proposed statement

[LKU]

Hi, we received the proposed statement yesterday. They think J should be in mainstream with support. This would be ok but they are only offering ten hours.

He was getting almost full time support before he was thrown out of school in march we are now home educating but want him back in school for september.

Are they likely to give more hours if I disagree? Can I express a preference for a lea maintained special school?

I know for a fact that he will not last in mainstream without full time support.

[smallworld]

I would think you have an excellent case for disagreeing to the proposal of only 10 hours given that he was excluded whilst receiving nearly full-time support. I'm not being funny but do they think you have worked a major miracle whilst home-edding for 4 months ? I think not ( not dismissing your home-ed) but methinks theyre just trying it on, hoping you'll go for the offer just to get him back in mainstream.

The word IPSEA springs to mind, Good Luck,

wac

[LKU]

Thanks waccoe, I think you're right about them trying it on. Please feel free to dis my home ed, it'd be completely justified!!!!!!!

I have a 3 hour formal diagnosis appointment coming up on 3rd august,If he gets the dx of asd or aspergers I wonder if this will make any difference to the statement/lea, at the moment all the evidence given to them for the assessment is suggesting that ASD is extemely likely but they know he doesn't have the formal dx.

[Suze]

Hi lku, we were offered 5 hrs initially I phoned LEA to say we would be going to tribunal, and then the case worker (who was v. nice).....phoned back we had a meeting and it was increased to nearly 15 hrs.They can do it so you,d be justified to not accept this initial statement. We were also going through the statementing process during my sons DX, because we wanted this dx in the statement we waited on the final statement for another 6 wks so the dx could be put on. you know your son has a statement would it be a good idea to speak to lea and wait till your sons dx is given and then review the hrs etc with lea? We had a nice case worker who wanted the best for our son so we felt comfortable doing this of course not everyones experience with lea is like this, just thought this could be an option for you. Good luck with this whole situation I found it incredibly stress ful , so have a big hug <'> <'> or two.

[LKU]

Up to now I have to say our lea have been great, no problems with them at all.

We don't have to respond to the proposed statement until the 15th aug, so if we get the dx on the 3rd we will have a stronger footing to disagree with the hours etc and we need not mention the dx appointment yet. I don't know what I'll do if at the dx appointment they say he doesn't have asd or aspergers

It's all so confusing isn't it you end up feeling like you want something to be wrong with your child yet you wouldn't be in this position if everything was fine!!

[mossgrove]

LKU

 

Some statementing officers are better than others, but if you have a reasonable relationship with yours, why not ring them up and ask them what the thinking behind the reduction in LSA hours was?

 

Further diagnosis is not the issue here. You don't think he will cope without full time 1:1 whether you get a more detailed diagnosis or not. It is also worth writing a 2 line letter now to say you do not accept the statement and you will be writing more in due course just in case your eventual response gets 'lost in the post'.

 

Simon

Edited July 27, 2005 by mossgrove

[LKU]

Simon, It wasn't a reduction in hours as we didn't have a statement before we just had a school that gave as much support as they possibly could until they had to admit defeat.While he was in school he had an lsa with him in class all the time and at break etc they made sure the schools mentor was always with him.

The school must have done this within their own sen budget. It was only towards the end that the support was constant, before that the lsa was until lunchtime, he would flip when she had to leave.The school obviously tried there very best to keep him there. It was a very good supportive school(the best in the area), so can you imagine what would happen if he were in a different one with 10 hours support. It's just so blatently obvious that it won't work.I can see J being transferred from one school to another until he has a complete breakdown.

It states clearly in all the evidence from Ed psych, school, autism advisory people etc that he already had more 1:1 than 10 hours and still couldn't cope.

They really are trying it on either that or they didn't even read the evidence.

On one part of the statement it is titled Proposed statement of **** ****** the name I've blanked out isn't even my child!!! It states the name of this childs social worker, there is a page attached from social services saying my child is not known to them so they can't advise on any special needs. They have assured me that this just an admin error. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence. What if they read someone elses evidence and that other person really does only need 10 hours. The mind boggles!!!

[mossgrove]

LKU

 

I think you have stumbled across the way your LEA do business. I suspect that have found a category that they think your son fits into and itemised the support that thay usually give to someone in that category, hence the botched cut and paste from another statement. This hints that thay haven't considered his specific needs at all.

 

Simon

[LKU]

I think you're probably right simon, but the other worrying factor is that this other child has the same first name as my son.

I'll tell them that we want more hours and see what happens, if this doesn't work I may have to resort to plan B, which is to run away to spain and live it up in the sun!!! No help, no education but at least we'd be happy!!

[LKS]

Hi LKU we are nearly related My son has a statement and he receives 15 hours of L.S.A. support per week. However on his ammended statement for his transfer to secondary school it states 2 and a half hours of teaching and 5 hours of L.S.A. I was told that this is a set amount for communication difficulties. Although he is transferring to secondary school in Sep. this funding will no longer go with him, it has slready been allocated to the school through a funding formula.. My LEA are telling parents that children with high incidence conditions such as Aspergers, MLD SpLD and EBD will no longer be considered for statementing I don't think this seems right I can't believe they are only considering 10 hours for your son, sometimes it seems as if they set our children up to fail I'm wondering now if all LEA's have got standard amounts that they issue for particular conditions. This smacks of being a bit of a blanket policy which I know IPSEA don't like.I was going to wish you good luck with the dx but this seems a bit odd if you know what I mean, but it is a road we all have to go down.

[LKU]

The following is a small section copied from the proposed statement:

This is a Band F statement. This is equivalent to approximately 10 hours per week teaching assistant support or approximately 4 and a half hours per week additional specialist teaching support or a combination of both. This support could be provided either on an individual basis or in small group situation. The nature and organisation of this additional help will be set out in an IEP prepared by the school following consultation with parents.

J will also continue to benefit from provision made available through the school's own special needs arrangements.

Ongoing support, advice, and involvement of the learning support teacher and other relevant members of the support services.

 

Have they overlooked the fact that my child is no longer in school? How can anything be ongoing or continued when he isn't getting any of this?

Any thoughts or advice about the above would be appreciated, I can't decide if the above is good, bad or just a fob off. Boy am I confused!!!!!

LKS I thought my user name had been changed then I realised you had posted.

good job I realised I was just about to post asking why my user name had been changed!! Doh!!

[Zemanski]

Definitely speak to ipsea, NAS and parent partnership - all good sources of specific advice and support.

 

thinking about your diagnosis appointment - if you get a diagnosis then you will probably be given it verbally but the report may take weeks to come through (you can ask the consultant to hurry it up because you might need to go to tribunal). The LEA won't be interested in a verbal report only in the written one (even though they are supposed to act on suspicion of AS/autism according to the DFES) and may completely ignore your son's diagnosis until it arrives.

 

our LEA actually tried to refuse Com's diagnosis as late evidence at tribunal as it came in after the deadline even though we had told them it was coming because we had had the verbal diagnosis (you can ask the tribunal to accept late evidence right up until the tribunal itself but the LEA has the right to refuse it)

 

fortunately we got wind of their desire to avoid recognising that Com had any needs at all and took the consultant with us - wonderful man, didn't even have to pay him

- tribunal lasted just long enough to make the introductions, the chair asked the consultant who he was and why he was there and the LEA backed down there and then and agreed to assessment.

 

officially that tribunal never actually happened according to LEA records - I wonder how they explained having to pay for a non-existent tribunal to the auditor?

 

Don't let this worry you too much but make sure you don't rely too heavily on the verbal diagnosis being an effective weapon, not all authorities are as stubborn as ours though, and do hassle anybody that needs to prepare reports etc to get them done as quickly as possible (very politely )

 

one thing your consultant might do if you ask very nicely is to write an interim letter just stating the diagnosis and that the report will follow.

 

Zemanski

[LKU]

Thanks zemanski, great advice, I'll definitely ask the consultant for a letter if we get the dx. I wouldn't have thought of it myself (until it was too late of course!).

My LEA so far do seem to be quite reasonable, fingers crossed they'll stay that way.