Help please re appealing decision about statutory assessment

[beautifulgirls]

Hi,

I will get around to speaking to IPSEA/parent partnership etc but have had a huge amount on my plate this last month so hope someone can just give me some pointers so I can start planning a bit better meanwhile and get my head around things and get something done in a sensible time before the deadline (early Sept) to appeal.

DD was turned down for statutory assessment. When I write the reasons for appealing against this decision does it need to be short and concise or do I go in depth and start referring to parts of the SEN CoP, quoting parts of her medical reports and the school's application paperwork. If so roughly how many pages have people produced for this purpose? The school sent a huge folder of paperwork originally for this application. Do I copy this whole thing and send it to the tribunal people at this point? One of the things the LEA commented in a negative way was about the huge amount of paperwork that had been submitted (hopefully I can throw this back at them in the tribunal!).

I am planning now to get additional reports done privately for DD. Do I just state this to the tribunal at this point and ask to be able to submit these later, or do I just wait until I get them then contact them about it?

We are planning to take this to tribunal on our own at this point, though may seek some sort of help from an advocate or solicitor further down the line if necessary as I anticipate a fight the whole way.

Thanks

[drivemecrazy63]

i understand what your saying about being busy ect but i dont think people realise that pp ipsea and SOSSEN will do a lot to help freeing you up and assisting and can actually take the burden off you by writting the reply for you as they know the best way to get you what you want and need for your dc and they also know how your local LEA will react and the trib to things like private dx/ reports and therapies as a lot of LEAs should but dont take noice of private and insist on their own referals ect. thats not to say for your own sake and your dcs its not a good idea though. often pp and other advocates if you get them to intervene now can get them to agree early rather than having this awful long fight,
heres sosens link as they have a freephone for advice as well as indepth help and ive seen a download advice sheets for tribunal which im sure will answer your questions :
www.sossen.org.uk/index.php

hth and good luck

[Starchart]

Short and concise at this point is best. It is best to quote directly from the CoP too. Believe me, by the end of this you will have written reams so you won't want to be repeating yourself.

All you have to do now is show the tribunal that you 'might' have a point. And then you'll get a date and that is where the hard work begins and gets steadily more so. It isn't supposed to work like that but LAs generally take the piss with their deadlines, especially if they are likely to lose anyway, so you'll find yourself working hard near the end.

Be orderly and organised.

[Agnesdipesto]

Also there is a good chance they are just turning you down as a pisstake - they know a certain % of parents will give up at this point. Once you register the appeal, even if you have done no other work on it, that in itself will signal to the LA you are serious. Our LA backed down the day after the appeal registration letter hit their doormat pretending they had 'new' evidence. They didn't, they received one report which was already summarised elsewhere.

You will have plenty of time to submit more evidence, so short and concise is fine at this stage.

DS ended up with fulltime costly independent provision and this for a child who they tried to say did not even merit an assessment. See it just as a way for the LA to sift out the number of requests. The vast majority of appeals just to do an assessment are successful. And many backdown the minute they see you will take it further.

[beautifulgirls]

Thank you. I will get onto SOS:SEN or IPSEA and PP asap next week when I can. DD#3 has been very ill and we have been back and forth from hospital with her. I wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to make the 8 month awaited appointment for DD#1 with the autism team next week things have been that manic, though it looks like we should be fine to get to that now thankfully as didn't want to have to rearrange. I need to sort out what is happening sooner rather than later re SA for DD#1 as DD#3 is likely going to be back in hospital for a while and not sure what postop care is going to be needed from there.

[Starchart]

If there is any way you can do this, avoid anyone dealing with ds1 from knowing about your difficulties with ds3.

[beautifulgirls]

DD#3 problems were very sudden and DD#1 had clear problems before all of this started for dd#3. All of the reports to date were made prior to any issues with DD#3 as well. I intend to keep the two things very separate however as don't want anyone trying to twist the two problems and blame circumstances for DD#1 issues. Thanks

[Starchart]

Good. Not trying to scare you but sometimes it can be easier to blame the parents, and my potential weakness due to my fathers death was used to the LAs advantage whilst pretending to be doing me a favour i.e. Undue delays were for MY sake apparently.