They won't give me an appointment

[Sallya]

I asked for an appointment, and they have said in their reply,

 

"consider taking proposed statement to the SENCO. If I then have any concerns let them know before we finalise, and if I still have any concerns, she will be happy to meet."

 

I've sent a copy to the IPSEA lady, and she has pointed out that there is still a lack of detail of his provision, and "minimum of 12 1/2 hrs" she said does this mean he could recieve more, and if so why is it not specified in the proposed statement? I am unhappy about some of the wording they have put in, lots of "will benefit from access" and "will require"

so I've written back to say i would like to meet for the second time as it's only delaying things from being completed.

I'm getting so bl$$dy cheesed off with these people.

S

xxx

Edited September 7, 2005 by Sallya

[annie]

Hi Sallya

 

What ? Why take the proposed statement to the SENCO. It's not their responsibility, it's the LEA's

 

This is taken from the SEN Code of Practice

 

8.7 The proposed statement

 

The LEA must draw up a proposed statement, completing all Parts except Part 4. The proposed statement must not contain any details relating to where the proposed special educational provision should be made. The LEA must send the proposed statement and copies of the advice that has been submitted during the assessment to the child's parents; copies of the proposed statement should also be sent to all those who submitted advice.

 

At the same time, the LEA must send the parents a notice which sets out the procedures to be followed, including setting out the arrangements for the choice of school, the parents' right to make representations about the content of the statement, their right to appeal to the Tribunal against the contents of the final statement and the time limits for appeal. The notice must correspond substantially with that set out in Part A of the Schedule to the Regulations.

 

When making a statement, LEAs should remember the needs of parents and children whose first language is not English. Where children have different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, LEAs should seek advice from bilingual support staff, and teachers of English as an additional language, interpreters and translators and other local sources of help as appropriate, to ensure that such parents and children are involved in all aspects of the process.

 

8.8 Time limits

 

On receipt of the proposed statement, parents have a right to state a preference for the maintained school their child should attend and to make representations to, and hold meetings with, the LEA. It must also be explained to parents that they have the right to raise any other issues relating to the body of the statement. The LEA must normally issue the final statement within eight weeks of the issue of the proposed statement.

 

Annie

<'>

Edited September 7, 2005 by annie

[mossgrove]

The more I read here the more I realise that we are very lucky to have an LEA that genuinely tries to do the right thing. Mind you the "inclusion at all costs" brigade (e.g. the DRC) feel it should be 'named and shamed' for providing too many people with special school places, but i digress.

 

I would definitly stick to your guns on this. The SENCO at your school is NOT responsible for the statement, not least because if you haven't agreed the statement you haven't agreed where the provision is to be made, and apart from that your SENCO will be overly concerned with the practicalities of provision rather than identification of need.

 

I would definitely give IPSEA another call and find out where you stand on the particular legal point of refusing to discuss the statement.

 

Simon

[Sallya]

I've already checked, and they can't refuse, but they have very craftily worded the letter to avoid a meeting. I think this is to delay things as long as possible.I just had to come and tell someone 'cos I am so peed off.

s

xx

[Tez]

Hope you get it sorted soon.

[UltraMum]

We asked for the LEA to finalise the statement three times before they did it - dragging it out by altering bits and bobs - assessment was applied for last November and the first draft was received at the beginning of April - it was finally finalised at the beginning of July - too late to get anything set up until this term ...

 

Hope you get your LEA to get its finger out soon - have we got a symbol for putting a bomb up someone?

[Kathryn]

I've already checked, and they can't refuse, but they have very craftily worded the letter to avoid a meeting. I think this is to delay things as long as possible.

An LEA delaying something DELIBERATELY? Shame on you, Sallyanne, for making such an accusation.

 

I hope this is resolved soon: it must be very wearying and stressful, but you'll get there.

 

K

[baddad]

Hi sally -

I had loads of this sort of cr*p when getting Ben's statement sorted... Had 3 meetings at least face to face: 1 with the case worker, and at least two hgher up the chain of command when she didn't get my concerns addressed. Basically, anything ambiguous in the proposed statement was returned for clarification, with my own 'guidelines' about how i would like to see them clarified. The final statement used huge chunks of my own 'guidelines'...

One other thing they kept pushing me for was 'parental evidence'. I held back on this until the proposed statement met my approval, assuming that any earlier agreement over my evidence would debarr me from adding new evidence to challenge factors they might try to shoe-horn in at the last minute...

All this was a long time ago [these days I'm lucky that for the most part I can work things out directly with the school, but i know that's rare and i may need to lock horns again for secondary provision] and i know things have changed a lot and not for the better. Same rule applies, though, the proposed statement is just that: a proposal. If it doesn't meet the needs, or is not clear on what will be done to try and meet those needs, reject it.

Keep yer pecker up, you'll get there...

L&P

BD

[Sallya]

Ho hum,

the SENCO phoned the LEA and also requested a meeting, but I got a letter this morning basically repeating the last letter; so after calling IPSEA and getting more advice from them, I've just written a letter saying if they don't get back to me with a date for the meeting within 7 days, to go ahead and finalise the statement, and I will appeal to SENDIST.

Hopefully that will do the trick

s

xxx

[annie]

Hi Sally,

 

Hopefully they'll get their backsides into gear now.

 

You'd think it would save them a lot of grief and money doing things right the first time...........maybe not.........we are talking about LEA's

 

Keep as updated.

 

Annie

<'>

[Sallya]

Forgot to say the letter arrived with no postage on it, so I had to collect it from the delivery office and pay to recieve it then I couldn't get on the forum first thing , IPSEA's helpline was closed until 1pm, and the lady who I've been speaking to was out. I kept it together think I'm getting better at this.

s

xxx

[annie]

Sounds like you've had a great day

 

Good to see the LEA are finding other ways of saving money

 

Annie

<'>

[littlenemo]

don't let them make you miss your appeal deadline - get it in whether you get that letter or not, you can withdraw at any point without consequences right up until the day of the tribunal

 

Zemanski

[sonia]

I totally agree. I logged my tribunal paperwork and withdrew it after my LEA agreed to my demands,

Soniax

[Sallya]

I can't appeal until the statement is finalised.

 

All I've done is ask for an appointment to discuss some changes in the proposed statement, and they won't give me one until the final statement is drawn up. It's obvious they don't want the IPSEA lady there, and are trying to put me off. The letter I've written to the director of education, just says if I don't get a meeting date within 7 days, they should finalise, and I will appeal if I have any further concerns.

Sonia, they did that to me as well with the statutory assessment three weeks from the tribunal date. because the headmistress of his school was my witness.

s

xxx

[Sallya]

2 letters this morning. 1st from assistant ed officer, with new ammended proposed statement part 3; 2nd from deputy director (chief on annual leave) says passed letter onto principal ed officer (SEN) and have asked her to look into my request as a matter of urgency and respond to me direct.

Just sent photocopies to IPSEA lady so she can check it over, they have upped it to 15 hours support, and changed will 'benefit from access' to 'needs support with'

so getting there?

S

xxx

Edited September 22, 2005 by Sallya

[nellie]

slowly slowly catchee monkee!

 

Nellie xx

[annie]

Well done

 

It's amazing how things CAN start to happen after a carefully worded letter is received

 

Annie

<'>

[LKS]

Brilliant sallya Ipsea were really good when it came to my daughter's statement as well. There was lots of will benefit from access to. She went through it all and changed it to will have support in The LEA were not very pleased but when I mentioned I'd had advice from Ipsea they went ahead. However the school certainly does not ensure she has support in all these things so I find myself policing the statement continually.

[Sallya]

I heard back from the IPSEA lady today.

She's not impressed with their latest efforts at writing proposed statement that complies with the directions of the 1996 Education Act,and the SEN Code of Practise(her words, doesn't think much of it) she's advised me to ask LEA to proceed to final statement in order to move the whole process forward. So I've done that today.

s

xxx

[UltraMum]

Let us know how you get on ...

[Sallya]

Just waiting to see what happens next.

s

xxx