Getting a statement in the South Coast

[Northamer]

Hi there. I am new to this forum, and wondered if anybody would be able to help with some advice. I live in a well-populated town within Dorset, which is particularly relevant to my request for advice. I would like to remain discreet regarding the borough in which I live and my details for what will I hope will be fairly obvious reasons.

 

My child was diagnosed 15 months ago as ASD, having at the time been a month away from being 4 years old. Early Years Action Plus support was allocated, which meant 15 hours per week of 1:1 support. Myself and my wife applied for a statement of special needs last summer which was rejected by the local LEA. Clearly in these austere times, Councils have difficulties with their finances, however this particular LEA are notorious for being unwilling to issue statements.

 

My child has since September 2010 been at our local mainstream school. It is a good school, however it is becoming increasingly apparent that on the two days per week where the structured support is not given, there are real problems as little attention is paid to our child. This is not a criticism of the School or the Reception teacher, the reality is there are 29 other children for the teacher and TA to consider. The need for a statement is abundantly clear not only to myself and my wife, but also the school itself.

 

The mainstream school are currently having to fund the 15 hours’ support my child gets; it is clearly therefore in their interests that a statement is awarded. They have been gathering evidence on an ongoing basis and will be going back to the LEA Multi-Agency Group later this year with a renewed attempt to get a statement. However, given my aforementioned cynicism about the local LEA, I am not optimistic about the outcome. And I feel these are crucial years for my child.

 

I believe my child could flourish in a mainstream school environment, but only with a statement, and we need that as soon as possible. We are looking into getting separate specialist private tuition, though clearly this will not be cheap and not something we could realistically afford a large quantity of.

 

Myself and my wife have both lived in the borough in question since we were born. However we are now considering making the desperate move of selling our home to move into a borough which is more sympathetic to the educational needs of children. Would anybody be willing to recommend a borough within the Dorset / Hampshire / Wiltshire area whose LEA has a good history of giving disadvantaged children the opportunity of a fulfilling education? It seems bizarre to sell our home on the off-chance we could get a statement elsewhere, but we fear we may potentially have little choice.

 

Thank you for reading this and I would be truly grateful for any advice.

[smartloobylou]

Im afraid im not in your area, but i do know of local friends whose SEN child is funded by the LEA who could not move to the nearby town they wanted to as it would be under a different authority and they didnt want to risk losing the established funding they have. It does seem to vary widely. Good luck x

[coolblue]

Don't know Dorset - well, not in terms of educational provision - but my advice would be that this is not a good time to be moving house for educational reasons. The SEN Green Paper is due out this month and could lead to some major restructuring of the sysem. And all local authorities are currently reviewing their budgets and reconfiguring services anyway. A local authority that looks promising today might look very different in six months time, when the dust of redundancies has begun to settle.

 

What's important for a 4 year-old is not a statement per se, but what's on the statement. One to one support is useless, and indeed can be counterproductive if it's the wrong support. Nine times out of ten, whatever the child's diagnosis, what is crucial at this early age is input from a speech therapist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist or psychologist. If you have money to spend, spend it on an assessment from each of these people, rather than a tutor who might not have the awareness of the developmental issues underlying the learning difficulties.

 

Hope that helps.

 

cb (parent of 12 year-old with dx of ASD - received only 8.5 years after first raising concerns, and currently undergoing statutory assessment for the first time)

[Yossarian]

Agree with Cool Blue - Green Paper is due this month / next month. It may tinker or it may be radical change. My uninformed guess would be the latter.

 

But let us suppose nothing is going to change. In order to have the best chance of getting a statement, and you are considering moving, ideally you would need to know if the LAs in your area delegate a high amount or low amount of funding to schools directly. The more an LA delegates, the fewer statements it tends to issue. Bournemouth, in your area, like Nottingham, is held up as an example of a local authority that has delegated a lot of resources:

 

Bournemouth does not require statements for pupils with less complex learning or behavioural difficulties but they are maintained for all those with more complex and enduring SEN that need individually assigned resources.

From The Management of SEN Expenditure (2004) link

 

Not sure of the current situation in these two authorities - though I know Notts has a reputation for being hard to win a statement from.

 

You can also work out how many statements each local authority issues as a percentage of the school population from data that is available on the DfE website, which gives you a more direct measure of likelihood of issuing statements. Of course the individual needs of your child will have the most direct bearing on whether it is appropriate to assess/ issue a statement.

 

Send me a PM if you want some more info on this.

 

For a discussion on SEN delegation v statements see here: link

 

Living in an LA that delegates a high level of funding, you are being forced to go the appeal route, as discussed in the link above. It is practically the only way you will get a statement. You have to wait 6 months since you were turned down by your LA to request a stat assess:

 

Request by a parent

7:21 Parents may ask the LEA to conduct a statutory assessment under section 328 or 329 of the Education Act 1996. The LEA must comply with such a request unless they have made a statutory assessment within six months of the date of the request or unless they conclude, upon examining all the evidence provided to them, that a statutory assessment is not necessary.

(SEN Code of Practice)

 

I would make a request as soon as you can. Once the LA turn you down again, you can appeal to the SEND tribunal. This is how you create an opportunity to appeal. It will take around 6 months to get to tribunal. In that time you/school will have collected plenty of evidence that your child needs a statement.

 

Even if you move, you may well find yourself turned down for assessment by the new LA, so my advice is that appealing would be the best chance to get a statement for your child.

 

A statement is like a contract with the LA. It must provide what is specified within it. A school/LA has no duty to supply provision at School Action and School Action Plus, and can change this whenever they choose, and a parent has no right of appeal (unlike a statement.)

Edited February 22, 2011 by Yossarian

[Northamer]

Thank you all for your kind responses. Plenty to think about. I will await the issue of the Green Paper with interest.

 

Thanks again.

[Kathryn]

Can only agree with Yossarian and coolblue.

 

Just one small point: you don't have to wait 6 months between making statutory assessment requests - the 6 month limit only applies if a statutory assessment has actually been done.

 

Moving is no guarantee you'll be in a more favourable position so I don't think that's a good idea unless you have other personal reasons for relocating. I think every LEA, whatever the position before, will be now looking to cut its services right back to the bone. There could be another difficulty: if your child was still be at infant school when you moved it would be difficult to get her into a good school or any school at all as the class size limit of 30 would apply.

 

Put another request in, keep gathering your evidence and proceed to appeal if you have to.

 

Good luck!

 

K x