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cathcart3303

Letter reOFSTED Inspection.ComplicatedYou'll not believe this.

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To day I had a letter from OFSTED dated 19th March saying they are inspecting my sons school on 20th/21st March. My son has had no education for 14 months (under CAMHS) but is still on roll at mainstream school. LA finally agreed to assess for SEN in February and now waiting for decision regarding issuing of a statement. Okay sounds about right. But ................ this was for a Short Stay School. The LA have only provided medical needs team for 3 one hour sessions back in September (in one week). My son was never going to engage in that time! Having spoken to OFSTED inspector she contacted Short Stay School and said my son is not on short stay school roll and is awaiting response from LA as to "where my son is on roll". I know he is on roll at mainstream school but they have marked online report as educated off site/ill. LA recognise medical need but Director of Children's Services told me last October the responsibility was with the school he was on roll with. NB LGO had told me in August that LA should have been sent sick note and found in LA favour to my complaint of no education. Since September he was signed off by Paediatrician and referred to CAMHS which I sent to LA. Do you think the S**t is about to hit the fan? What response do you think they will come back with? Is this wishful thinking on my part? ............Hope this makes sense................... :wallbash:

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Why do you want to complain to OFSTED. I would lodge complaint again with LGO.

 

You need a letter from a consultant to say that your son is off school due to medical issues relating to his diagnosis. Once you have that the LA is legally responsible to provide your child with an education. That maybe in the home, or at another site. But it must happen.

 

My son was out of school for about a year. The LA threatened us with the EWO, so my GP and the CAHMS Psychiatrist drafted a letter saying that he was currently 'unfit' to attend school due to medical issues and anxiety relating to his ASD diagnosis.

 

The LA responded by sending someone from the hospital school for them to see if he could attend lessons in the hospital. She saw my son and spoke with me and her opinion was that they could not meet his needs as the hospital school was for NT children who were medically sick. Whereas my son has an ASD is not in school due to anxiety/OCD and not due to medical reasons such as operation, cancer etc. She said her opinion was that he needed to be placed in a fully resourced ASD specific school that could provide the therapy he needed.

 

The LA did not like that and tried to get her to withdraw her letter. She refused.

 

So they then arranged for a teacher to come and collect my son twice a week, to take him into another school, to 'play' with him for 1.5 hours each session.

 

My son often refused to go. Or left with her and would be back home within the hour.

 

I later found out that she was 'playing' with him in the school storage room! Because they had no other facilities and he refused to go into any class, or go outside to play with other children.

 

We used all this as evidence at our tribunal.

 

Remember the LGO are investigating 'the process'. They cannot make a judgement/decision on what your son needs are. But if you have a letter from a consultant saying your son is currently unable to attend school due to x, y and z, the LA are legally responsible to provide an education within 14 days. If that does not happen phone the LGO.

 

What I found hard was getting a consultant to write the letter.

 

And if the LA do not keep to the timescales for assessing for a Statement, then again get in touch with the LGO and lodge another complaint.

 

It is a pain in the ass, but if you find out what the process is, and follow it methodically, you do get what you/your son needs in the end.

Edited by Sally44

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The OFSTED Inspector did contact me back and left message to say I should put complaint in to council (if not done so already) and to OFSTED. However thinking about it Sally I have now put in new complaint to LGO.

 

Received information from council which they had on my son. I had a good cry as I found their lack of communication very upsetting. When you have meeting they make record of everything. However when it comes to panel meetings they appear to use telepathy or psychic powers.

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Yes I found that too.

 

I would lodge your complaint with the LGO. They may write and ask that you first send in your complaint to the complaints person at the local authority, and contact them again if you have no response after xx days. Often involving the LGO gets the LA off its backside.

 

Do you have a letter from a consultant saying why your son is off school? If not get a referal to a consultant [CAHMS Psychiatrist??] and ask them to put it in writing because without it the LA is not obliged to provide any education for your son, which has been the case for the past 14 months. And put that in a letter that you hand to the CAHMS Consultant, so that you have a copy of it on your file at home too. Without that consultants letter the LGO cannot do a thing because they need that as evidence that the LA should provide an education for your son whilst he is unable to attend school. That is the law/process, and that is what you have to get to move onto the next stage.

 

No the responsibility is not with the school he is on roll with. The responsibility is with the LA once you have that consultants letter [which you say you have had, so send in a copy of it with your complaint to the LGO].

 

How our is your son?

 

What kind of school do you think he should/could attend?

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If, later on down the line, you find yourself heading for an educational tribunal, you can request a Freedom of Information Act search for all paper and electronic records held by the LA, school, NHS about your son. But post here first for advice on how to word the letter and who to send it to.

 

In the meantime have you been told that there are no records of what was discussed and agreed at Panel meetings about your son? If so, send in a letter to that effect to the Inclusion Officer at the LA. And include this as part of your complaint to the LGO. Your son has been out of education for 14 months. The LA must have been concerned about this to have held Panel meetings about him. However the LA have informed you that they have no recorded notes of what was discussed, what was agreed, and what action was to be taken. So can the LA please clarify what has been agreed as you have not been informed of anything and your son has not received any kind of education at all for 14 months. The lack of any records of these meetings means there is no record of what is happening with your son. Include this as a complaint about lack of any kind of record keeping within the LA regarding your son.

 

Keep lodging those complaints and see what the LGO comes up with.

 

Does your child have a Statement?

 

This is all evidence gathering that maybe very useful to you in the coming months/years. So make sure you put everything in writing, and keep a copy on file.

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This is my own experience of LA "Panel meetings".

 

My son had been out of school for about a year. We had a multi disciplinary team meeting in school where the EP, SALT, OT, Social Worker, SENCO, Clinical Psychology, CAHMS and LA Inclusion Officer all attended.

 

The NHS side [sALT, OT, CP, CAHMS] were all saying he was not coping in school. The SENCO and EP were trying not to admit to anything.

 

So the outcome of the meeting was that the EP would arrange for a special school teacher to come and collect my son twice a week for 1.5 hour sessions doing things he liked to do out of the home [as he hadn't left the house at all in that time].

 

The Inclusion Officer said that she would take this proposal to Panel for funding. She said she needed about 4 weeks to get all the paperwork "immaculate", so that the funding would not be turned down due to lack of information etc.

 

Prior to the Panel meeting, I discussed the situation with the Parent Partnership, who told me they were going to attend the next Panel meeting.

 

After this Panel meeting I was informed by the LA that the request for funding had been refused due to the Panel members requiring more information before funding was agreed.

 

So I phoned the PP and asked if they had attended the Panel meeting - they had.

 

I asked if my son had been discussed and they said he had. However they said that "strangely" his name was not on the list to be discussed, which the PP lady queried and was told his case would be discussed.

 

[the only reason for not including his name on the list of that Panel meeting is that any Freedom of Information Act Search I requested would not find his name. And as you have said above, there were no minutes, Agenda or notes taken at this meeting - and that was deliberate too].

 

So, out of interest, I asked the PP woman WHO had been on the Panel that day. Apparently there had been 3 people on Panel. One was the Inclusion Officer that had drawn up the paperwork [remember it was supposed to be immaculate}, the other was her senior manager, and the third was a special teacher.

 

So, what had happened was that the Panel members had put together the proposal for funding for my son. They had then presented it to themselves as they were the Panel members. And then they had refused this funding [because they apparently needed to ask themselves more questions] before they could agree that funding!

 

So I typed that all up in a letter and included that in my complaint to the LGO and also in my evidence at the Educational Tribunal - which we won.

 

I set out what had happened, and said that it appeared to me that the LA Inclusion Officers were attempting to look like they were doing something about my sons SEN, when in actual fact they were the very people frustrating the system deliberately and denying him access to the kind of education he needed.

 

It was just so bizzare. How can you prepare a report, submit it to yourself, and then refuse the findings of the report you wrote [and compiled with your manager] because you need to ask yourself more questions?

Edited by Sally44

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The LGO have emailed that my referral to them was premature as I have not given the Council long enough to reply to the complaint (up to 8 weeks). So it is irrelevant that my son has no education until ? the Council have had time to respond to the complaint. :wallbash:

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Just follow the process. You can get back in touch with the LGO and lodge a complaint once the LA have not responded to your complaint.

 

If your son is out of school, the only way the LA are legally liable to provide an education is if you have a letter, from a consultant, stating that your son is not able to access education due to medial reaons/diagnosis. Without that the LA are not legally required to do anything.

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