Help with appeal for a statutory assessment

[mummycanhandleit]

Hi everyone,

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I have just received my "How to appeal" form and I was wondering if anyone knows exactly what needs put in and what does not. I am so lost with this stuff???

[flappyfish]

Have you looked on the IPSEA website? They give very specific advice and even formats for letters telling you what to say for lots of occasions. I am almost certain that there is a section on appealing a statement. Good luck!

[Kathryn]

Hi mummycanhandleit,

 

Are you in Scotland?

 

K x

[mummycanhandleit]

Hi, No I am in Northern Ireland. I think the IPSEA site is for England and Wales.

I just don't know what to put in the reasons for appealing.

Obviously I am appealing because they turned my son down. They have all the information from when we first applied????

Seriously you would nearly just think they want you to give up. Why can they not try to help and support parents whos children have special needs rather than make everything such a battle?

I am really getting fed up fighting!!

 

I am sitting here, my kitchen table completely full of paperwork and I don't know what to do with any of it.

Has any one ever had to appeal before and can give me a clue at what they write?

 

Thanks for your help Tracy xxx

[Kathryn]

Ah I see - I knew you weren't in England as you mentioned your son is in P1.

 

The SEN system, and the process of appealing to the Tribunal is similar to the England /Wales system I think, so most of the info about appealing in England will be useful, just be careful to double check the law in NI where there are references to timescales etc as there may be differences.

 

When you say your son has been turned down, what has he been turned down for? A Statutory Assessment or a Statement (i.e. did you get a Note in Lieu?).

 

K x

[mummycanhandleit]

Oh dear as I am sure you can tell I am new to all this. I don't know what he was turned down for, lol. Have you ever!!

I tell you what they said. If I can find it in amongst all the rest of papers here in front of me!!!

Here goes....

On 20th January 2011 the Board wrote to tell you that it was considering whether to assess A's special educational needs. Details relating to the criteria for statutory assessment were set out in Explanatory notes attached to that letter.

 

The Board has given careful consideration to all evidence in relation to A's needs and has decided not to make a statutory assessment of his special eductaional needs at this time.

 

A recent meeting of the Statutory Assessment panel considered the information on A including reports from school, the Ed Psychology service and the Northern health and social care trust, OT service. The panel noted A's main difficulties appear to be emotional, social and behavioural development and recommend that he should be referred to the Primary Behaviour Support Service.

 

Then they go off on one, bla bla bla, if you wish to appeal bla bla bla.

 

Does this help lol. I am just lost here

[mummycanhandleit]

Right, this is my rough draft of my appeal letter. I have ticked all boxes etc I should have and then they say.....

 

(Please note that your appeal may be delayed if you do not fill in this section)

My reasons for appealing are:

 

That Ashton needs 1-1 teaching due to his varios difficulties.

Ashton was born with his left lower limb and hand missing due to an amniotic band in pregnancy. This causes Ashton great difficulty in craft activities when attending to them independantly. He also needs assistance with packing his bag, putting on and taking off his coat and changing for PE.

Ashton was referred to Occupational Therapy for an assesment on his sensory issues. The reprt came back with evidence that Ashton presents great difficulty with sensory processing. His significant sensory processing difficulties are Proprioception, Vestibular, Tactile, Visual, Auditory and Oral.

Ashton was also given a sensory diet to be completed daily at home and in schoola d advice on making a visual schedule for him. I have enclosed copies of the report and the advice.

Ashton has also been assessed by Speech and Language Therapist which has been on going from nursery 2009/2010. The speech therapist said that she found that Ashton's grammar was not age appropriate and that he is not making appropriate use of his pronouns-usually reversing them and that she doesn't think he has the proper understanding of "WH" words. She wants to do further testing for SLI.

Ashton is waiting for an appointment with a GP and Occupational Therapy for further tesing of ASD.

Ashton's problems are majorly effecting himself and his peers in school as he is constantly disrupting the class. He has a very short attention span and can be very uncooperative. He has great difficulty carrying out instructions and sometimes tunes out so much that he doesn't even hear his name being called or the instruction being given. This is due to there being an overload of auditory stimuli in the room that he just tunes out. His responses to sounds vary greatly with him not hearing his name being called to being oversensitive to loud noises which cause him to cover his ears and cry or shout to drown out the noise.

Ashton actively resistes changes to his routine, he will try to carry on with the old activities and will become very difficult to distract, he will regularly become angry and unhappy when his routine is changed.

Ashton, also fails to show regard for any hazardous situatiom which other children of the same age would avoid. He nearly seeks out danger. Also, he is very active and can be extremely difficuklt to restrain. Adhton has boundless energy and exhibits extremes of activity.

For Ashton's safety and in order for him to meet the curriculum effectively and reach his potential in school he needs assistance from a 1-1 teacher and constant supervision throughout the day. If he had someone to keep him focused and keep reminding him of the rules and what is expected of him I think he would thrive in school. Ashton can be a danger to himself and to the other children in the class if he does not have constant supervision. If Ashton had help he could happily take part in crafts as he would have the help holding the paper etc.

If Ashton had 1-1 support he could easily get his sensory diet done daily which would hopefully have a marked affect on his behaviour.

For Ashton to reach the curriculum to his potential he will need assistance to help him stay seated in his seat rather than climbing on it or balancing it on the table.

Ashton will need help to calm him down when he get sextremely distressed and emotional for various different reasons, he needs help to refrain him from lashing out at the class or diving on them when he goes into roleplaymode but most of all to keep him safe in school and out of dangerous activities.

My concerns if Ashton does not get 1-1 support is that he will get so frustrated not being able to manage that he will seriously harm himself. He has already got so annoyed that he was not able to cut the paper himself that he took to cutting his shirt. If Ashton is left for any longer without support it is going to h\ave a major effect on his and possibly the rest of his class' eduction. Also, it could result in Ashton no longer enjoing school and it nearly becoming a punishment to go to school.[/font]

 

 

I don't know, I am not very good at writing things like this. I think I am just rambling??

Anybody got any constructive criticism? I really could do with it.

Edited March 22, 2011 by mummycanhandleit

[Kathryn]

Hi

 

So you are appealing against a refusal to do a Statutory Assessment.

 

Don't worry, you've made a good start! It helps to divide your case into two parts for this kind of appeal.

 

1)You firstly need to show that your son has significant (and possibly unexplored)difficulties which affect his ability to learn and make adequate progress at school.

 

2)Secondly you need to show that the school have provided all the help it possibly can, but this help hasn't been enough and the problems are still there. It is therefore likely that the Education Authority (the Board I think you call them?) may have to provide the extra help through a statement.

 

I think you've addressed point 1 very well in your draft, but maybe you need to talk more about point 2. It's important to describe what extra help the school and other agencies have been giving your son so far. Has he been getting some 1-1 support for example, if so, who has been giving it, how long for and what was its purpose?

 

A logical way of writing it out could be under the following headings:

 

My child's difficulties

How they affect him in school

What extra help the school have given him so far

Why this help hasn't been enough

What my child needs now

 

Remember though there's no single right way to do this and this is just my opinion - others may come along with different ideas. Tribunal panels are expert at dealing with cases presented in a wide range of ways. You don't have to write a perfect essay! You'll have plenty of time to provide more information so don't worry if you don't include everything you want to say at this point.

 

More important than what you say here will be the quality of the evidence you can provide to back it up. IPSEA have a very good self help "refusal to assess" pack on their website: it explains the whole process and provides suggestions for the kind of evidence you will need. Although it is written to help parents in England/Wales, the process of gathering your evidence and making your case will be the same for you, so I think you would find it useful as a guide. Do proceed with caution though, and check out any details with someone who is familiar with the process in NI to make sure you're on the right track as Tribunal procedures may differ slightly.

 

Hope that helps for the moment - hang in there, youre doing great!

 

K x

Edited March 23, 2011 by Kathryn

[mummycanhandleit]

Hi, If anyone has help for me here I would great appreciate it. And I mean greatly!!!!!

I am completely stuck on filling in this Notice to Appeal to the Special Needs Disability Tribunal. They turned down his assessment and said that they want Behavioural support to go into him instead. This is for 2 hours a week, how can this possibly help anyone?

 

I have all forms and paperwork here but I don't know what to put in. I am no good with words etc and I am at a total loss. I got great advice on how to set it out........

 

My child's difficulties

How they affect him in school

What extra help the school have given him so far

Why this help hasn't been enough

What my child needs now

 

which is great but I have no clue what to say in each part.

The school has told me to say things about home too, like how his sleep pattern is so bad and him getting up so early could have a direct effect in school etc.

 

Has anyone got a link or anything that would show me an example someone has put online? Just so it is a guide that I can follow and use all there big words I would love to know what legal issues I can refer to.

 

A big thanks to you all for taking your time to help,

mummycanhandleit xxxxx

Edited March 31, 2011 by mummycanhandleit

[Kathryn]

Hi mummy can handleit,

 

I've merged your topics as you started a very similar one a little while ago.

 

Here's the link to the IPSEA self- help Refusal to Assess pack.

 

http://www.ipsea.org.uk/AssetLibrary/Downloadable%20documents/IPSEArefusaltoassesspack_v2.1.pdf

 

This is probably the best online advice you'll get and gives you all the legal stuff you'll need. Don't worry about that too much though - any tribunal panel is very experienced in teasing out the legal issues from cases which are presented in a variety of ways - you don't have to be a legal expert. No one can tell you what to say about your own child - you're his best advocate and only you can go into detail about the difficulties. So tell it like it is and have confidence in yourself!

 

K x

Edited March 31, 2011 by Kathryn

[mummycanhandleit]

That's great Kathryn, I am just really struggling to put it into words? It is really hard, I didn't think the appendix A was as hard as this.

 

I go over Ipsea again, I have went over it and over but still come out at a loss.

Thanks again for your time,