Lunchtime Problem

[yorks]

Any advice on this would be very much appreciated. My step son aged 11 yr is in a mainstream primary with a statement of 30hrs per week. Break times and lunchtime are the most difficulty part of the day for him with lots of incidents of aggression etc. The school are now saying that my husband and I need to have him home at lunchtime!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We both work full-time. I'm at a loss with them really because I keep saying that they're getting fulltime funding so why do we need to step in. Any ideas anyone?

 

Many Thanks Yorks

[Sally44]

I seem to remember you moved house, and that meant your new LA did not want to pay the fees of his special school and they re-assessed and stated that mainstream could meet his needs?

 

So the Statement says 30 hours support or full time support?

Does it say anything in the Statement about support during lunchtimes/breaktimes?

 

There are a number of ways you could approach it. I'm sure others will post.

 

Firstly see what the Statement provision and wording is.

If that is not being provided you may have a case for Judicial Review.

But first you should raise concerns with school and LA as ultimately the LA are responsible for funding the Statement.

Has the school written to you asking for you to have him during dinnertimes?

If not can you either ask them to put that request in writing. Or write to them saying something like "Further to our telephone con/discussion/meeting you have asked that we take xxxx home for lunchtimes because school cannot meet his needs during unstructured free time. You have told me xxx, xxx and xxx has happened (which should be documented in the school incident book).

The Statement says that my son will be supported full time. Can you please explain how you are achieving this if you are asking us to take xxx home every day during lunchtime.

Do you think that an emergency review is needed.

 

When you get the response from school you can send a similar letter to the LA.

 

I presume that at his former school they were not having these problems, or the staff were able to support him during these times? Do you have that in writing in their reports or recommendations of what they provided for xxxx?

 

Contact his previous school again and ask them for advice and ask them if they could put something in writing to you (if you feel that would be helpful).

 

You need to think about what you are trying to achieve. You could use Judicial Review to get the provision provided at his current placement. Or you could seek an emergency review to seek a different special placement. What placement do you think he needs?

 

Obviously a re-assessment means that any or all of the Statement could be changed. But if the LA stated they could meet his needs mainstream, I think this is a good opportunity to demonstrate that they cannot. Would the school now support you and state that they cannot meet his needs?

 

Apart from these times, how is he doing in class? Is he happy and calm in school (and at home). Is he making progress? Is he getting the therapy detailed in his Statement from SALT or OT?

 

Have school sought advice from the EP?

 

It is not right what they are asking you to do. It demonstrates that they are not coping with him. Which is why he was in a special school previously. So it backs up your case, if you were seeking a change of school.

 

And it might be worth seeking the change now rather than letting them carry on because you still have the information from his previous school to compare him with. What you don't want is for him to be referred to a behavioural unit that is totally inappropriate as his behaviour maybe directly related to his needs not being met.

[Kathryn]

Don't agree to have him home at lunchtime - you're making a rod for your own back. This would amount to an illegal exclusion and potential disability discrimination and goes against the guidance: there is even a bit in the exclusion guidance about not sending home children with conditions such as autism or ADHD purely for that reason. He's entitled to be in school - breaktimes and lunchtimes are times when a lot of valuable learning of social skills could take place, it's not right to exclude him from these.

 

 

Look at the support he's getting - if he could cope without it for short periods in the classroom can some of the 30 hrs be redeployed to cover the unstructured times? Could things be done to identify the trigger points and stop these incidents happening in the first place? What active steps are the school taking to help him manage his behaviour? Do they need support from Behaviour Management, ASD team or Ed Psych?

 

I think full time support is something like 32.5 hrs - if he needs this then it would be a good idea to request an interim or early review to discuss it (preferably a full early review as this would trigger your appeal rights afterwards). If your annual review is fairly soon you could just wait for that.

 

In the meantime gather your evidence to show that there are difficulties - record what is happening in writing and conduct as much communication as you can in writing.

 

K x

[yorks]

Thanks so so much ladies. I can't thank you both enough once again for the valuable help you have given me. I know other people are struggling on here with many more problems than us but I am heading very close to a nervous breakdown and I just don't know what to do. I know full well I probably will have to take them to Tribunal because I still can't understand how one authority said in Part 4 of his Statement that he should be in a BESD special school he then moves to us 3 months later and our authority says no can do and gives mainstream and basically tells us to get on with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The SENCO himself has told me that the Behav Support teacher in our area is useless!!!! and they still have sought no advice from Ed Psych. We've got an IEP meeting July so sorry to be a pest but any ideas how I should prepare for this?

 

Amanda (yorks)

[sesley]

write all your concerns down,so that you get oppertunities to put what you want to say across. Is there someone that can go with you to support you?

[Sally44]

At the MEP they should say whether he has met his targets on the previous MEP and should set new targets. You can ask someone from the Local Authority Parent Partnership to come to this meeting.

Targets should be SMART (the PP should know about this and how to word them).

 

Regarding your son's placement. He has been moved mainstream because it costs less money. Do you think you'll ask for an interim review?

 

Have you got anything from the school about them asking you to take him home lunchtimes?

 

How is he coping in school and at home?

 

You can ask school what outside professionals they have contacted since they are struggling to cope with xxxx during lunchtimes. If they haven't you can ask them why. All schools have a budget for Educational Psychology, Speech and Language Therapist, Autism Advisory Teacher. Does his Statement quantify input from any of these professionals? If not they still should contact them (and you need a legally worded Statement).

 

When you moved and the LA first mentioned mainstream you would have been able to use Judicial Review, now you can't because there is a new amended Statement. When did the new LA amend the Statement?

 

If your son is not coping at home (or school), you can also ask your GP or the Developmental Paediatrician for a referal to Clinical Psychology or CAHMS. These professionals should also help you with supporting letters/reports if you do go to Tribunal again.

 

You can also ask the school to complete a CAF assessment for Social Services to become involved to offer you some respite or direct payments. It is useful to apply for all these things because it PROVES that you need them and the Tribunal Panel will look more seriously at children who are also receiving input from Clinical Psychology, CAHMS and SS. I know it is just more work to do, but it is worth doing and you will get reports for free from these professionals.

 

The thing is that your new LA is not going to offer an appropriate school. If they wanted to, they would have done that when you moved. They haven't, so you are back in the system again.

 

How old are the reports that said he needed a BESD school?

 

TBH, although the MEP is important, I would get PP involved to help with that. But the most important thing is that he is not in the right placement and things could very quickly deteriorate in school or home - sounds like you may have problems at home already??

Edited May 25, 2011 by Sally44

[av16]

At the school where I work we have a young girl with ASD who really struggles at break/lunch times so we started a Circle of Friends for her which has worked well also the TA who works with her has an early lunch and then runs different activities for her each day- things that she likes to do with a selection of other children, not the same ones each day. This is a reasonable adjustment and they should be able to do something similar for your son. We have some boys in yr 6 with statements for behaviour, they also do activities at lunchtime with a male TA such as football, basketball, cricket & street dance!These are the things they are interested in and other children are keen to join in with them. The TA is from an agency, I've found that they often seem to work in a more flexible way than-in-house' TAs.

Think of some things your son would like to do and suggest something similar, see what they say... It can be done and it helps everyone so good luck