SEN School Records

[Katiebell]

Hi All,

 

I've not been on this forum for quite some time because basically things have been going ok other than the odd need to keep T's school in check which I've become a dab hand at over the years!

 

So what's prompted me to seek the opinions of everyone on this forum after all this time?

 

T is in his final year of High School (Yr 9, we have middle school here), he is due to transfer again at the end of this academic year. After a spat with his school I initiated a freedom of information request and asked for his entire school records which the school duly complied with and gave me a copy of every scrap of paper they have on him. However, there was nothing from his Primary School, no IEP's, reports from his statement, SALT information, OT, CAF etc etc... It turns out his Primary school hadn't passed the records on to his new school and his High School didn't think they needed them. So for the past 2 and a half years they haven't had or more importantly haven't read all the detailed reports that I fought so hard to obtain so that T could be taught appropriately.

 

The SEN code of practice and the law makes it quite clear that records should be passed on within 15 days of a child leaving a school so I am well aware that there has been a breach in the law, however what can I do? There just never seems to be any retribution for my child receiving a sub standard education.

 

Katiebell

[cathcart3303]

Hi,

 

i know where you are coming from.

 

When I asked for all information on my son from his High School they told me they didn't have it. So I asked for all information from the Primary School. The Primary School said they had passed up all information. What annoyed me was the SENCO department at High School had contacted Primary who said there had been no issues and denied any knowledge of his Asperger's.

 

Grrrr...

[Sally44]

Can you clarify on what the main issue is at the moment.

You are saying that the primary school did not forward reports you had paid for to his secondary school?

Does your child have a Statement of SEN because if they do, all the reports are supposed to be appended to that report.

 

What are the issues you are having with his current school?

[Katiebell]

My son does have a statement of SEN, none of the reports from the statementing process have been forwarded to his High School. His statement does specifically refer to these reports particulally the OT one which is explicity worded in his statement to be aware of the programme provided by OT. So obviously if they do not have this paperwork they cannot possibly have been adhearing to his statement for the past 2 and a half years. Likewise, he had SALT at primary school but was discharged from them on transfer. The work SALT put in was extremely valuable and although social skills work has continued at High School (after I pointed out they had a duty to do so) I assumed they would have made use of the groundwork SALT put in to further his development.

 

My issue with the High School is the fact that my son has not received the education he is entitled to because the reports that advise the teacher of strategies or exercises that were specifically aimed to enable T.to access learning have not been referred to because the didn't have them and didn't think to ask for them.

 

Katiebell

[Sally44]

Okay.

 

Firstly the Statement is a legally binding document. So what it contains MUST be provided, otherwise you can use Judicial Review. You would approach a SEN Solicitor and have to pay an upfront amount of around £300 for them to take on the case, and then they would be working for your son and would not charge anything else. Judicial Review would Order the LA to fund the Statement and put in place the provision it contained.

 

Firstly though you should complain to the LA in writing. Go onto the IPSEA.org website and find their template letter to send in.

 

My concern is that your son's Statement may not be specific enough for it to be legally binding. If it just refers to SALT and OT reports, but does not quantify and specify the provision, therapy, approaches detailed in those reports, then you have problems. Because reports appended to the Statement may not automatically mean everything they contain is included in the Statement.

 

If your son's statement is specific, such as stating "XXXX will receive the SALT provision as detailed in XXXXXX's reported dated xx/xx/xxxx page 4, paragraph 2 items 4-6 inclusive. " Then you probably have grounds for Judicial Review. If it doesn't then I would get advice on whether the Statement is specific enough.

 

Statements themselves are supposed to quantify and specify in terms of hours of support, staffing arrangements, therapies, approaches etc. If they don't then whatever is appended may not be legally binding. A SEN Solicitor should be able to advise more on this.

 

My own son's Statement is very specific, and has the reports appended. Those parts of the reports that quantify and specify or identify needs are included in the Statement verbatim.

 

How old are these reports you are referring to?

When is your next Annual Review?

 

A Statement saying that the school should "be aware" of the OT programme does not mean anything. Is there an OT programme detailed in the actual Statement in terms of hours per week and who delivers it. If it is detailed, where is that therapy supposed to be delivered, is it in school? If the Statement is that specific, what OT input is your son receiving.

 

Words like "access to" "be aware of" "significantly more" "as required" "when necessary" are words that mean nothing. You cannot prove if it is being delivered or not. It does not quantify or specify.

 

What does the Statement detail about SALT input. Secondary mainstream schools do not provide SALT UNLESS it is quantified and specified in the Statement. They cannot discharge him from SALT if the Statement says he is supposed to receive xx hours of direct 1:1 SALT therapy per term. If it does not say that then the Statement is worthless.

 

LAs are very good at getting reports and wording Statement so that they are not legally binding. They should not do it, but they all do. You can take action about this though. But you need to check if your current Statement is legally binding.

 

I've posted a link to a document that helps you to get the Statement right. Read it. Then get back and let us know if the Statement is legally binding or not.

 

http://www.ace-ed.org.uk/Resources/ACE/advice%20booklets/GettingTheStatementRight%20Mar2011.pdf

Edited February 15, 2013 by Sally44

[Sally44]

This is a link to ipsea's website http://www.ipsea.org...nt/HTML/?id=277

 

Again it seems to be saying that although the reports etc are appended to the Statement, that the actual Statement itself MUST detail the needs and provision to meet each and every need IN THE ACTUAL STATEMENT.

 

They have just started a booking service for phone calls. They are worth phoning when you have looked at the Statement as you may have questions to ask them.

 

What type of school will your child start in September, and are you happy with that school being able to fulfill the Statement.

Edited February 15, 2013 by Sally44

[Katiebell]

Hi Sally,

 

Thanks for your help.

 

There is a list of the reports that were made during the statementing process at he beginning of T's statement however they were only appended to his original statement which was created when he was in yr4 at Primary School, subsequent statements only had the review paperwork appended so the High School has not got the original detailed reports. OT was involved later and added to his statement while still at Primary School but although this report is referred to in section 3 it does not appear on the list of advice received.

 

Some of T's statement is clearly quantified for example the level of intervention from Autism Outreach and the regularity and time for one to one work on social skills. But the advice from OT was really more generic ongoing set of advice regarding sensory issues and ideas of how to stimulate T more to be actively involved in lessons also excersizes to do before writing and ways to reduce anxiety. The wording says 'School should be aware of the OT programme that has been provided.' So as you can see if they don't have this report the LSA's supporting T can't possibly be using any of the advice that was specific to my child.

 

I appreciate the advice regarding Judicial Reviews but but my point is not so much that school have refused to carry out this aspect of T's statement and I need leaverage to make them do what they are legally obliged to do, it is the fact that they just haven't done it because they didn't have the relevant information and as such he has missed out on 2 and a half years of intervention that potentially could have made his progress at school better than it is now and he may well have been able to choose GCSE subjects that he wanted to do at his next school but has been told his level of academic achievement isn't good enough.

 

Katiebell

[Sally44]

I understand what you say about school being 'aware of' OT advice. But because nothing specific is in the Statement about OT it will not make any different if that report is appended or not.

 

Is there any ongoing OT programme? If the OT was involved and then stopped what was the conclusion.

 

Let me give you my experience. My son's previous Statement said that the OT would draft a programme of OT to be delivered in school. It never happened. I complained about it to the OT, asking for their 'drafted programme of OT'. They said they had never written a programme of OT because when they spoke to school, school said they had no concerns. She stated that that was why she gave me a programme of OT to carry out at home.

 

So I spoke to school and said "I have spoken with the OT who is supposed to have drafted a programme of OT to be delivered in school, and they have told me that they have not done this because school have said they have no concerns.

 

School denied having told OT that.

 

So I wrote a complaint to the LA. They wrote back saying that the OT provision was down to the discretion of the NHS OT and was delivered via health and that as no "hours" were specified in the Statement, that there was nothing for the LA to be funding.

 

I complained to the OT because my son's anxiety was so extreme that what she was asking me to do with him was too little too late and he was at breaking point every evening after school.

 

And round and round we went.

 

We ended up back at tribunal. And I used all that evidence to prove that my son would not receive any NHS OT input in school because the NHS does not fund it.

 

My son's statement now details exactly how many hours per term of OT and SALT he will receive and what they are working on, and it happens and is detailed in his daily timetable.

 

My concern is that those reports you mention are now very old. Any OT input has obviously ceased from the OT. There is nothing specific in the Statement. What you need is an update of what progress has been made or not been made.

 

You could write to the OT about their report and advice, and copy in the school and ask that school are made aware of that advice. Better still you could ask them to carry out an up to date standardised assessment.

 

If that does not work, you can write to the LA, again give them 14 days to respond.

 

You may not get what you are after, but you will then have correspondence with the OT, school and LA about the OT programme and how it has not been delivered or adhered to in school.

 

Yes your child has missed out on years of input/advice that should have been given. But the wording of the Statement is VERY important. Even saying that a school 'should' be aware of OT advice, does not mean they MUST.

 

Your son is in year 9 now. What are you wanting to achieve via his Statement for the future years? Might it be worth asking the LA for a re-assessment of his Statement to get up to date standardised assessments from all the professionals. And make sure you write to each one and ask them to carry out standardised assessments [sALT, EP and OT].

 

I'm not sure how the SEN process is going to change, but Statements are going to remain post 16 I believe. Some advice via IPSEA might be worthwhile. In that way you could get a legally binding Statement for his current and future placements.

 

Do check the Statement against the booklet from ace-ed. That will highlight where he current one has let you down. And it will help you formulate your argument for any future Tribunal you end up attending because even with a re-assessment of his Statement, the LA are going to try to word it in such a way that it is not legally binding on them. That is what LA's do. So you would most likely have to appeal any Statement.

Edited February 16, 2013 by Sally44

[Sally44]

So to summarise, you can ask the LA to append all of the reports to the Statement and ask them to confirm in writing that they will do this so that the school has all the information relevent to your son appended to his Statement.

 

However even when they do that, I do not think the school/LA are legally bound to do anything regarding the OT. It should have said something in the Statement like "OT advice is that xxxxx should carry out the exercises prior to writing as detailed in their report on page xx, para xx item xxxx]." Or that advice should have been cut and pasted from the report into the Statement in part 2 and 3.

 

And the Statement should have stated that OT would produce an updated report for the Annual Review [each annual review], using standardised assesments so that progress can be measured.

Edited February 16, 2013 by Sally44