Is your SEN Provision Very Good?

[oracle]

deleted

Edited October 30, 2006 by oracle

[Malika]

Hello Carole and to all.

I am new to the groupe and quite glad to express my view on my son sen provision, very poor in fact as it seems that where I live only few professional "believe" in Autism at least in my son autism he has been diagnosed last september after 2 years struggle with the school, he is nearly 8 years old and had 18 month speech delay at the age of 5. I have yesterday recieved the answer from the Sendist that they have dismiss my appeal for statutory assesment, on various ground like discrepancy between the NDT assesment and the EP assesment. Well I am still in shock wondering what to do, we do not have enough money to go for hight court proceding, and it seems so odd to have to go to hight court to obtain an assesment. I feel quite numb now after crying so much for the last two days, if just I could find a solution please any idea is welcome. Thanks Malika. :

[bid]

I answered 'yes', because my son is at a residential special school.

 

If you had asked me this last year when he had just come out of mainstream I would have screamed 'NO'!!

 

Bid

[darky]

ive answered no because my children are in mainstream with little or no help at all because "acedemicaly" they are deemed satisfactory!

[Elanor]

I voted no - we've had very little provision, and only got this much after much effort.

[oracle]

deleted

Edited October 30, 2006 by oracle

[CarerQuie]

I have voted 'yes' because my son's provision is excellent.However,I had a real battle to secure the provision I wanted and suspect that my answer could have been very different if the LEA had got their way.xx

[lisa]

Malika, we're in the same situation. The tribunal dismissed our appeal in March due to my daughter doing ok academically. It's incredibly frustrating, we feel there's no where for us to go, I don't think the high court is an option for us either. Our only option seems to be to continue gathering evidence and keep trying. If we apply for assessment in September the LEA will turn us down again and we'll have to go through the whole appeals process again which even IF we do win could take longer than a year. In the the meantime our daughter (and us!!) is suffering.

 

Jacquie Smith's claim is outrageous. I don't know anyone that's happy with their child's SEN provision!! She needs to come to our borough and talk to a few parents. There's a child in our school with severe learning and social difficulties, he's 9, he can't even write his name and won't speak to anyone but he only gets 10 hours support per week. Our LEA has even refused a special school for my friends downs syndrome child, who is 12 years old, doesn't speak, has a mental age of 4 and they want her to go the local secondary school which has an intake of 390 children per year!!!! Her mum is so stressed she's now decided that she's going to take her daughter out of the school system altogether. I bet the LEA are really rubbing their hands together at that one. Think of all the money they'll save. Does Jacquie Smith have any children?

 

Lisa

[Colin_and_Shelagh]

'No'.

 

Because Patrick is very bright and is not disruptive (he does wander around the classroom sometimes) he is not deemed to need regular support - this is in spite of the fact that he is hopelessly disorganised. He is School Action Plus.

 

So we are not at all happy. Any help is ad hoc. He is fortunate to have a very supportive and understanding teacher this year, but he begins high school in September and we are dreading it.

[Zemanski]

even with Com's statement provision is very patchy - the senco sticks to the letter of the statement (when she bothers to stick to it at all) which means although he gets his full time one to one it isn't always appropriate support, he has too many LSAs with little or no training and his provision for small group work 'as appropriate' is a half hour a week in his lunch time otherwise he is on full, unadapted, mainstream timetable except for maths where the head of maths interpreted 'to be taught at his level' as giving him a GCSE book and leaving him to it at the back of the class!

 

We are currently in negotiations with the head teacher (who likes and is intrigued by Com because he reminds her so much of her own son!) with the support of the autism advisor to make the provision more appropriate.

 

hopefully there will be much more for him in Sept. - AS level maths with a small sixth form group plus one to one for 15 mins a week to ensure he is properly extended (he's 13), anxiety management and cognitive behaviour therapy from an expert in autism/AS (the advisor has just started this herself), time off timetable to fit in some extras like time for assessments that he doesn't get round to because he works slowly in school, life skills, OT, and finally AS specific training for staff with an emphasis on his specific needs and difficulties.

 

As I said this is currently under negotiation and we are going to ask for the statement to be tightened up so more of it will be clear and legally binding.

 

The problem is basically a wet blanket of a senco who has no influence over teachers or management and little knowledge of ASDs - doesn't seem to want it either - (she's on a steep learning curve just now and the head is making sure she does what she's told)

 

fortunately the head is excellent and listens to the advisor so it does look like we might be happier next year

 

Zemanski

[Kazzen161]

I voted re: my youngest son - he is mainstream secondary, on SA+, and all I ever hear is there is no money or not enough LSA'a.

 

Re: my eldest - his provsion is good cos he is in an independent specialist school, but it took a year of fighting and the intervention of my MP to get it.

 

Karen

[Suze]

Hi ,I voted yes ......my son has a statement.Compared to some on the forum we fare very well.However between what is in a statement and laid out by the LEA ....and what is actually acted upon by the school things can go very wrong!My sons school have been excellent regarding his emotional help, this has been down too his lovely teacher and LSA.However there have been chunks in his statement regarding his learning that have never seen the light of day..(my son is several years behind his peers with a high IQ)......SEN in general needs a shake-up generally...

[Malika]

HI Carole and Lisa thank you for your concern this post is to explain a bit more about what Hapened. I had a representative from IPSEA who thought we had a good case, one of the main problem was that the school did not support me but none of their staff had any training in autism, because my son is "high functionning" and he is not a problem I mean that he is well behave, the fact that he does not make any progress in certain area is not an issue. The other factor was the EP report classifying my son at the top 5% of the population respective to cognitive ability except in language/expressiuon and an EP who has not moved on from 25 years ago and still think autistic have emotionnal problem due to poor parenting and langage problem because of bilingual home (she did not openly put her view on paper but there were so many inuendos). In that occasion I think the panel has not been fair as they did not discuss it at the tribunal and did not gave me the oportunity to express my opinion. The school as well put on paper provision not happening any more or which never happened (none of them being tailored for autistic ) and the panel did not record what we said on the day, as well they asked for evidence of sensory motor integretion while we asked an assesment to establish those difficulties. Overall I think the decision was unfair as they privilege the EP report and not the medical report on the ground that the medical report was partly based on questionnaire to the parent (kind of "look at what a fussy mother we got here") while the SEN code of practice always remind of the importance of the parents opinion; beside the law said that if there is a probability that the child needs cannot be met by the school provision then an assesment should be done the law does not say that we need all the evidences but just talk about "probability" Well Carole this is more or less the situation on principle I should fight it and go to Hight Court but I cannot be sure of the outcome and to find a solicitor specialised in education and to be able to finance the case is a much more difficult matter. At least I have learned a lot about autism and SEN. Thank you for your concern I hope your survey will go well.

Malika

PS I think the panel is just following the new government directive "no more assesment no more statement"

[tizzmeclare]

Definately NO NO NO

 

Its been a fight the whole way, and I can't see any change on the horizon! My son still does not have the edcuation provision that he rightly deserves. He has never, not once, been able to fully access the curriculum!

[lisa]

Malika

 

Your case is incredibly similar to ours. The school didn't support us either. We had an excellent rep from IPSEA who really knew his stuff, he'd done loads of tribunals before and was positive we'd win, we had a very strong case. We had five independent professional reports all stating she needed 1:1 help and the LEA had nothing apart from the school's unqualified opinion. I think you made a good point about the tribunal following government directive. I'd be interested to see the figures of how many cases to carry out statutory assessment are dismissed by tribunal now compared to previous years.

 

Lisa

[call me jaded]

Malika

 

You need to contact the National Autistic Society advocacy for education service. They have links with a firm of solicitors (Clifford Chance, I think) who can give further help.

[UltraMum]

We had similar problems with an assessment being refused - we've been back again - this time armed with reports from some of the top professionals in the country - assessment took place but it has taken nearly 9 months and the threat of a tribunal to get evne half of what J needs - the LEA have done 'just enough' to make it more of a gamble to go to tribunal to get what we feel he really needs and what was recommened by the experts.

 

I'm tired of fighting ...

[Carol]

At my last case conference the lea & school both put their hands up and admitted that they were failing my son badly - with no quibbling - & we are slowly moving forward from that point - but it has taken me from nursery school aged 4 till now

(nearly 14) to get the educationl needs acknowledged ( due to a late dx after being knocked back to the bottom rung by a cr*p C&FP doc.) & not knowing about wonderful sites like this

 

Where on earth do they get the 80% from - I mean we all know you can get figures to say anything - but she must know the figures have been well massaged to give that sort of statistic out.

 

I will say though that if my son gets one of the options that is on the table then I will be ecstatic about my son's educational needs and it sounds like they will absolutely be getting met - but only after more interminable delays and meetings.

 

Carol

[Colin_and_Shelagh]

Where on earth do they get the 80% from - I mean we all know you can get figures to say anything - but she must know the figures have been well massaged to give that sort of statistic out.

 

I have emailed Jacqui Smith via the DfES website asking for the source of her figures.

 

I will of course post any response on this board!

 

Colin

[Malika]

To Lisa Carol Jaded and to all .

 

Thank you so much for your support I had problems to log in, forgotten my user Id (it is not alzeimer Iam suffering from hypothyroidism) The end of the year has been very difficult for my son his teacher has never managed to make any effort up to the end with continuous comment like "I cannot differenciate, I am sure he will learn how to cope with .... thats what's growing up is all about " I did not felt like saying good bye to her and decided to keep H at home for the last 2 days before the end, the problem is now that I do not know wh.ich teacher he will have next year. Nobody apparently was allowed to tell me until the day before the last.

 

I have in another hand ask my GP to refer H to Great Ormond street Hospital for a second opinion I sometime think that he may suffer from fragile chromosome X,

beside he has no pediatrician and suffer from tics and even complete cut off from the world, in fact I am not sure if he will be refer at all, in the mean time H has b een booked in for OT assesment this will be on Wednesday the 27th. I had been told just before June that there is one year waiting list (that was before going to the sendist) then after I have lost my case because of lack of evidence they call me for an appointment can't really understand what's going on if this is coming from my GP trying not to refer him...??????

 

Well I suppose we are allowed to take a break from time to time but not to give up, so the battle will have to continue until something more positive happens.

 

Thanks to all of you this site is great at last I am not alone.

 

Malika.

[oracle]

deleted

Edited October 30, 2006 by oracle

[smallworld]

Hi Malika,

I second Carole's post !

Can I ask why you feel that your son may have fragile x ?

We had the chromosone test done shortly after my youngest son's dx (at 4) Our paed thought it was a possibilty because of his joint laxity. She didn't ask if there was a family history of double-jointedness/hypermobility. (only me and eldest son in our whole family) She also remarked that he didn't have the usual large head (his father does, and I'm being serious here about him for a change !)

I'd convinced myself he had this condition, and of course the test came back negative.

She had asked me if there was any history of learning disabilty in elder members of the family. I didn't know of any but remember a few eccentrics !

There are a few more indicators, mainly about facial characteristics, and a drop off in learning ability around puberty.

At 4, we obviously couldn't know about these.

 

wac

[Malika]

Hi to all

 

I had the first part of H assesment with the OT about H physical problems : low musle tone, flexible joints, poor balance, difficulties in controlling his muscles strength and his fingers grips , the OT was amazed about how much I understood about my son difficulties and told me that I was completly right (too late for the SENDIST ) the next part will be on Tuesday she will test him to understand his perception of space (spacial awarness) I am nearly sure that this is the big problem H cannot see himself in space more open the space around him worst the problem for this reason he his not free to move as he feels scare and unable to control his movement fully.

 

I am not sure at all about H having fragile chromosome X but he has a big head long hears (respective to all people in the family who have them quite small) his jaw seems to close in a different way his lower teeth covering his upper teeth and one of his hand fold in two parts not in three, of course it is not much but I feel that he should be tested just in case I am quite keen as well to find out if a bad fall he had in the bath when he was 3 would not have affected him. Yesterday I just had the confirmation that he will be seen (eventually) by a specialist in Great Ormond Street. I know as well that many professionals do not advive further test when there is a diagnosis of autism however I think when the child is well supported by his parents he won't suffer from it and further test can bring valuable information and even help the child to understand why he his different than his peers, beside H may as well be a good candidate for epilepsy as my brother was suffering from convultion and his father brother was severly epileptic

H had a fit when he was 3 and 1/2 and slight convultion when he had fewer at age 4, hopefully nothing more will happen but I would be reasured if he had a good pediatrician who understand about autism. As for his learning it is too early to say but it seems to me that he is slowing down which could be attributed to the lack of support at school, still it may be better to know.

 

Sorry for such a long post. Let me know your thought and advice, thanks to all it is so nice to feel somebody somewhere is listening.

 

Thanks thanks thanks Malika.

[helenl53]

Hi Guys

 

I am trying to bump this up as I am hoping that the Office of the Shadow Secretary for Education will be casting and eye over the submissions.

 

Thanks

 

helenL

[Flora]

I voted no as both my ASD boy's are in mainstream and receiving no special help at all because they are classed as satisfactory, even though my youngest son is 'working towards level 2' in his end of year 3 SATs. How can that be satisfactory? Also my eldest son is going to repeat year 6 because he is not mature enough to go up to seniors in September. Does that sound satisfactory to anyone here?

 

I'm absolutely fed up with teachers etc telling me that my boy's are 'fine'. They have no idea how demoralising this is for a parent of children with ASD dx's. I am giving them another year to come up with something better or I'm going to opt out of the school system completely and educate them myself at home. I'm not a teacher but at least I haven't got my head buried in the sand which is what the teachers (and politicians) are doing and seem to want us (the parents) to do.

 

It's easy for a teacher in a primary to school to say 'satisfactory'. After all, they won't be the one's picking up the pieces for years to come.

 

Lauren

[Amanda32]

I voted yes as my son have had 1:1 support in a SEN resource base since he was 4 yrs old. He has come on much better since he went into a new school when he reached junior age and have been very pleased with his progress. His teacher as been teaching him for 2 years but in sept will have a new one so hopefully he wont mind the change... up for his school as think they work really well with their special kids...

Take care

Amanda