Have just received the draft statement

[Mother in Need]

I have just received the draft statement, and I am sooooooo disappointed

I thought that my fight would be over, as school certainly seems to have turned around some of their attitudes, but this draft is so vague

 

He 'will need an Individual Education Plan'

'The school has a responsibility to provide D from its own delegated resources'

'access to a broad and balanced curriculum, appropriately differentiated to meet his needs'

This is c**p, every child with SEN should have this anyway, what is so different about this?

 

School made me feel last week that he would get 15 hours 1-2-1, funded by the CSA as of immediate, and the LSA told me that school would complement these to cover the whole week, so there was nothing for me to worry about.

Yeah right.

The statement says:

'To aid the implementation of the Individual Education Plan, initially this provision will be supplemented with funding to enable him to benefit from 15 hours per week of learning assistant support. The additional support will be closely focussed on his needs and can be delivered on an individual basis, within a small group or as in-class support, available to D as required. Additional resources will be made available to facilitate a re-integration programme.'

 

Can someone please reassure me and tell me this is all alright and will give him the 1-2-1 he so desperately needs, and that school can't suddenly say that he is coping and hence the 'as required' bit makes it all disappear?

 

How am I going to get a proper statement, re-write the whole thing from the very beginning?

 

[phasmid]

Hi M-i-n, I'm at work right now so haven't go things to hand as such BUT, this looks far to loose to be of any use. I'll look in later and see what others have said and see if I can shed any more light on it for you.

[Tez]

Hi MIN,

 

Yes, definitely too vague. I've a number of suggestions. Firstly, you need to arrange with the LEA a meeting to discuss the proposed statement.

 

There is a suggested letter to send on this link here

 

Then you need to go through the statement, together with all the professional advice as detailed in this link here (Scroll down it's under getting extra help for your child) - The statement - what to look for in your child's proposed statement. Check particularly to see if the advice said he should have dedicated 1 to 1 support and for what period of time it was needed. There is nothing in that statement that says it 1 to 1, indeed, it suggests that the support should be used for the whole class although the primary focus is your son.

 

Bear in mind also the DFES guidance that all provision should be clearly specified and quantified. Once you've done both these things and identified the areas of concern, I would suggest that you ask IPSEA to look over it for you and advise. Then do just what you suggested - rewrite it and go to the meeting with the LEA and say that this is what you want.

[Mother in Need]

Yes please Phasmid!

 

Tez, thanks for that, I've got a draft letter and printed off the info from Afasic, which seems pretty comprehensive. Now all I need is time......................................(did I mention my son only goes to school a few hours a day, and then not all days; I was so looking forward to a few hours to relax; thanks again CSA...)

 

I am curious as to whether a blanket statement has been used, as most of what is mentioned under Provision could possibly have been taken straight from the Code, some is inappropriate and lots of stuff totally non-mentioned.

How could I find this out?

[Tez]

MIN,

 

Some of the comments you mentioned are standard statements that are included in most statements, such as will need an individual education plan, access to a broad and balanced curriculum, appropriately differentiated to meet his needs. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that this is a blanket statement. The best way to see if they've taken on board all the advice is to make sure that all the difficulties identified in the expert advice have been listed in part 2, then in part 3 the objectives should be listed, then provision to meet needs and objectives, for each difficulty identified there should an objective and provision. So for instance if an identified difficulty was "difficulty in participating in group work", there should be an objective such as to develop his ability to participate in group work and a strategy for dealing with it, for example, the LSA should help the child to cope with group activities and mediate in social situations with peers and adults.

 

As long as all the expert advice has been taken on board and incorporated into the statement then a blanket statement probably hasn't been issued. However, if the unmentioned items relate to expert advice, I'd ask for them to be included.

Edited March 8, 2006 by Tez

[phasmid]

M-i-n, I've nothing to add to the excellent advice given by Tez. Follow that and you're not going to go wrong.

[Mother in Need]

for each difficulty identified there should an objective and provision

mmm, no, not particularly, about two are covered but not the rest. Providing 'a strongly structured and supportive learning environment, for instance, could mean several things, but then again, school will say that every child gets that anyway, which is not going to help him one bit.

[Tez]

Ask them to clarify the statement so that it is clear, in what ways will the support be provided, how will his day and environment be structured? It took me a couple of days to go through A's statement and I requested loads of ammendments, additions and clarifications. Ask for what you want. Use their statement as a base but write your own and ask them to take it on board. I did, unfortunately the LEA preferred their version. . I know we shouldn't have to but unfortunately it does seem to be the way you have to do it. IPSEA are really good at helping you check proposed statements. When you've clarified your thoughts it's worth giving them a ring and discussing it with them.

Edited March 8, 2006 by Tez

[Mother in Need]

Thanks.

[call me jaded]

There are examples on how to spedify provision in the SEN toolkit. Download the right section from Teachernet.

[Hectorshouse]

Hi MIN from what you have posted this does seem pretty bog standard wording ... it is vague and pretty useless, you have had some excellent advice from Tez and I do recommend you make an appointment with your LEA officer this will stop the clock on the statement being finalised.

 

I've just received T's new draft, so I'm in the same process as yourself. If you go on my bloggy you will find a copy of T's draft statement and the wording used (which isn't brill but you'll get an idea) this was compiled by your LEA so it will give a very clear idea of what they write.

 

HHxx

[Mother in Need]

Oh My God

 

This is definitely a blanket statement, except for a few changes here and there to allow for a few differences, the two drafts are the same, WORD FOR WORD.

 

I thought this was illegal.

 

HH, how come your old LEA is doing his statement, shouldn't your new one be doing this?

 

Would you mind if I printed of your son's draft statement and show this to some people, ie solicitor and IPSEA?