SEND Tribunal appeal - demonstrating costs of dyslexia tutoring in mainstream school

[sharkonastick]

Hello, I'm close to someone who's going to SEND Tribunal in a few months to ask for her DS's statement of SEN to name a specialist independent secondary school, in place of the mainstream state secondary school it currently specifies.

We're challenging Sections 2, 3 and 4 of his statement, though we're most keen to change Section 4 naming the school. DS still has a statement, not an EHC. I'd like to ask people's advice on preparing part of the case, about making the argument that the independent school is actually the cheaper option, compared to the mainstream school currently named.

DS has severe dyslexia. He originally started at the mainstream school and was there for over a year. In that time he made no academic progress and became more and more withdrawn and felt more and more conspicuous compared to his peers. He is now attending the independent school after the parents decided that remaining at the mainstream school was no longer an option.

How is the independent school the cheaper option? Well, we have an educational psychologist's report (independent, not part of the LEA's statement assessment process sadly) which states that DS in mainstream school needs "additional one-to-one tuition with a dyslexia-trained teacher, a minimum of 8 lessons per week, each of 45 minutes" and "the support of a teaching assistant, trained in assisting children with specific learning difficulties, for all literacy and numeracy lessons". The report also states that this provision would not be needed at the specialist independent school.

Unfortunately the current statement does not specify provision of this extra tuition, so that's an additional argument for us to make.

We've estimated the costs of these 8 one-to-one lessons and the TA support for all literacy/numeracy lessons, and they add up to more per year than the independent school fees (bigger by about half as much again).

I'd like to know if anyone can advise on making our estimates more rigorous? Is there some kind of Freedom of Information request we can make? Can we request the Tribunal to direct the LEA to submit their costings of the support recommended by the educational psychologist? Is there a generally-recognised source of hourly costs/charges for one-to-one dyslexia-trained teaching, and TA support from someone trained in assisting children with specific learning difficulties?

Many thanks for any suggestions anyone can provide!

[hlw20]

My understanding is that under the new SEND guidelines, parents or guardians of children with SEN provision have a right to be involved in all budget aspects of their child's education. The child is also supposed to have a provision map or EHC plan which outlines this information clearly to all parties involved with the child whether that be parents, school social services or NHS- there is a renewed emphaisis on comminuication to avoid children falling through the gaps. Parent's also have a right to request part of the budget to buy resources for home use if they feel it will benefit their child.
With regards to moving school to specialised provision, i can understand that it would be complicated to figure out out monies. I do know that TA's can be emplyed to work with the class and with one child during a particular point of the lesson so that could be particularly difficult.

Hope that has given some insight. I would look at the new legislation with regards to SEN and hopefully that should guide you in the right direction.

Good luck

[AYearofMinorMiracles]

Hi!

You could be describing DS1 5 years ago.

Info below from paperwork for Tribunal for DS2 (2011), the following was listed:
Specialist teacher earn £40,000 plus with post-graduate qualifications for teaching dyslexics or children with dyscalculia. On costs mean this would be £45,000. From that you work out hourly rate, plus transport if being bought in.

Solicitors pointed out one teaching assistant is not good practice, so a school would need two trained and experienced assistants - earning between £18,000 and £22,000, with on costs £27,000. From that you work out percentage of time allocated to the child.

With the other therapies both DSs needed, the cost of keeping them in mainstream and supported was over double that of using an independent specialist school. However, are you fighting on need or cost?

You could use the TES to get bang-up-to-date salaries.

The LEA will calculate everything at far less, until challenged.

Good luck. It is hard going but worth it.

[AnonyMusty]

Contact PATOSS (body of specialist dyslexia assessor a and tutors). They may be able to advise on this. I charge a different hourly rate for tuition at home to my daytime rate in schools. Hourly rates tend to vary widely amongst my colleagues and I.
Is the independent school you're considering a specialist one? Many non-specialist independents charge additionally for 1:1 support (and have poorly trained staff).

[InimitableJeeves]

You can certainly ask the tribunal to order the LA to state what the hourly rate for specialist dyslexia teaching would be, and the hourly TA rate.