Autism Primary Centres - Resource bases

[Andy]

Hello All,

 

I am trying to find what criteria a centre must meet to be classed as 'a specialist learning centre for autistic children', or the recent 'Autism Resource Base'.

 

The titles give parents the perception that there are likely to be staff more experienced with ASD pupils, and that the school/centre will be more geared to coping with the difficulties that ASD pupil may present. I am just curious to how this is measured, and how often it is re-evaluated?

 

My main worries are that the centre that DS attends (which in previous years had a very good reputation) has lost the two most experienced staff, and have replaced them with a solitary TA with very little experience. This follows them losing the weekly SaLT therapist visitor last year, which he discretley informed us,- was a funding issue.

 

I am suspicious that the LEA are slowly but surely reducing services and costs, in quite an underhand manner, no doubt that some point int the future they will close the centre due to a reducation in parents seeking placements for their ASD children, in this once "specialist Centre".

Edited December 14, 2011 by Andy

[Sally44]

This is an issue very close to my heart.

 

Local Authorities like to use certain words like "specialist" "autism centre" to help reassure parents. It does not necessarily mean anything.

 

What is important is whether your son has a Statement of Special Educational Needs. That is the ONLY SEN legal document.

 

As you have found out the school/LA has a budget and can cut funds, which affects services and provision/support. BUT if provision is quantified and specified in a Statement of SEN, the school/LA CANNOT alter it unless there has been an Annual Review, and the relevent professional has said xxxx no longer needs x, y and z, or that the provision can be reduced.

 

If provision is in a Statement, and is not being provided, you complain to the LA, and if they don't rectify it, you can use Judicial Review, which would make an Order which would force the LA to provide that provision.

 

That is because the LA is responsible to fund Statements. So eventhough the overall funding level may reduce for the school/LA budget generally, the funding to deliver the Statement has to be provided BY LAW.

 

That is why schools/LAs often try to fob of parents by saying "you don't need a Statement because your child will receive the support they need without it and we have a specialist unit ... blah, blah, blah.

 

But as you have discovered, they can reduce/remove provision/support whenever they want, if the child does not have a Statement.

 

We have recently been to an educational tribunal and we won our case, and got the independent placement we were asking for.

 

As preparation for that tribunal I did alot of information searching of our local authority and of the school.

 

I asked the school how many of the teachers had an additional qualification for autism - none of them did.

 

I wrote to the LA Educational Psychology and Specialist Teaching Services, and asked them how many of their specialist outreach teachers had an additional qualification for autism - none of them did. Simply because it is not a legal requirement.

 

My son also has dyslexia, and no-one at the school, or within the specialist teaching services had an additional qualification [up to level 7 to teach and assess] for dyslexia.

 

So by "educational law" [which applies to the Statementing process], the school and LA could not meet my sons needs without buying in that extra provision.

 

At the time we went to tribunal my son already had a Statement, which had been re-assessed by the LA and alot of the provision removed from it [deliberately], which is why we appealed.

 

The original Statement quantified and specified how much speech and language therapy he would get from a qualificated speech therapist. That was for an hour a week. And I know that my son was receiving more direct 1:1 speech therapy than any other child in the mainstream school, and more than any child in their "specialist" autism unit.

 

Generally the SALT service was a termly review [which could even be over the phone and not even in school], with a TA delivering the programme in school.

 

So the only reason my son received the level of SALT that he did was because it was specified in his Statement.

 

So you need to get a Statement for your child. You get a Statement by asking your local authority to carry out a Statutory Assesement for a Statement of Special Educational Needs.

 

You don't need anyone to agree that he needs a Statement before you make that request. Parents can request it themselves with or without the support of the school.

 

The Local Authority can refuse to assess - and you can appeal that.

 

The Local Authority can assess and refuse to issue a Statement - and you can appeal that decision too.

 

The Local Authority can issue a useless, unspecific Statement that is not legally binding - and you MUST appeal that.

 

Many authorities automatically refuse to assess and use it as a screening measure to weed out those parents who don't know, or don't feel they can Appeal. So ALWAYS appeal.

 

The Statement is usually a cut and paste job of reports produced by the NHS and the LA professionals eg. educational psychologist. As provision = money, it is not surprising that their reports often don't quantify and specify because that saves them money.

 

When you have asked for an assessment, you can find out WHO the educational psychologist and speech therapist will be assessing your child. You can talk to them and follow it up with a written clarification of what was discussed and agreed.

 

From now on put everything in writing, and don't accept anything verbally, ask for it in writing. You need everything in writing incase you do have to Appeal. You have to have documentary evidence.

 

You must ask the EP and SALT to carry out "standardised assessments". These are assessments that will give a baseline percentile/age/standard score from which you can measure progress. Because if a child does not make progress the level of provision/therapy/support has to be increased.

 

You must ask them to "identify each and every need" [this is in the SEN Code of Practice - which you must also get and read]. And you must also ask them to "quantify and specify the provision for each need" [again that is in the SEN Code of Practice].

 

There is a set timescale for this process from start to finish [26 weeks].

 

When you receive the Proposed Statement you need to go over it with a fine toothcomb. There is an organisation www.ace-ed.org.uk, which has a good section on applying for a Statement and getting the Statement right.

 

If the Statement is not good, you can negotiate with the LA. But don't spend alot of time on this. Tell the LA to finalise the Statement so that you can Appeal.

 

You must appeal within a certain timeframe, and it maybe in your interests to seek independent professional reports that will identify every need and which will quantify and specify.

 

You may require those professionals to attend any Educational Tribunal as expert witness so that the Tribunal Panel can ask questions of them, as well as the LA professionals who will sit on the LA side.

 

Obviously independent reports costs money. The best time to use them is to get the right secondary school placement.

 

There are independent, approved as well as mainstream secondary schools.

 

My son now goes to one of the SENAD group of schools, which is independent ASD specific school for children with average cogntive ability.

 

Your LA WILL be funding children in these types of school. You can ask your LA for their list of maintained, approved and independent schools for children with an ASD.

 

We chose the independent school because we could prove that it was the ONLY school that could meet my sons needs. And we even had to request that an additional specialist dyslexia teacher was employed by this independent school to meet his needs.

 

The Tribunal Panel agreed with us, and Ordered that he was placed at the SENAD school and that a dyslexia teacher was employed for 3 hours a week to go into his school and work with him on a 1:1 basis.

 

He also has daily/weekly 1:1 with the on site SALT and OT.

 

If your son has sensory processing disorder I am 100% sure that your NHS OT service will not provide a sensory integration programme of direct therapy. The NHS simply does not fund it. If you have an OT report that states he has sensory processing disorder he MUST receive therapy for this.

 

I asked our NHS Community OT service to confirm IF they provided a direct sensory integration therapy and they confirmed in writing that they did not. That was another reason that we won the placement of our choice. That school has OTs on site and they do deliver sensory integration programmes, which my son is now, finally, receiving. He is also getting a OT programme for Dyspraxia - which the NHS OT failed to identify as a need for over 3 years simply because they don't provide any therapy for it. Again this was a need that could only be provided at his independent school placement. And these were all arguments that SEN Law states MUST be met in the placement. That is why we won the placement of our choice.

 

Hope that explains things??

 

Special Educational Needs law is LAW. It is irrelevent what the LA or school criteria, budget or funding is. It is the LAW that has to be applied. But it ONLY applies to Statements. Without a Statement you really don't have a leg to stand on legally.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Sally44

[Sally44]

If you do decide to use independent professionals, the timing is important.

 

You want their reports to be the most up to date ones.

 

Let the LA finalise the Statement and then put in your Appeal.

 

You can start looking for the independent professionals you may need/want to use now.

 

Typically an Educational Psychologist and Speech Therapist are the most important. But you may need others such as an Occupational Therapist. They are not cheap. And you must use ones that have expertise in writing reports for Tribunals, and who also have experience of attending Tribunals as expert witnesses.

 

You ideally want their reports to be submitted as part of your Appeal just before the deadline of submitting informtion for the Appeal. This makes it difficult for the LA side to re-assess [as there should typically be a 6 months period inbetween assessments].

 

I know it sounds all very cut and dagger. But believe me, the LA know what they are doing. They deal with alot of SEN children, Statements and Appeals. They will try to cut down the provision they need to provide as much as possible to save them money.

 

Unfortunately they are not child centred. So if you provided independent reports now, and submitted them as part of your request for a Statement, that would give the LA time to have your son re-assessed as part of any Appeal, and not surprisingly they may state that your son does not now need the level of support or provision the independent reports specified.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Sally44

[Andy]

Wow, Thank you for such a detailed reply! I was reading your post yesterday about your recent success at tribunal and was simply stunned by the amount of hard work you needed to put in to get that result. Well done you!

 

We are fortunate in that DS does have a statatement, but unfortunate in that it is very vague. I created another post about challenging this.

 

It seems you have already asked questions from your LEA that i am just beginning to understand, i need to ask; the qualifications, experience and quantifying the provision.

 

There is a lot to digest in your reply, and i need some time to take it all in.

 

Many thanks, i really appreciate the details and pointers you have given me.

 

Andy

Edited December 14, 2011 by Andy

[Sally44]

To get a better idea of what the "resource" centre actually provides, ask the school what the difference is between mainstream and the Resource centre.

 

Ask them if any of the staff have extra ASD qualifications.

 

Ask them if any provision is ringfenced eg. SALT/EP budget [because the school does have a budget for this]. However it relies on the school "referring" the child to that professional, and often that never happens. It never happened with my son. His school kept saying he was making good progress and that they had no concerns and therefore he was never referred.

 

BUT if the Statement quantifies the time an EP or SALT must be in school working with, or assessing your child, then the LA has to fund that.

 

Also ask about 'envirionmental' differences eg. the resource unit maybe considered "low arousal" and "small group".

 

If you have a Statement you can wait for an Annual Review, and at that meeting state what you want to be included in the Statement. If it is not amended, or even if it is amended, and even if it is, or isn't amended for the things you want - you now have the right to Appeal about ANY part of the Statement ie. Section 2, 3 or 4.

 

You can ask for a re-assessment of the Statement, and that would allow the LA to ask everyone to assess again, but you may find that things currently in the Statement may get removed. Which would mean you would have to Appeal.

 

But basically, although LA's may amend Statements without any professional advice to do so, if you go to an Appeal the LA has to have professional reports stating that your child was re-assessed and they found that they no longer needed 1 hour a week 1:1 Speech Therapy etc.

 

If you Appeal the LA can conceded at any time - even at the beginning of the actual Tribunal hearing.

 

Independent reports are very useful to initially get a baseline assessment of where your child's skill sets are at. Then you can ask for your child to be assessed by the EP and SALT as part of each following Annual Review [and the Statement can specify this - my son's did - and it can specify that they have to attend Annual Reviews and IEPs].

 

But what we found was that the NHS Speech Therapist said that he had improved and that she could therefore reduce the amount of hours she spent with him - yet she had emailed me and told me that she spent "significantly more time" on my son than was specified in his Statement.

 

The Statement has to be a "true reflection" of a child's needs, and the provision required to meet those needs.

 

My independent Speech Therapist also pointed out that the NHS SALT had only carried out certain aspects of the Standardised Assessment that were aimed at things he was quite good at. When the full assessment was done, and the results fed through to a final chart which gave a detailed result as to where and whether there had been progress, the results confirmed that his speech disorder had deteriorated from moderate/severe to severe/profound!

 

There is also a very specific sub-test in the standardised assessment [cannot remember if it is part of Celf 4 or ACE], but it is called "formulated sentences". This is a specific test which states that the outcome gives a clear indication of how a child would manage in a classroom, learning environment. My son scored 2, and a year later scored 1. 3 is classed as severe. Yet in other subtests he scored 15 [where 8-13 is considered average].

 

So you really need a professional to carry out the full test [as far as possible] to give a good indication of the childs skill sets. Each sub-test is aimed at a different skill set.

 

Go about your "information gathering" as informally as you can, because if anyone thinks you are about to use this information, they can become very vague in their answers.

[Sally44]

If you don't want to wait for an Annual Review you can ask for a re-assessment, or an emergency review.

 

I'm not sure about the powers of an "interim review". I would check that because I'm not sure if you have the right of appeal after an interim review.

[Sally44]

Another thing that is worth considering is to carry out a Data Protection Act search. But only do this if you are looking for evidence as part of an Appeal. Best to wait until the year 6 phased transfer review outcome.

 

A Data Protection Act search would give you access to all the paper and electronic file notes on your son.

 

You have to send it to the school, the LA, and each hospital where any professional that has met your son is based. You can be charged up to £50 for each search. But it can be very interesting what you find in file notes. But this is a really a trump card to use once [because once you've done it it is unlikely they leave any incriminating notes again!].

 

We got a few good pieces of evidence from this search. There was also alot of evidence missing eg. the school saying they had sought advice. But nothing was on the school file, or the EP file or the SALT file. There was no evidence of a multi team approach.

 

I did find an email that had been generated by the LA and circulated to the school, EP, SALT and OT which stated that they had worded certain parts of the original Statement in such a way that "legally" they were covered and did not have to provide it. So they had deliberately set out to frustrate the whole point of the Statementing process. So please don't doubt that your LA do knew exactly what they are doing when they issued you with a weak unspecific Statement.

 

Don't be afraid to write to the professionals or the Head of Departments to ask them specific questions.

 

If you ever go to a Tribunal, the LA/School usually turn up and say they will do everything to meet the Statement. But they never inform parents or the Tribunal that they have no teachers qualified with an additional ASD qualification. No Dyslexia qualified teachers. No direct OT therapy for Dyspraxia or Sensory Processing Disorder.

 

They may have only one SALT for the whole of the LA's schools. The autism advisory teacher may have a caseload of over 200 children.

 

When you find out these facts, it becomes very clear that the LA/school cannot provide the provision to meet your child's needs.

 

If your child has not made progress with Speech and communication [which MUST also include social communication, social interaction, play skills, emotional recognition in themselves and others], and the school has not referred your child - and the Statement does not specify SALT hours - then the Panel at the Tribunal will quantify the time the SALT must spend on those needs.

 

But will the NHS SALT [or any professional] even identify each and every need? Not in my experience.

 

Do you want him to stay where he is?

 

In my experience, I found that even if you get the Statement right, that the school/LA will try to reduce provision at the Annual Review IF they can.

 

That is why I am so relieved he is now placed at an independent special school, because all the professional input is provided as standard. So it won't get reduced or removed.

 

Anyway, good luck with it all.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Sally44

[butterfly73]

Well... I should be a specialist, as for my profession.. though I'd like to add that, imho, loads of what professionals are taught doesn't quite mix with what I've learned

so far from my own perception and that of other grown people with AS:

 

* I'm supposed to teach eye contact for it's a basic in communication..

* I'm supposed to encourage interaction with several kids..

* I'm supposed to encourage a kid to speak..

 

I don't do that, well: not in the sense that I was taught

I try and let the kid feel at ease, I make room for answers, but don't expect anything..

I explain why eye contact is seen as functional in interaction

 

My main goals are: trust and respect.. with that, overall a more normal (and less impacting in retrospect!) development will come!

 

In my eyes, there should be more attention for the sensory differences:

In one school one of my kids is seen as an HSP.. they perceive him as a miracle!!

In another a kid with simular sensitivities has the diagnosis AS.. he's seen a burden in the class

If only teachers would just lóók instead of interpret.. (sorry this always gets me all riled up, and I'm not even a parent, yet..!)

 

Do you see the difference?!

I totally agree with Covey: "the approach of the 'problem' ís the problem!"

Edited December 14, 2011 by butterfly73