etc and have copies of reports ready, although some of them are obviously quite out of date now. I'm fairly familiar with the SENCOP because I've spent the last three years reading about other parents' experiences with school.

 

I just wondered if anyone has any do's and don't's they feel we should know about. Any tips gratefully received!

 

cb

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I would advise making sure that for every difficulty you cite, you include actual examples from school or the tuition service, including photocopies of work, etc.

 

I also presented my evidence very clearly, dividing the information into titled sections and using bullet points rather than great chunks of text as I think information is easier to take in using this sort of format.

 

HTH

 

Bid :)

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I think what maybe harder for you to do is specify what provision he requires to meet his needs.

When you are writing the parental response you are thinking of section 2 of the Statement (identify all needs). Then section 3 is to quantify and specify how those needs will be met in school in terms of provision in therapy and staffing.

 

The most up to date reports will be the LEAs. You can submit your older reports if they contain relevent information. But the LEA is under no obligation to include them when drawing up the Proposed Statement - all my reports (which are 18 months old have been chucked out by my LEA).

So you will receive a Proposed Statement from the LEA. You can negotiate what you want including or changing. But you may well find that the LEA is just not prepared to include what you want.

So then you ask, or the LEA finalises anyway and you start the appeal process.

I am presuming you may well be going to appeal because it is highly unlikely the LEA has a mainstream school that can meet his needs?? Have you got a school in mind? What kind of school is it?

 

If a Statement is likely to require funding of professional input then most LEAs do go to tribunal over that. It is worth them pushing the parents to appeal in the hope that some drop out and that means they don't have to fund professional input and therapies.

 

What you need at an appeal is evidence in reports. You cannot sit infront of the panel and say "I feel", or "I believe". It has to be facts in reports.

 

So you can put whatever you "feel" or "believe" in your parental response and say what your son needs in school to support his needs. But when the LEA do not include it, you will need to appeal and get your evidence in reports that he does need it.

And you want your reports to be the most up to date.

If you have a school in mind that is not under your LEA then the school needs to have seen your child and needs to confirm that (a) he is suitable for their school and (B) that they have a place available for him.

 

You can use any evidence you have to prove needs ie. I used letters from the leader at cubs, and a former private Play Therapist to raise social communication and interaction needs.

Edited by Sally44

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Thank you very much for these replies - extremely useful.

 

I'll keep you posted on progress.

 

cb

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We're in the same boat re 'statutory assessment'. What a joke. My son has had an initial assessment which suggested deeper analysis of his (yet to be defined, Asbergers probably though) 'condition'.

 

We made an application to schools for a yr 8 place and weren't succesful. He's missed ALL of yr 7 and now is at a Kip Mc Grath centre, which at least is something.

 

We've been told that although we're 3 months into the wait, it could be another 3 months wait and I'm worried they will pull him out of Kip Mc Grath long before that due to funding.

 

It's such a nightmare. He's a smart, intelligent, easily educated boy, but has problems with his peers. He gets in to fights, will never back down and that causes problems. He doen't have an acute problem but it's enough to cause hiccups.

 

This forum has been very helpful. Clearly, there's alot of people in the same boat and sympathetic to the way councils and schools treat parents and kids in this situation...

Edited by Gattsby

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Hi.

The LA usually look to the SENCO or class teacher to provide a significant amount of evidence re progress etc.

I have no personal experience but wonder if it is worth looking up Home Education information on the Forum.

It may be that if not here then elsewhere there might be parents who have experience of providing evidence of accademic ability,SEN etc for Statutary Assessment where a child has been home educated: :unsure:

 

Karen.

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We're in the same boat re 'statutory assessment'. What a joke. My son has had an initial assessment which suggested deeper analysis of his (yet to be defined, Asbergers probably though) 'condition'.

 

We made an application to schools for a yr 8 place and weren't succesful. He's missed ALL of yr 7 and now is at a Kip Mc Grath centre, which at least is something.

 

We've been told that although we're 3 months into the wait, it could be another 3 months wait and I'm worried they will pull him out of Kip Mc Grath long before that due to funding.

 

It's such a nightmare. He's a smart, intelligent, easily educated boy, but has problems with his peers. He gets in to fights, will never back down and that causes problems. He doen't have an acute problem but it's enough to cause hiccups.

 

This forum has been very helpful. Clearly, there's alot of people in the same boat and sympathetic to the way councils and schools treat parents and kids in this situation...

 

We're only three weeks into the first phase. I wrote a detailed summary (with bullet points, thank you bid) and included the latest copies of all reports. Ds now has a home tutor, so they should get a teacher assessment from her.

 

The SEN code of practice has a timetable on p.120 of the length of time the statementing process should take. In your case, Gattsby, I don't understand why a deeper analysis of your son's 'condition' should be necessary. It's his educational needs that need to be supported and a Nobel prize in psychiatry shouldn't be required to figure those out.

 

When my son was at school he had two assessments from Learning Support Advisory teachers that were far more thorough than the Ed Psych assessment. They took a couple of hours. Those, together with the OT's report, would have told you all you might need to know about his learning difficulties.

 

cb

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I am sure this has been covered already, but just incase it hasn't.......

 

Do not send the originals of any document, always send a copy

Keep and exact copy of what you send

Always use recorded delivery

Make a note of deadline dates, dates for panel meetings etc and chase up results yourself.

 

I found when I was preparing for tribunal (for refusal to assess) it was easier to hole punch each page in the corner and use a treasury tag rather than staple things.

 

Good luck

 

Carol

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We're only three weeks into the first phase. I wrote a detailed summary (with bullet points, thank you bid) and included the latest copies of all reports. Ds now has a home tutor, so they should get a teacher assessment from her.

 

The SEN code of practice has a timetable on p.120 of the length of time the statementing process should take. In your case, Gattsby, I don't understand why a deeper analysis of your son's 'condition' should be necessary. It's his educational needs that need to be supported and a Nobel prize in psychiatry shouldn't be required to figure those out.

 

 

cb

 

Hi.The only thing I would say is that if a pupil has AS it may well be worthwhile to push for a diagnosis of ''probable AS'' whilst it is not essential it may make a big difference as to the level of support offered by ASD outreach for instance.It may not need a Nobel prize in psychiatry but in our case the AS diagnosis took threee years.Fortunately a SALT recognised the need for ASD outreach before CAMHS did and ensured it was included in the Statement.

 

Many LAs now require an ASD diagnosis before they will provide Specialist provision.

Although a Statement can be amended later in my opinion better to push for assessments for AS to be done alongside the Statutary Assessmentif possible.

 

Karen.

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wow 16 hours a week my dd of 14 has been out of school for 2 1/2 years the fist year we got 45 mins 3 times a week at the school, but i didnt work the second year we had nothing ,now finally we were getting 1 hour a week and the teacher txt me yesterday to say we can have 2 hours a week!!!any one any advise how i can get more ?

julia

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I don't think anyone mentioned getting 16 hours a week... :unsure:

 

What most LAs appear to offer is a couple of hours a week with a tutor plus homework.

 

cb

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Just updating: heard just before Christmas that LA has agreed to statutory assessment. Have seen Ed Psych already and she's booked in for another appointment. Clearly we should have taken ds out of school when he was five.... :rolleyes:

 

cb

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Hi, been reading this thread with interest as we are in similar situation with my DD, aged 15 and dx of ASD/aytipical aspergers. She has been effectively out of education for the last 7 months, with a short return to her mainstream high school in september. The support put in place at this time was not enough to enable her to cope and so the statementing process began. We seem to be actually doing quite well so I am told, as all our reports and detailed parental info has been submtted, her medical, and her ed psych visit complete, and according to the pupil referral unit she is attending for 5 hours a week, the LEA have been in touch for info from them and are 'in the process of writing the statement as we speak', as they put it during that conversation a couple of weeks ago, so it feels like we're making real progress! :thumbs: What is bothering me a bit after reading everyone's comments and advice, is that we do have a school in mind which is out of area, and have highlighted this to them, as have others in various reports, however, she has never been assessed at the school or even visited it, as when this whole process began, I contacted this proprosed non funded special school, spoke to the headmaster and explained my DD's situation. He advised me that it was good that application for statement has begun, and that the do have a couple of pupils there from the town in which we live, and that we should contact him again once the statemnt is secured to arrange short preliminary visits and assessments at that time? Do you think this about right? He didn't give the impression that there were no places available! When would the best time be to arrange a visit do you think? Does anyone have knowledge or experience of any other ASD specialist schools in the north west which might be worth a visit which ever place she does go to must be the right one for her

 

Beverley, Cheshire,

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Incidentally, I didn't get the impression that the independent school we have in mind was oversubscribed either - just the opposite.

 

cb

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He advised me that it was good that application for statement has begun, and that the do have a couple of pupils there from the town in which we live, and that we should contact him again once the statemnt is secured to arrange short preliminary visits and assessments at that time? Do you think this about right? He didn't give the impression that there were no places available! When would the best time be to arrange a visit do you think? Does anyone have knowledge or experience of any other ASD specialist schools in the north west which might be worth a visit which ever place she does go to must be the right one for her

 

Beverley, Cheshire,

 

i only had one school in mind for my dd so even before the statement had begun i rang and arranged a visit just to get a feel for the school .dd didnt visit untill months later when the LA agreed to the school .

why not ring the schools you think may be a possibility and see if they will let you visit .

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We've just heard that the LA have agreed to issue a statement and will be recommending a residential placement at a specialist school - but we have been advised we will need to make a good case for our preferred school because it's more expensive than some. :unsure:

 

The whole process so far has been done by the book. I've been amazed at the professionalism of the people involved. It really has been like stepping into a totally different world from the one we encountered when ds was at school. Just hoping it stays that way.

 

Thanks to all for advice and support.

 

cb

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You must feel very relieved that its all nearly over, its such a huge relief when the statement gets finalised and you can just concentrate on the day to day stresses :wacko: , good luck getting your prefferred school all the best suzex

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Thanks suze

 

Taking this. One. Step. At. A. Time. :unsure:

 

cb

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