Its going to Tribunal

[jenk1]

Was supposed to have a meeting with the LEA today about DS proposed statement.

Our independent psych phoned on Monday and said that the statement was so dire that there was too many changes needed and that in view of the fact that the LEA are not willing to accept the NHS,s dx of PDD for ds that he was recommending we go straight to tribunal.

So i phoned IPSEA yesterday and they said go to the meeting if you want, but if you feel that there are too many changes needed and its going to drag on because the LEA will probably try to drag it out then ask for the statement to be finalised and start the appeal process at SENDIST.

As it is DS and me have both had a stomach bug this morning so i wasnt able to go so i have written the LEA a letter telling them to make the statement final and that we will be appealing to SENDIST.

So.....we now have to play the waiting game some more.

[Dingle]

Oh Jenk!!!! What can I say honey...we are still playing the waiting game. Our LEA don't even make a decision as whether or not to statement until the end of Feb!!!

It's just so crap, such a waste of time our kiddies just can't afford to spare!!!

Sending hugs!!!!

[amynnixmum]

Sorry to hear this jenk. Hope you and ds feel better soon. Good luck with the appeal.

[tobysmumkent]

Message withdrawn

[coppertop]

Jenk and Dingle

Good luck to both of you. that this is all taking so long.

[caroline3]

Jenk sorry to hear about this. When are you likely to get a hearing date.

Meanwhile your child has to struggle on without the correct level of support. This makes me so angry...

[macwoozy]

You must be so fed up with it all, sorry to hear this

[jenk1]

we are we are soooooooooooooo fed up with all of this.

He,s now down to 2 hours a week home tuition as his severe anxiety means he cant cope with more than that, the home tuition service and the medical people are all in agreement with that.

So, he has now missed schooling since Nov 05, and we were hoping to have him in a school this spring, but realistically its going to be in September if we win the tribunal cos dont think we,ll ever get him in a mainstream one now.

IPSEA and our psych have both told me that we have such a good strong case for getting him in the independent ASD school, but nothings guaranteed, so we will give it our best shot and then rethink after if we dont win.

Its been so hard, he,s with me 24/7 and now dd has a provisional dx of ASD, and she has CP, its just so hard, i just need a break sometimes.

[jenk1]

they wont acknowledge his dx of PDD.
They put his SN as anxiety,some obsessional beahviour.

They go on an on about him missing loads of school, they are offering up to 20 hours per week to be taught on a 1-2-1 basis and in groups, so he probably wont even have his own asisstant, in part 3 they say that we need to give them a date when he will be back in school (how can we do that when he,s medically signed off and even the clinical psych cant give a date) and that once he,s in school another meeting will need to be held to see about keeping the same level of support.

they are so obsessed with getting him into school that they are not giving him the support he needs.

Our independant psych is IPSEA trained and is rewriting the statement as we think it should be and also we are going to go to Tribunal as we want him in an independent school.

I have thought about a solicitor but IPSEA and our psych have assured me that they can give us all the help that we need and tbh with DH being off work for 6 months (he,s just gone back) we dont have the money and dont qualify for legal aid.

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

jenk1

Good luck with the appeal to SENDIST.

IPSEA are very good at tribunals; I sincerely hope that SENDIST listen to you and take this LEA to task severely!!.

[jenk1]

oh yes ive heard of him before socci, our psych does the same thing as this guy but he,s based in the north of the uk.
Thanks for the link

[flyingmum]

Best of luck. Our LEA dragged our case out until the very last minute. We had nearly 400 pages of evidence in our case statement and they had only ONE! but they still didn't fold until 24 hours before the tribunal but I did get to write my son's statement. They also tried to nobble one of my witnesses, the SENCO at my son's school but telling her it was unprofessional of her to appear against them - which is absolute tosh. Fortunately she is a stalwart character as was the head and they stuck to their guns. We started the process about this time last year and I used ASSET to help me. The tribunal date was for late September (they are so inundated with requests so expect at least a six month gap between application and the actual date) SOS!SEN are running a parent workshop at the end of February on how to take on a tribunal. I went on one and it was brilliant. The legal stuff was dire and rather daunting BUT it was great for the people you meet. Sandy Row's book was really helpful too. I can send you details of the SOS thingy if you wish and anything else you want to know, please don't hesitate to ask. Just remember it is daunting, highly pissooffing but possible.

Good luck.