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[Sazale]

Ive just had a telephone call from my DD's sen case officer at the lea (I didn't know about her till today). She told me my DD's case will go to panel on the 29th May. They had agreed to assess and reports were due in on the 9th May. She asked me about what school I'm thinking of or my dd. she knew I'd been to see the ASD unit and generic special school and wanted to know my opinions on those and also my views on mainstream. I told her I was unsure as concerns also with each setting. She's asked me to provide a statement for panel on my views on each of the schools I've visited and the one she's in. Is this normal? I didn't think that they asked about schools until after agreeing to a statement. I've also received a letter today for a sen assessment with a Paed next month. I assumed they were just using her existing Paed which is why she'd not had an appointment before as reports were due in for the 9th May. I find it a bit of a coincidence that both these things have happened on the same day but also the same week as the panel have been sitting (a friends statement was due b4 panel on Tuesday just gone). I'm wondering if it has already been to panel? Any ideas chaps?

Cheers

Edited May 17, 2012 by Sazale

[Sally44]

This is going about it back to front.

 

The professionals that observe and assess your child are supposed to identify all her needs for part 2 of the Statement.

 

Then those same professionals are [by law] required to quantify and specify the provision needed to meet all those needs in terms of hours of support and staffing arrangements.

 

Those professionals are also in the best position to advise on placement. And the Inclusion Officer already knows these placements and what their criteria is inside out.

 

You need to be careful that you don't say something they can try to tie you to later on eg. "we named xxxxx mainstream school because Mrs xxx indicated that she wished her daughter to remain mainstream if that were at all possible."

 

What I said for regarding my son's placement was that he was not coping or making progress in a mainstream primary school [which was true and we had evidence of that in correspondence and reports]. That he was assessed as being around average cognitive ability, which meant the ASD Unit which contained children with severe autism, some who were none verbal and some who had challenging behaviours was not a suitable peer group academically or socially. And we said that the LA maintained special school was for children with MLD, which our son did not have. And that the children with MLD had relatively good speech and social communication skills, which our son did not.

 

We also had an OT and EP report which stated my son needed to be taught in small class sizes of up to 8 similar peers. We said that the LA did not have any school or unit that could provide that.

 

So we named our parental choice of school as being an independent ASD specific one. As part of our appeal we also asked for specialist teaching to address his severe dyslexia and dyscalculia.

 

At this stage, I would keep it as basic as you can. This is rather like a game of Poker and you don't want to reveal too much at this stage. So you could name the schools you have visited and how they do not meet your DD's needs.

 

Post them here first if you want some members to have a look and comment on your reasons.

 

Remember that once the Statement is finalised you have a timescale within which you must have lodged your appeal.

 

If you lodge an appeal that will give you approx 4-6 months of further negotiating, and for you to gather more evidence of what her needs are and which placement can meet all those needs.

 

If you are not happy with any aspect of the Statement do lodge an appeal. Many LAs do not amend finalised Statements unless an appeal is lodged, and sometimes they don't amend them until the day before the Appeal.

 

Try to bounce back any questions to the panel members. Ask them what their views are. What they suggest. Which school they think is suitable. Ask them what advice the EP, SALT and OT has given to them etc.

[Sazale]

Thanks Sally

 

I was surprised they were asking for our views on the schools we have visited before it has even been to panel to agree to a statement. I'll not mention about the independent school we're going to visit next week then. I'll just talk about the lea ones and state why I felt they couldn't meet DD's needs.

[Sally44]

Again, just be careful what you say.

 

They may attempt to get you to agree something on the spot such as "So if your daughter had access to x, y and z, you would be happy for her to attend xxxxx school?"

 

Don't be afraid to say that you need to have time to think about what is being said and that you cannot answer that question immediately. And bat the ball back to them and ask them "in your professional opinion what educational setting/provision/therapy/support/approaches does my daughter need to access education and to meet her speech and language, social communication, emotional literacy, sensory processing, needs [just change it to detail what he needs are].

 

LAs do have to go with the "parental choice" of school UNLESS they can prove it would be to the detriment of the other pupils, or if they say it is not a good use of their resources [ie. they have a closer, LA maintained school that they can demonstrate can meet all her needs]. That is why it is not advisable at this stage to say what your parental choice of school is. Because the LA will argue that they don't know why you are appealing when they have named your parental choice of school.

 

So just don't feel pressured [because they will put pressure on you and will be fishing for information from you].

 

They may directly ask you "what do you want", and you need to deflect that and say "it is not about what we want, it is about our daughter's needs being met in a placement where she will be able to cope and where she will make progress in all areas of development and where she will be in a similar peer group."

[Sazale]

 

They may directly ask you "what do you want", and you need to deflect that and say "it is not about what we want, it is about our daughter's needs being met in a placement where she will be able to cope and where she will make progress in all areas of development and where she will be in a similar peer group."

 

I'll make sure I include that phrase in the statement. I think she asked me to do this because she asked me out right what educational setting was I thinking and I told her I didn't know. None of the ones I'd seen seemed to meet her needs and I think that's the line I'll keep taking coz tbh I haven't found anywhere yet. We have had a clinical psych tell us mainstream no good and ed psych tell us the generic special school no good but I don't have that in writing.

[Sazale]

Although was said in front of other professionals so if needs be could probably prove it.

[Sally44]

The best thing to do, if this has been said, is to write to the individual clarifying what they said. So something like:

 

"Further to the xx meeting on xxx, attended by xxx, we discussed a number of issues, including the placement.

 

I agree with you that [then quote what she said eg. that mainstream is not suitable for xxxx], and would like your professional opinon on what kind of placement my daughter needs, and if you have a particular school in mind, could you let me know so that I can visit it.

 

You really need to get some evidence that it was said in writing. If the professional writes back saying "I never said that", then you dont have a leg to stand on. And believe me they do say it, because it has happened to me on so many occasions that I started recording all meetings on dictaphone!

 

Don't count on other professionals backing you up. They probably won't. None of the professionals involved with my son ever backed up things that were said or done. I did get that information anyway later on by using a Freedom of Information Act search, and thankfully alot of what had been said was in various professionals' file notes. But don't take anything for granted. They will deny things, and the LA will tell them to keep their mouths shut.

Edited May 17, 2012 by Sally44

[Sazale]

Cheers hun x

[Kazzen161]

I would get advice from Ipsea before you give the LA this letter. Being cynical, they may use your information to make sure they write the statement in such a way that it makes your reasons against a particular placement harder to argue.

[Sally44]

I agree with Kazzen. Better not to put anything in writing that may come back and bite you on the behind.

 

Before our Tribunal, one of the major issues with our son was the lack of OT therapy at his current maintained primary school. We had an independent OT report which detailed he needed xx hours of Sensory Integration Therapy for an initial block period of 6 months, and then review.

 

Just before the Tribunal the LA primary school wrote me a letter saying "we have now been allocated funding by the LA to employ an OT for 3 hours a week."

 

I was really caught off balance. This was such a cynical move by them. For years they had known he had a sensory processing disorder but they continually denied it caused him problems in school and repeatedly said he did not need any OT input in school. So this sudden allocation of funding was being provided to help the LA win at the Appeal, and had nothing to do with their desire to meet his SEN. If it had been they would have provided this OT provision years earlier.

 

This was done by the LA to try to prove at the Tribunal that they could meet all his needs at his current placement. On the day we were able to prove that they could not. But the point I am making is that anything you say is giving them information on what any potential appeal maybe about. That will allow them to get a good case together to counter your arguments.

 

It is a very difficult time. It is hard to be open and honest, whilst also not prejudicing yourself.

 

The people that are sitting on this panel have the same reports that you do. They will have come across countless children like your DD, and they do know the system inside out. They already know the schools and they already know which one they may name as the placement.

 

Although they are right to seek your parental choice of placement, I think it is better to hold off for the moment and just say you don't know. Say that you are going to visit a number of schools and would like the Panel to suggest which ones they should be.

Edited May 18, 2012 by Sally44

[Sazale]

Thanks guys. You've both voiced what my gut feeling was. I'm gonna play the line that I don't know what setting would be the best because I don't know fully what her needs are which is why I requested statutory assessment in the first place.