Feeling hopeless about SEN tribunal

[Lizzi18]

My child has sever cerebral palsy, she went to a mainstream secondary school and was let down very badly, she wanted to go to a specialist residential college but the LA said too expensive and stated they would send her to a mainstream college. I appealed, which was an awful and expensive process.

The LA agreed to amend the EHCP to include all the extra provision my child needed but argued in the appeal that the mainstream college can provide it. The proposals put forward to provide the provision were ludicrous involving a 70 mile round trip once a week to a different campus, but the LA argued that the cost would be a lot cheaper than a residential college (because of the social care provision which isn't included in the mainstream college as the care is provided by me for free!) and I lost the appeal and now I am completely stuck.

I called the college to arrange a meeting to ensure that she will get what was promised. They said that they didn't promise anything and it was down to the LA and decision the tribunal made, I was upset (crying) and they said that I was being threatening and aggressive and hung up on me. Eventually they called back and was very rude. We explained that we are concerned that the provision agreed to will not be met, we explained that we would not allow a repeat of what happened at secondary school so we want everything documented and would be on top of things if any of the provision was missed, they again accused us of being threatening and told that if we don't want to send her there then don't enrol her. They said because we were insisting the provision be provided appropriately they won't enrol her until they have the provision in place which may take several months. (they will need to employ staff, do checks etc). They clearly don't want her in the college and were only doing what the LA told them saying they could provide what was agreed at the tribunal.

I don't know what to do now. My child is not in school, I don't want to send her somewhere that she won't get what she is entitled to and it'll take so long to and so much time and money to take to a judicial review, and don't know if I can appeal the decision as this can only be done on a point of law and not because we disagree with it. I'm feeling completely hopeless that I let her down in the tribunal because we lost and no idea what to do now.

[Volant]

Write to the college setting out exactly what they told you about the provision not being in place for several months. If they confirm it, or even if they don't reply to deny it, contact someone like SOS SEN about the possibility of appealing against the tribunal decision - you can do so even if you're beyond the deadline if it's due to new facts coming to light. It could be worth them looking at the decision anyway, since making a child with CP travel 70 miles in one day on a regular basis sounds mad.

How old is your daughter? Does she have any help from social services and, if so, was the cost of that taken into account in your appeal?

By the way, judicial review isn't expensive or slow. You can get legal aid in your daughter's name, and apparently where it's clear-cut that SEN support specified in the plan is not in place local authorities tend to roll over and concede anyway.

[Lizzi18]

Thank you, we have a meeting next week to discuss it but the woman was very clear that the only objective is to talk about course options and enrolment, she was not going to discuss the provision and that we would have to talk to the LA about getting it all in place as not her responsibility (I'm fairly sure it's not meant to be mine?)

She is 17 and has no social care support. Social services would not get involved at secondary school as they stated she did not meet their threshold for support as she was in a mainstream school (even though it was inadequate and they weren't meeting her needs).They have now stated they will support transition to adulthood, but only after she leaves college. The cost difference between the mainstream colleges and the specialist college was the social care provision as the college is residential, and it's free to keep her here for me to care for her.

The more I look at the tribunal decision the more biased I think it is. They did not mention my testimony at all in it, I guess a parent isn't an expert so why listen to them. Plus the decision was late (by a full week) and full of errors, at one point they even refer to her by a different name. Their decision was based on the LA's EP saying that because she got 3 Cs at GCSE with a reader and a scribe, in subjects which only required her to recount facts, then she could go to university (despite being so severely dyslexic that she can not read beyond the level of a 6 year old). The little fact the she needs 24 hour support, with all her personal care (washing, dressing, feeding, getting about) somehow she's going to manage to do university life, and therefore should go to a college that will allow her the (eventually) progress to a level 3 course - the specialist college did state they could also provide level 3 course but the tribunal ignored this stating they didn't think it would be academically challenging enough due to concentrating on supporting her to develop her phyisical abilities for independent living.

Sorry, I'm ranting now, I'm just so angry at the situation, and so tired of fighting with people who don't have a clue about what it is like to be disabled and how difficult just living day to day can be.