Affordable Speech & Language Support for Appeal?

[JohnDL]

Hi,

 

I have an appeal coming up in January and have until December 15th to submit evidence.

 

My son has ASD and the local authority have offered only 2 hours Speech and Langauage support PER TERM!

 

I have been looking for a Speech & Language Therapist to write a report and attend as a witness, but have been appalled at the scale of fees some of the Independent practioners are charging - often as much as £1,500 for a report plus £1,500 for appearing at the appeal, plus fees for travelling time, plus fees for distance travelled on top.

 

I have given up with the lawyers as they would push the total cost of an appeal over the £10,000 mark!

 

This really does appear to be a sick game frequented by buisnesses who are just in it to extract as money as possible.

 

Are there any websites listing Speech and Langauage Specialists who charge reasonable levels of fees?

[Sally44]

My advice would be that if you do need to spend that money for independent reports and a solicitor, to do it for the transfer to secondary school.

 

What you can do now.

I presume you have a SALT report that is recommending 2 hours per term?

 

Go through that report, and itemise every need that she has identified. And also list any needs you feel she has not identified ie. social communication skills etc.

 

Then see if the report makes provision to meet those needs in school for each and every item.

 

If he already has a speech and language therapy programme you need to look at the targets and see if he is achieving them and making progress. Have any standardised assessments been carried out? Have they been repeated to see if he has made progress? What about IEP targets, are any of those SALT or social communication targets. Are the targets SMART and have they been achieved?

 

Then speak with the SALT on the phone about all the needs and what she has recommended to meet every need and say that two hours per term is not going to meet those needs.

 

Just to clarify. Is the two hours per term speech therapist input and there will be a speech programme in school provided by a TA? That maybe the case, and if so that needs to be detailed in the Statement.

 

I will PM you with the SALT contents of my son's Statement to give you an idea of what you can get.

 

After speaking with the SALT on the phone, write to her about what was discussed and what the SALT said or agreed. Ask her to confirm that she has identified all his needs (including social interaction skills) and has quantified and specified how each of those needs will be met in terms of hours of support and staffing provision in school. (This is all taken from the SEN Code of Practice, which you can download yourself from this website at the top of the Education forum page under SEN publications).

 

You can ask the NHS SALT to attend as a witness at the Tribunal. They should be neutral, but tend to work within their departments budget restrictions. I'll also send you a document about SALT input towards tribunals. That is interesting. It does state that the needs of the child should be provided for irrespective of SALT department resources.

 

You could search your local area for SALT. Prices do vary greatly from professional to professional. You do need one that has experience of writing reports for Tribunals and who can attend is needed. If you get one locally, then it is alot less on travelling expenses.

 

You could get an independent report for the tribunal, and get the NHS SALT to attend. She will probably play down any recommendations in the private report. But I think with searching closer to home you maybe able to half the total cost you have quoted and get an independent report and witness. If you ask your SALT to attend you don't want the NHS SALT there. If you can't afford an independent SALT as witness, then it maybe useful to have the NHS SALT there because at least you and the Panel can ask her questions about your sons needs and how they will be met in school.

 

You need to include as much evidence as you can of his difficulties with speech and language and social interaction to demonstrate that the provision being suggested is inadequate.

 

I don't know what year your child is in. If you do get an independent SALT who comes as a witness you are more likely to get everything included in the Statement. That then gives you a good baseline from which to measure future progress. Then even if you cannot afford to pay this money every year (and who can?!?!), you would reconsider spending money in transfer year to achieve the provision and placement he needs for secondary school. And you could have a good baseline to assess from.

[Kathryn]

Apologies if you've come across this site already:

 

http://www.helpwithtalking.com/

 

K x

[madsadie]

Hi JohnDL

 

I am in a similar situation. My evidence has to be in by 10th Dec and it is a nightmare

The system is so wrong - I can't afford private reports and at present have none. I would qualify for legal aid on my income , but I have too much equity in my house. So I'm just trying to get what I can from the NHS/LEA reports.

 

Why should our children be penalised because we can't afford to hire these people? I presume you have a private ed psych report as that would be the most important- that's what I've been advised. The only person I have found who can do it in time has quoted £1700 plus vat for the report and £700 plus expenses for the tribunal. Now I know what I should have trained as!!

I might just have to borrow the money but, like so many others, we're struggling just to survive.How am I going to pay it back - oh, I forgot -by selling the leaking roof from over our heads!!

 

Are you in touch with IPSEA or anyone like that?

 

Others on here have given really good advice......Hope you can sort it out

[Known]

My neighbour's daughter is a SALT and does reports for tribunals. She works in specialist autism school and takes on private referrals. She is in London, if interested send me your email and I can forward the details to you. I do not know how to send private messages through this site. I have not used her personally but am trying to convince my son to have an assessment done through her so I cannot give any recommendations at the moment. Her charges I believe for the initial assessment is around £100 or so, not too sure though. For the report I do not know the charges.

[Kathryn]

Hi Known,

 

If you click on the person's name which appears next to their post, that will bring up their profile. Click on "send me a message" on the left under the picture, and the rest is like posting on the public forum, just type in the box and send your message.

 

Hope that helps

 

K x

[JohnDL]

Many thanks for all of the advice.

 

I managed to find a good, affordable SALT on http://www.helpwithtalking.com, but I must say that most of ones I came across on the site were very expensive and unaffordable. Perhaps there are websites for other SALT guilds?

 

Perhaps it might be a good idea to setup & construct an independent Web search page listing SALTs with the scale & breakdown of fees they are quouting and then allow them to sort in ascending and descending order? (and similarly for Lawyers?).

 

The risk is, as with all Price Comparison websites, that you have to trust that the information displayed is complete and accurate and is not being corrupted by advertising revenue.

 

I was also recommended the site www.sossen.org.uk which has very good information.