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bjkmummy

an update on us 2 months post tribunal

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well its now been over 2 months since we won our tribunal on parts 2 3 and 4 and an independent day school placement.

 

yesterday my son finally started school full time - the first full day he has done since june 2012. it has been a very lomg road and it feels strange now that i have reached the end. he has had to undergo a very long transition phase. he is still vomiting but is happy to go to school. he has had a few wobbles but they are being brilliant with him.

 

he has gone from a mainstream school to a very small school. he is unable to cope with sitting in the dining room with 12 other children so eats his lunch in a seperate room. its hard now to beleive that he coped in mainstream for so long.

 

i know that there may be other battles ahead - he is in year 4 and my husband feels there maybe another battle when he heads for secondary though hard to see where the LA can go as part 4 names a special school for autism and there is no other school around plus the statement is now worded so tightly.

 

i now am about to begin the complaint letter to the LA about all the things that have happened over the last. not sure i will change anything but i need to have my say! he is also now goingt o have a re assessment by our social worker in light of the huge change in his needs so fingers crossed we may get an increase in our respite hours.

 

once again a huge thank you to sally who was simply brillant - i dont think i would have got through this without her. her advice was invaluable - as i now begin my complaint i have all of the evidence in writing to back up each complaint so will be interesting to see them wriggle out of everything although im sure they will

 

so now i have both asd sons in the right schools for them and my daughter has also changed school and is happy and settled. im sort of at a loss of what to do next!!! i have signed up to do an OU law degree in october - hasve found some inner confidence now after seeing off the LA solcitor and barrister and representing myself at tribunal. re read my tribunal paperwork last night and have to say i did a really good job with my case statements etc and legal arguments - now to go and do that complaint......................

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Well done on achieving all your children's happy placements. Once you have done the complaint have a well deserved break. It is very stressful going through a tribunal.

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Hi bjk, so pleased to hear your great news, it must be such a relief to you after all that time. Good luck with your law degree, do update us on how everything is going. :-)

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By all means send in your complaint and see what happens. If you get no response you could lodge a complaint with the LGO to see if they can find maladministration.

 

Remember that SS are also employed by the LA, and so if things don't go to plan with SS you can complain to the LA and again involve the LGO.

 

However, I would also say that as bad as you may have been treated [and I was too], at some point you do need to draw the line and move on. You are in a good place now. Much more informed and wiser. All those years of frustration and fighting [and eventually realising that everyone knew and were just ignoring you for as long as they could due to costs] really does eat away at you. BUT like any bad relationship, you have to move out and let it go and concentrate on the future.

 

Glad to hear your son is doing so brilliantly.

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i think thats why i havent rushed to complain as the tribunal process is so draining i wanted to have a break and also concentrate on getting him into school. however i now know i will regret it if i dont complain. i fully expect for us to be ignored and be frustrated but they have done that to us for the last year so nothing really going to change on that front. i think the final thing was when my social worker came round after not seeing her all the time he was off school and i asked where she had been when she knew he was a child out of school and anything could have been going on. she said that sheknew he would be well cared for so no concerns. i then said how do i move on from feeling so angry about everything that happened, how do i deal with these people when i come face to face with them later when my eldest goes through the transition process - her reaction was that i just dont go to the transition events. by the little she said it was clear that teh LA feel as bitter as what i feel - she sits within the inclusion team so she would have heard everything that was said about me - the bit that really gets me is that the LA went for me - not my husband even though i did everything in both of our names. anyway going to get the complaint done and then this is all over and i can finally pack all the blooming paperwork away.

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Yes I had a similar experience. It started, I think, from the inclusion officer at the time, who wrote file notes like "this is all about what mum wants and not about what xxxxx needs." Mud sticks. This IO deliberately tried to frustrate the SEN process by changing the EP and AOT advice from "dedicated environment" to "opportunities for learning in small groups". He also emailed everyone proudly stating that he had worded the Statement in such a way that they did not need to worry about funding it, ie. it was not legally binding.

 

So all these people, who had appeared so sympathetic to my face were having meetings behind my back and trying to stop me getting the right placement and support for my son. They admitted between themselves that he was "not mainstream material" and yet fought tooth and nail to keep him there! They lied to me. They lied to my MP. And when it was becoming obvious that he was falling apart, they used to send in people that had never met him before to avoid them knowing "the history", thereby delaying decisions even further.

 

I even lodged a complaint with the LGO and the LGO found in favour of the LA - because they basically believed what the LA said. And the LGO even quoted case law that had been overturned ie. that the LA had used their best endeavours to ensure the overall "feeling" of the Statement was fulfilled. When an appeal had overturned that and ruled that the Statement is a legally binding document and that "best endeavours" is not the right interpretation of the LA's legal responsibility to fund the Statement.

 

On another issue the LGO did find in my favour and ordered the LA to apologise, which they did in a letter, and ordered them to pay me compensation, which the LA did.

 

So yes go ahead, lodge a complaint. Ask for your questions to be answered. If you did a Freedom of Information Act search and found evidence of maladministration highlight that to them and see what their response is. Then involve the LGO if you feel you have a case. But remember that the LGO cannot look at anything you could address via an appeal to SEND. And also be very clear about what your complaint is. The LGO only look at the complaint and don't bring in anything else they may find along the way.

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My experience with the Inclusion officer very similar to yours sally. She just kept saying he was a mainstream child. They also didn't write minutes of the meetings either even when they increased his hours from 20 to 32.5. Kept saying no new needs identified and yet increased his hours. He was left with no education whatsoever from January until end of February. No one came near us. I don't know - half of me says just walk away, I've got the school placement but I was here the year before with my elder son and we had to use judicial review. The LA apologised to us verbally so we left it then and then bam - it all kicked of with the younger son and the LA made it personal i think as the got fed up of me trying to get them to do what I wanted so they took a stand. My DH is adamant. Should complain but I'm also tired of the fighting. All 3 kids are now happy and settled. My younger son is still having some wobbles but that's understandable as he's been out so long. But then if I don't complain the inclusion woman will continue to screw the next family over. Surely there is no way they can get away with being able to redact reports? Surely they must be held accountable for that, I had officers openly lie in meetings which I then made sure the comments were minuted. After getting tribal orders, it showed they were lying. It's just a mess but also I know if I complain I cold open even a bigger can of worms.

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I think by all means lodge a complaint because that is how you feel. But don't expect it to have any bearing on what happens to families after you. It will most likely be the same. That is why I try to help parents in my local area and also on this forum to achieve what they actually already have the evidence for, but don't know yet.

 

By sheer coincidence I have recently helped another mother get her son into the same school mine goes to. She was having exactly the same issues I did two years ago with exactly the same people. So nothing changed. But I gave her advice and told her not to even mention my name [because that might cause them to tighten ranks even further], and I am delighted that following my advice, she too managed to get the evidence she needed from the LA EP and corner her into agreeing and suggesting that that was the school her son should go to. That makes me feel much better. But I know the next family will have all the same issues.

 

That is why it is so annoying because it is not about meeting childrens' needs. Families when they become involved with the SEN process think their child's difficulties are being taken into account. And unfortunately, to a large degree they are not, simply due to costs. But parents often don't want to hear that. It is hard enough having to come to terms with a diagnosis and the implications of that, without someone like me telling them they are being naive and are being led a merry dance. They need to find that out themselves. Unfortunately that is usually years later.

 

So don't think your case will alter LA procedures [or lack of them], because what they are doing is deliberate.

Edited by Sally44

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I just wanted to add that every LA has 100's of children with an ASD. All have their own personalities etc, but they must ALL have difficulties in the areas needed to gain a diagnosis.

 

So NHS and LA professionals do know, and do have alot of experience of this population of children. For example, if a child is mainstream ASD with input from a SALT, it is highly likely that their acquisition of literacy and maybe numeracy will be affected to the degree of their speech and language communication difficulties. Also, dyslexia, is a well known specific learning difficulty which is easily assessed for, as is dyspraxia etc. So, what took me years to find out, would have been apparent to the professionals as soon as they assessed him. The CAHMS Psychiatrist saw him the first time - asked him to close the door - and told me immediately he had dyspraxia because of the way he closed the door! So why did other professionals wait for me to find out what they already knew and should have been addressing years ago. Why did I have to push for each step.

 

I also found out about the standardised assessments and what skill each subtest was assessing. So, when my son performed extremely poor [standard score of 2 where 3 is classed as severe difficulty] on a particular subtest - which I had asked to her re-assess him on due to his poor performance the previous year - I spoke with the SALT and said that my understanding was that that sub-test assessed how a child would perform in the classroom in learning environments. She confirmed that that was true. So how come everyone was happy for a child with such a low score to be in mainstream? Probably because they also knew that his high scores meant he was not suitable for MLD. But why not have that out in the open for discussion. Why cover and deny everything until the placement broke down and my son was mentally ill.

 

The same with the OT. She had the assessment scores which showed severe difficulties [dyspraxia and sensory processing disorder], and yet she did not fulfill the Statement because she said "school" told her they had no concerns. Her results proved he had such severe difficulties it impacted on his learning. Yet she did nothing. Why? Because as she later confirmed the NHS do not provide any therapy for dyspraxia or SPD. So why not admit that at the outset. Why leave my son to struggle for years.

 

It was apparent to me that each and every professional tried very hard not to identify needs or quantify and specify provision to meet those needs due to the funding implications and the drain on their various departmental budgets.

 

And, as I said in my previous post, I ended up helping a family who were having exactly the same issues that I did. So nothing had changed. They had not carried out any standardised assessments. The family had no idea what their childs 'needs' were eventhough he had a Statement - which was so poorly worded that the child did not actually receive anything - he just had "access to" various things if needed. And no-one ever said he needed them. Yet now he is to be placed in the same school as my son with a full-time 1:1. How did that happen. No support at all mainstream to specialist school with full time 1:1.

Edited by Sally44

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I agree completely sally. I had school on the phone loads yesterday as he is struggling at the moment. It's early days and they are doing brilliantly with him and he has more support than he has ever had and yet he's struggling. Maybe it's just that the school are being completely honest with me and we are no longer just getting 'fine'

 

Also I think you have also raised this in the past- when the LA EP assessed him just before the review he found nothing to concern him. It wasn't until our EP went in that the Lenny dropped. The LA EP knew the areas my son was strong in so just assessed those only so the results again made it look like there were absolutely no concerns. The outreach woman did the same. I was lucky that the head at my school was happy to stand up to the LA - bonus of academy status I guess plus his teachers as they had a supprtive head were also very vocal about his difficulties.

 

I still haven't done the complaint. I found myself earlier realising that my children are now all settled after a lot of hard work from me. I'm no longer have anything to fight for. I trust each of my children's schools implicitly and all 3 are thriving. If I complain, I'm dragged myself back on the path for a full on confrontation with the LA where I won't change anything. At the moment, I have the upper hand and can hold my head up high and hopefully they will in the future be wary of me. If I challenge their past behaviour when the battle comes for secondary or post 16 they are much more likely to cover their backs. I actually don't want them to do that, I want them to make a c plate mess of everything like they did last time. So it leaves me in a difficult position. I'm off to the seaside this week so time for a Eric of reflection I think.

 

I also have 2 other friends from cyber world who were amazed with your school and are currently about to start trying to get their children placed there.

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I've also been to visit that school and it is amazing! It made me sad to think of all the input our kids are being denied. Unfortunately it's a little too far as a day pupil and I don't want residential mon-fri but its still on our list. We've just had annual review and are waiting on LA response so we can file for tribunal.

 

I've regularly read your posts bjkmummy and its great to hear about the other side of tribunal.

 

Sally gives good advice as always x

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I think you are doing the right thing bjkmummy - enjoy your victory and know that despite all their underhand efforts, you won. If they do try it on again in the future and you can take them to judicial review, you can use this evidence as proof, their illegal behaviour was not a one-off. I think the LGO are a waste of space, but as judicial review costs the LA money, they do take note of that. If you get your notes in order now, you can use them again in the future if need be.

 

Sally - please do you have the details of the case law re best endeavours: 'ruled that the Statement is a legally binding document and that "best endeavours" is not the right interpretation of the LA's legal responsibility to fund the Statement.'

 

Something is happening at the moment where that case would be really useful.

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This is the link http://www.ipsea.org.uk/AssetLibrary/How%20we%20can%20help/Taking%20Action/Case33.pdf

 

There had been an earlier case where a Judge had ruled in favour of the LA, saying they had used their 'best endeavours' to fullfill the Statement. That decision was appealed and overturned, as per the ipsea link above.

 

Whatever is in the Statement MUST be provided. There are procedures ie. AR, emergency reviews etc where whatever the Statement contains maybe changed, and that amendment gives the parent the right to appeal. STATEMENTS CANNOT BE CHANGED OTHER THAN VIA THOSE PROCEDURES. So the LA/school cannot decide 6 months into a Statement [because a Statement really runs from one AR to the next AR], that the provision needs reducing, stopping, or even increasing. If a Statement is not meeting a child's needs an emergency review needs to be called to increase the support and amend the Statement.

 

I did have a situation where parts of my son's earlier Statement were not being fulfilled. I challenged some of those. I lodged a complaint with the LGO and unfortunately they referred to the older case law about 'best endeavours', and although I did write to them to inform them that they were incorrect, as IPSEA also agreed, you cannot challenge a decision by the LGO.

 

What I would say is to maybe not fight too much on these issues, other than to point them out via a complaint to the LA and see what they do. If they do nothing, just include that as evidence that the LA are not going to fulfill the Statement, as they didn't last time. I used quite alot of that evidence in my last tribunal, proving the fact that the only place that could my son's needs as part of their "standard provision" [ie. not continual attempts to reduce that provision, or not provide it at all] was at our parental choice of placement. And I also included the frustration of lodging an appeal with the LGO and for them to arrive at a decision that was incorrect according to current case law.

Edited by Sally44

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The LA does have the right to trigger a review of the statement at any time, in which case it must follow the procedures for an annual review. They cannot of course implement any changes until you have been allowed to appeal.

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Yes a Statement can be reviewed at any time. But what often happens is that Statement provision is not provided and the reason given is that the child no longer needs it, or some similar excuse. A Statement cannot be amended like that, without a review and therefore without the right to appeal any change, or lack of change.

 

And if there is a review, and changes recommended, there should be evidence given of why the child no longer needs such provision.

 

At one of my sons AR the SALT recommended a reduction in 1:1 therapy, however she had emailed me, in response to my question about how many hours 1:1 my son had received, and stated that he had had "significantly more" than was in the Statement.

 

So that contradicted itself. How can he have improved and therefore need less, when you are confirming you've actually needed to provide significantly more input than the Statement details. At Tribunal we had the amount of speech therapy increased to reflect the amount the SALT was using. A Statement should be a real reflection of need otherwise there is no point having it.

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well after a weekend away by the beach and a honest discussion with DH i have decided that i am not going to complain. we have secured the placement we want and we both know that a complaint will get us nowhere and as we have 2 children with SEN our battles with the LA are still going to be ongoing for quite a few years yet. i am this evening going to put all of my files away into storage and up into the attic and that will feel like a weight in itself as i am fed up of looking at the piles of papers. we are now going to move forward and start the building work on the house which we put on hold and actually try and start to enjoy life for the next 2 years before my eldest then starts transition and youngest 2 (i have twins) start the journey of secondary placement. i am also due to start my law degree in october and want to start with nothing hanging over me. i want to enjoy this summer as after 2 years of fighting i can now take that step back. my best friend is moving to america next month so thats going to be a huge hole ripped into our lives so want to take as much pressure of as we can. whether i will regret it later down the line i dont know but feel for now this is the right decision for my family

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We've just had a really positive AR for our son.

He's finally making progress, and staying at those levels.

Previously he would make some progress, then with the start of the new academic year he would fall back again. So he was floating between P8 and 1b for years. Now he is 2a or 2b for all subjects, and I can see he is coming on.

Also the specialist teaching is using alot of IT and software to help with his reading and writing, which is producing results. They are talking about providing him with a Kindle so that he can have text to word software so he can start to read age appropriate books. Because she says he is an intelligent boy that has been kept on pre-school material for years which is no longer appropriate or motivating. So glad she said it as that was what i've been thinking for years.

 

I know he is still a long way behind, but I can see him making amazing progress in a couple of years time. He is intelligent, and he is starting to believe that in himself too.

 

From now on all his work is going to be presented on a laptop in class. And they may also be getting voice recognition software.

 

He still has wobbles on a few days and refuses to go in, but overall it is all very positive.

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