Sorry guys, Statement question again....

[fiorelli]

I was under the impression that there were certain timescales that had to be adhered to when going through the statementing process.

 

e.g. 6 weeks for LEA to give a decision to assess or not after recieving request

6 weeks to get advice

4 weeks for LEA to make a decision

2 weeks to notify parents of decision

8 weeks to finalise statement.

 

(total 26 weeks)

 

 

I phoned up the LEA to speak to the Principal SEN officer dealing who I have been dealing with regarding Louis's statement, to find out whether they had any idea whether they knew when I would get a decision. as they have now had all their advice back.

 

The PSENO wasn't there, so the person on the other end of the phone went to look at his file.

 

She came back and said that they didn't need to give us a decision until 22ND MARCH!!!

 

I said that "I thought it was quicker than that as the date given by the LEA to get in the advice was 28th December"

 

She said "We must have done the beginning bit a lot quicker than normal, as the date on the file is 22nd March for a decision."

 

Me "Oh.."

 

Her "We have other more urgent cases we are looking at, but I don't think it will take that long"

 

Me "have you any idea when?"

 

Her "We have other more urgent cases we are dealing with, but we could be getting back to you by the end of January".

 

Me "Oh, Ok - Goodbye".

 

 

 

 

 

Going by the date of the first letter I recieved from the LEA saying that they had recieved a request for a Statement (20th September 2005), baring in mind that the application was turned down, and then reinstated on 16th November,

from which they gave us 6 weeks to get in advice (28th December) -

surely the next deadline would be them making a decision (by 10th January),

and letting us know a maximum of 2 weeks later (24th January)

and IF they decide to do a statement, finalise it within 8 weeks (21st March)

 

 

Actually, looking at those dates, it looks as if she was getting dates on Louis's file mixed up, and read the completion date, rather than a date for a decision...

 

I think I'll phone again on Monday and actually speak to the PSENO - at least she seems to know what she is on about - pity she only works part time

[Tez]

I'm sure you're right this is the date they need to finalise by but I would double check. Our LEA is quoting different dates to us about when they need to finalise A's statement but since we're only disagreeing about 7 days I'm not going to argue.

 

What I would like to know is if any individual section is issued early e.g. if a proposed statement is issued a week earlier than the deadline is the finalising date still 8 weeks after this, making 25 weeks in total? I think this is where my LEA are allowing themselves an extra week to finalise and still claim they are meeting the deadline, they are counting the full 26 weeks..

Edited January 6, 2006 by Tez

[fiorelli]

Tez, you just said exactly what I was thinking!

[jen]

Tez, you just said exactly what I was thinking!

 

I always ring the LEA officer up and confirm the date (you need to work out the day first), I then tell them I will be in the office on that date to collect the statement. It works wonders and the statement is always ready on time.

 

Lynne