proposed statement has arrived

[clair]

Hi,

Today came the proposed statement for my son. It said on it,Severe and Complex needs relating to Emotional Social and Behavioural Difficulties. They have put things like the speech therapy in it, the fact he has a language delay of two years and the fact that some of his reading writing and numeracy skills are all in the 3rd percentile,4th percentile and 8th percentile in the tests that they do. They have written in that he has 90 second concentration span on his own and that when given 1-1 support this can go up to 10-15 minutes but with him being very tired at the end of the session. He does not have a diagnosis yet but they have continually mention social interaction problems and communication throughout and they have said how they will deal with this. They have not however mentioned in this proposed statement how many hours support he should recieve or the level of funding, but they have written that when I tell them which school he should attend they will tell me in the final statement. Is this right, how can I ring these schools up to enquire if I cant tell them how much they will recieve. Any help gladly appreciated. Can everyone get out their proposed statements and let me know if they are the same?

Thanks Clair

[oracle]

From my 'very' limited knowledge of Statements I do know that any provision should be specified and quantified. If it is not then the Statement is usally worth little more than the paper used to print it on.

 

Give IPSEA a ring they will help you.

 

Carole

[CarerQuie]

My son's proposed Statement didn't specify hours etc because the LEA surmised (correctly) that we were going to request a Special School placement.They don't quantify the hours because they are supported all the time.xx

[tizzmeclare]

Hi Clair,

 

My son's proposed statement also came yesterday. This is my first experience of recieving one, so I can't give you much help, but I just wanted to mention that my son's did say how many points he gets ( points equal cash to the school) and he is to recieve 20, which is excellent I am told, as they only go up to a maximum of 24.

 

The school inform me that this is more than enough for him to attend full-time ( he is only part-time at present) and they seemed really pleased, although the SENCO still supports us in the fact that main-stream is not the place for our son.

 

The proposal does lay out exactly what the provision is to be and that it must be measurable.

 

My concern is that although I am asked to suggest a school for my son, both the school and the LEA case officer have both told me that I must agree with his present school being the named choice, as I've got no hope of getting him into the correct school, until they have tried this level of assistance in mainstream...is this true or should I stick to what I belive in and ask for a place in an appropriate school now?

 

Regards, tizz.

[Helen]

Clair,

 

My son's draft Statement specified full time support - I made my LEA aware of my choice of school when I compiled my parental representations.

[CarerQuie]

You are entitled to name whatever School you wish,along with your reasons.xx

[tizzmeclare]

Hi,

 

I phoned most of the special schools in the local area today, which I thought might suit my son's needs. I was suprised to hear that several of them, thought that he would not have a low enough ability to met their criteria, but quiet rightly could not be certain without knowing all his details.

 

But not one of them had a single place! - so I guess the SENCO and the LEA officer were right - there's not a hope in hell of me getting him into a special school yet.

 

The case officer suggested, that once my son is reviewed in Y5, it would be noted that mainstream is not the correct place for him and that would give her 18months to find the right place....argggggggg they make me so mad....why should he have to wait that long.

 

 

vent over...tizz

[oracle]

Oh please do not get me started. Your LEA and SENCO are not right they are trying to make you believe that they are and that is a different thing altogether to 'being right' You could phone IPSEA and get some help to fight them and their rightness.

 

If mainstream is not the correct place for him in year five how come it is now? We are at this very moment taking on our LEA for a Mum in our group in a similar position. She wants a Special School placement now. She may well have to fight and present a case but she may also win her case. IPSEA are really good people to give you advise on this.

 

Carole

[LKS]

Hi I've got 2 statemented children and I thought I was getting really good at checking them , but I have failed miserably with my sons recently. However thats a different story. Daughter's statement says support to meet *****'s sen will be the equivalent of 25 hours of learning support assistance per week to be used flexibly by the school in order to implement the learning programmes as outlined above. Additional funding to meet the provision will be allocated by the LEA through its SEN funding formula, in addition to what the school is expected to provide at school action plus. S& lt and input from the specialist teacher for Autistic spectrum disorders is mentioned in part 6 non educational provision. I have mentioned before that I have no idea what the school is expected to provide at school action plus. The funding that is equvalent to 25 hours of L.S.A. support can be used for extra teaching time. I don't know but it all seems a bit wooly to me

[Zemanski]

here's a bit I posted earlier

 

all the funding issues are not your responsibility

 

anything in part 3 of the statement must be provided by law and the LEA is responsible for this even if they devolve funding to the school, how it is funded is not supposed to be our concern but LEAs often try to make us feel responsible.

 

Unfortunately the devolved funding can mean schools finding quite large sums from their own budgets but if the school has a problem with the funding then that is between them and the LEA who are ultimately responsible for meeting the needs and providing the provision in the statement.

 

no school can refuse a child a place on funding issues and schools and LEAs don't have any right to refuse a child with a statement a place the parents have asked to be named in the statement unless schedule 27 of the education act can be applied:

 

ie. if placing the child in the school

will be an inefficient use of resources (LEAs do try to argue this one particularly if you want an out of authority school or independent)

or

will interfer with the education of other pupils

 

(sorry not a quote)

 

allocations are usually made by the LEA (except where the school is under other admission rules such as catholic schools) so schools don't have much say in the matter

 

LEAs may try to avoid giving you your preference but ultimately the law says they have to give it unless there are very good reasons and a tribunal will usually back that up if the LEA really digs its heels in.

Schedule 27 is only really designed to stop people being unreasonable in their requests - like asking for an expensive private school when there really is one within the LEA that would do just as well.

 

so go right ahead and check out all the schools you want - they will need to have some idea about what provision your son needs but you don't need to consider funding and they shouldn't need to raise it.

 

If a school does quibble over funding be a bit wary though - it sometimes tells you they might not be as cooperative as you might like over provision.

 

hope that helps

 

Zemanski