merry christmas to my LA not - send me a horrible document back at 6pm friday before christmas

[bjkmummy]

they have struck through every single one of our amendments - all were taken from professional reports and they have agreed exactly none of it. we changed some should to will which they had agreed in their response to tribunal for them to change them back to should. the whole thing is completely now unquantified and unspecified and we still have our private ed psych and SALT report to go in yet - thye are just going to agree to absolutely not a single amendment - the statement will read exactly the same way as when we started except that they have put some OT provision into part 6 whereas they clearly state in part 2 he needs it for his academic needs. i just feel drained and what a horrible horrible card to play when they know i have 2 SEN children. I just hope that karma comes back to them with bells on

[Sally44]

I know its horrible. They are just burying their heads into the sand for as long as possible. If it is in reports that you have then the Panel will seriously look at that and want to know why the LA is objecting to it. The Panel will go with the evidence regardless of what the LA think or do. The LA did not agree to any of my reports, or any of my amendments, and they even asked SEND to Order that evidence prior to a certain date could not be submitted. But SEND rightly said that parents can send in ANY evidence they want, however old, for it to be considered along with all the other evidence.

 

Just have a good Christmas and go back to it in the New Year.

 

When are you sending in your EP and SALT report?

 

Have a look on the IPSEA website too about previous SEND Decisions that have stated that OT or SALT is an educational need.

 

The needs the child has are stopping them accessing education, then the therapeutic input is an educational need. That includes the OT working with the child on sensory integration, dyspraxia, handwriting difficulties, sequencing problems or short term memory problems as well as environmental problems and the need for a low arousal environment.

 

If you have a letter from the NHS OT that states they do not provide the input that is specified in your independent reports, then it is another argument that it cannot be put under part 6 [which is via the NHS] because the NHS don't provide it. It would have to be bought in by the LA whatever the placement, unless the placement has OT employed on site.

[Sally44]

This is about speech and language therapy http://www.ipsea.org...tion/Case24.pdf

 

This is about Occupational Therapy

http://www.ipsea.org...tion/Case25.pdf

 

What you are looking for is the SALT and OT needs in part 2. Are they educational, eg. if the child gets anxious in noisy or busy environments and needs a low arousal environment to cope - it is educational. If the child has Dyspraxia and cannot access learning or record learning due to that, or any other needs which fall under OT - then it is educational, because without the OT input the child will not access learning, or the environment, or the social aspects of school.

 

At our Tribunal we argued that our son had an identified need ie. Sensory Processing Disorder, and the therapy for that is a "Sensory Integration Programme", which must be delivered by a suitably qualified OT, and must be an OT employed on site so that they could deliver the programme flexibly across the week.

 

The OT clearly detailed in her report how those sensory needs made it impossible for my son to access learning and was a major cause of his anxiety, which had resulted in his school refusal. The Panel agreed that OT input was needed to see if that reduced his anxiety and allowed him to access learning and return to school.

 

Even if an OT is talking about "life skills" or "daily living skills", these are all "educational" ie. they have to be taught, and they must be taught by the OT working with the child. Without that the child will not become as independent as they could be and will not make the progress they are capable of.

Edited December 21, 2012 by Sally44

[bjkmummy]

yes i have the letter re the OT plus out of the blue they sent me another letter as they have been looking at sensory intregration and whether to buy it in and they have said no so it will continue to be unavailable even after a lengthy consultation process where my 2 sons cases were used as examples.

 

i send the ed psych and OT reports on weds so they probably got them yesterday.

 

also got the response from tribunal re the outreach question. they say it is a reasonable request and will help my case but as the LA have objected to previous requests tribunal have given them to 9th january to respond back

 

my NAS helper has emailed me and told me to email them back and not accept this working document as the LA solicitor has done it in correctly. our amendments in bold they have changed to normal font and just struck through it all - theres pages and pages of it that has been struck out. they should just leave it bold so the tribunal can see who is amending what etc

 

they said in the response to tribunal that all shoulds would be changed to will. in the first version they missed some of the 'shoulds' out so we changed them in the 2nd version but then in the one they have changed them back to should again!!!

 

the final insult was how they struck through the name of my school choice :-( that leave his current school named as which we all know cannot meet his needs

[bjkmummy]

allof the OT recommendations are educational - they have agreed in part 2 that hes needs OT for his academics etc. they then just refuse to accept anything into part 3. everything is from reports and they have struck the whole lot out - pages and pages of it

[bjkmummy]

Recent reports from Occupational Therapists, May 2012, Sept 2012, indicate that Joe presents with a Sensory Modulation dysfunction. This will impact on his learning and development of fine and gross motor skills, independence skills and his academic learning

 

above is what has been agreed in part 2

 

[Sally44]

Yes, get the LA to sort out the Working document. It should be clear what you are asking to be included and what you are asking to be removed, and what the LA is agreeing to or refusing.

 

Remember to annotate only your copy for all of the amendments you want making and where they came from. DO NOT send the LA an annotated copy by mistake. They will not know the case back to front like you will. You must know where each need has come from, and what provision has been recommended for each need, and who recommended it and which report, page and paragraph number.

 

I'm glad SEND agreed with you. Take this as reassurance that they are impartial, and will need to know what the qualfications are of those in the school and employed by the LA, otherwise how can they decide if those people are capable of meeting your son's needs?

 

Remember to get costings for the therapy your son needs, because your parential choice of school does not provide it either does it?

[bjkmummy]

thank sally and thank you for all of your help - time to put this all to bed so to speak. what i am concerned is that my OT cannot come to the tribunal - she is due to come in on 7th jan and do a follow up report. in light that the LA are not accepting nothing, will speak to them again. Alison has offered to come to the tribunal so i will see if she will do the follow up report and then attend the tribunal as i think i am going to need her.

 

In january i will crack on with my costings plus will also sort out my school choice and get lots more in writing from them. the LA have yet to come back with any feedback of the 3 school they have consulted so think that will be a nice surprise in january unless they have done the letter today and it comes on christmas eve which actually really wouldnt surprise me.

 

surely the LA have to agree to some amendments? they cant just not accept every single report? they have used very limited parts of their own OT report

 

Have a fabulous christmas and new year. im going to try and now enjoy christmas as much as i can - not going to let it spoil the kids christmas then once we get to january its going to come at me very quickly so time to recoup and recharge those batteries

 

 

[Sa Skimrande]

Honestly, one wonders how much of this apparent incompetence is motivated by the need to save money, where people that need are being denied for the sake of saving a few quid ?

 

But we are flooded with professionals on these matters and flooded with information maybe that is where the drain on funds is as such people justify their existence, the cookie jar is running out, where we will see people that need denied and so fall out the system to the nothingness that exists at the bottom for in this society you fail to achieve you are nothing and so become the scape goat to be abused by all looking for someone to blame for their own perceived issues.

 

Or is it the education system is coming up against the medical system where they are demonstrating the fact that they have declined in their ability to teach and so seek to find reasons why they can't, when it is the fact that a qualification does not necessarily make a teacher.

 

Or is it everyone, parents have been fed the belief that everyone is intelligent and fit to achieve and if they don't, then there is a medical reason for it ?

 

 

Today I have just experienced yet more questionable service from the medical establishment where what they said was now turns out to be not the case and they have no answers except to say they wish to re test as their original conclusions are now suspect and to be fair given the problems I have had throughout this process which amounts to medical incompetence indicating a lack of care I would not be surprised in the slightest if they have got it wrong, but if they have I will be seeking legal redress for twenty years of wasted life based upon their ability as I always record the names of individuals concerned and have taken to secretly recording conversation due to the fact I cannot remember conversation.

 

This whole fiasco has got to the point now where I will demand answers and I will take no prisoners in doing it, the time for nice has gone and I will force them to do their job by using their own rules against them for so far advice I have received is the fact that the duty of care has been compromised, in short, I have been let down by highly qualified, highly paid individuas in the caring profession, that either don't care or are incompetent.

 

A time ago, this time last year even I would not have survived this I was that self destructive, but now I am in a different place and I demand answers and I will get them.

[Sally44]

No the LA don't have to agree to anything. They can be as awkward as they like, because they don't get any kind of reprimand for doing so. But just forget about them. It will look bad on them at the Tribunal. And the Tribunal Panel are the ONLY people you should be thinking about. You need to prove to them what your child's needs are, and you need in correspondence and reports the professionals recommendations on the provision required to meet each of those needs. I know that Alison will be very specific.

 

Do you have any other professional attending tribunal?

 

Have you settled on your choice of school? If you have, or are going to change your parental choice, you need to complete a Request for Changes Form. You can say something like. We have commissioned independent assessments due to the LA refusing to make any amendments to the Statement, and in the light of those new reports it is now apparent that only xxxxx school can meet our son's needs. We want to amend Part 4 to include xxxxx school as our parental choice of placement.

[Sally44]

At our tribunal the LA denied my son's needs even during the Tribunal.

 

The SENCO continued to state he had made progress until a Panel member said to her:

 

"we have CAHMS evidence that he attempted suicide, we have educational reports that he has lost skills. He has been out of school for nearly a year, and now has an additional diagnosis of an Anxiety Disorder and OCD. Can you please tell the Panel exactly where you think he has made progress?"

 

And obviously the SENCO could not reply.

 

The LA inclusion officer even had the nerve to state that "we have no actual evidence of self harm". To which I replied "are you saying you do not accept the evidence from the Psychiatrist or Clinical Psychology? Are you saying he has to be successful and actually kill himself before you will agree that he is not coping in school?

 

At that point my independent SALT intervened and said "this little boy has been so anxious about school that he has been repeatedly vomitting on arrival at school. Now he has voted with his own feet and will not go into that school again. He has less skills now in year 5 than he did in reception year. I am very concerned by the deterioration I have seen in him over the last 2 years and I am extremely concerned that that deterioration has not been recognised at all."

 

So please do not worry. The Panel are very clever people. They will not be hoodwinked if you have the evidence in your Bundle of documentation.

Edited December 23, 2012 by Sally44