It probably holds more weight if the school apply, BUT ONLY if they apply with the argments/case that YOU would make (plus extra) and you can utterly trust the school to a)make the right case, and b)know how to make the right case. Normally this won't happen.

If you apply yourself then all reports and documents should be copied to you in the process, plus you have to at least know about if not attend subsequent meetings for contributions.

You can be lucky with the school of course, but all in all, the only person you can really trust with your child's future is yourself.

Yep - nappy, that's right.

In fact there is a debate as to whose application would hold more sway with the LEA, school's or parent's.

It should make no difference but I'm inclined to think that the LEA would take more notice of an application made by school, having tried SA, SA+ etc before making that final step HOWEVER - as we all know schools are positively discouraged by LEAs from applying for Statements and some schools simply ignore chidlren's difficulties - so often the first the LEA gets to hear about a child's particular difficulties is when the parent itself applies - as happened in our case.

WetAugust - oh so in that case it doesn't really matter if the school or parent applies as either way as a parent you can appeal if LEA say no to assessment.

My son was being put forward for an autistc unit without a statement,but now we are going to look at a hospital school next week.I asked about statementing and was told whilst most children do have statements they dont have to have one it can be applied for after which is what we are doing.

If parent applies and is refused then parent must appeal.

If school applies and is refused the school has no right to appeal BUT the parent does have the right to appeal that refusal.

Hope that clears things up.

Thankyou that's much clearer now

I htink only the people who make the application can appeal, ie the school if that is the case, and then in law, I believe the school has no right to appeal.

if you apply as a parent, then you have the right to appeal.

appealing the decision to assess initially.

AFAIK, appealign the statement is always down to the parent - the LEA is always going to want to put less on the statement than you as a parent would want on there.

So if school refer and LEA say no to assessment can you still not appeal as a parent?

Do you mean a parent can appeal whether the LEA say yes or no to assessing them or appealing the statement they give?