Help! I'm going to tribunal and they've called an annual review in the middle of it all

[bjkmummy]

statement finalised nov 2011. Emergency review may 2012 as he was struggling. We want to move him to a special school as he's now only in school part time. Post emergency review lea refused all our amendments so lodged tribunal papers - tribunal feb 2013

Got a letter today to say calling annual review in mov. Last place I want to be in nov is in annual review with lea! Especially as by then lea will probably saying they are fighting us. I don't want to give away anything to do with our case plus lea will try to get the class teacher to say what they want to hear. Ic thought the emergency review would be classed as a review and therefore would be next may when all of this would be over, the letter doesn't even give a time of the review which is helpful wit a child in school part time! Also the head goes on maternity leave tomorrow so I have no idea who will do the review from school or how up to speec with everything g they will be!

[Veritate]

You can't prevent them from having the review, and it might even be quite useful as a means of finding out a bit more about what they are going to say and in particular what the school's position is. You don't have to say anything, especially about your appeal.

Is the LA saying this school is OK? It seems to me that if your son is in part time that's an outright admission that it can't.

Also the LA must be breaking the law, unless they are providing anything like home tuition, because your son is entitled to full time education and everything in part 3 of the statement, which is unlikely to be the case if he isn't there. For instance, if it says he must receive the full national curriculum and he is missing lessons then that isn't happening. You might find that if you put pressure on them about that, they will concentrate a bit more on the desirability of moving him to a special school. It might need something like a solicitor's letter but that might be covered by legal aid in your son's name.

[bjkmummy]

he is part time as he was vomiting due to anxiety = that has stopped now he is in school part time. we had a private Ot report done which supported a move to a special school. his current school state they cannot meet his needs and they are just keepin a lid on him. the LA playing dirty and sent in outreach who then has wrote 2 reports to say she sees no issues and cannot suggest a single intervention for him. they finally sent in their own NHS OT whose report we got on monday - their report is more damning than ours!!! we want a school that is 8.5k a year - the LA are viewing it today as the school only opened last month. when they amended the statement post reivew in may they upped his hours to 32.5 but he has never benefited from them as he has remained part time. i just dont want to be in the room with them as we have had private reports done as well which also support his level of high anxiety and the need for specialist school placement. just wish the review could be may but ive read the code of practice and its a bit wishy washy

[bjkmummy]

the LA view i think is that his current mainstream school is uitable and as hes getting 32.5 hours support then he will be fine even though he has asd, adhd, anxiety, sensory processing modulation, hypermobility, severe dyspraxia. he cannot cope with children even looking at him - school are just babysitting - he is on a high level of alert at all times just in case someone may touch him. my SALT said that he is exhausted just by having to cope with a morning as it is such an effort for him. he needs SALT as well plus a lot of OT and we still have the ed psych report to go yet. the autism outreach woman said that his mainstream classroom with 29 children in is a calm and structured enviroment. she was sent in with an agenda fromthe LA to find nothing wrong - the head also observed the same lesson and teh head said he has his ears constantly over his ears due to teh noise but the outreach woman failed to note this down in her report but did helpfully put that she saw him pick his nose!

[bochead]

Use the annual review to request a change to part 4 of his statement. The only info you have to provide at review is the 2 OT reports that support this view. Justification = not able to access national curriculum in current setting.

The LA will either agree to amend his statement at the annual review and you may be able to avoid Tribunal OR they will be forced to refuse your request in writing. If the latter they've just strengthened your case when it does get to Tribunal time.

Ask your question re placement at the start of the meeting, then just listen.

It's a PITA, but approached correctly could be really helpful to your cause.

[bjkmummy]

pininjo - that is a very good point. and bochead taht is useful advice. i am hoping that once they view our school today they back down. the big thing they were arguing about was 'identified needs' i argued that they have not identified all of his needs and therefore the statement is not a true reflection of his needs. this was agreed in writing by the head at the emergency review so think at this one with the old head gone they are going to try and get the comments reversed. however they said they wanted their own OT report for balance. they again have made us wait weeks/months for it to be done and it has come back worse than ours. their OT had to do different tests as our OT reports less than 6 months old so both reports with 2 lots of different tests has come back to say his needs are huge. we have had no response from the lea yet about their view of their own report. they agreed in a previous meeting that if their report agreed with ours then they would accept it. if they try to get the school to go back on them meeting his needs i can of course raise all of the new problems raised within the OT reports - the school want him to go as they have done all they can for him but he needs specialist schooling

[mariamma]

This might be a way for them to concede without losing face.

Give nothing away, but let them have time/space/reports/resources to help them painfully work out for themselves what you told them clearly on day 1. Like dealing with a teenager with HFA really

If it is a trick to bamboozle tribunal by saying, the revised statement "isn't quite ready but will magically resolve all the issues", could you scupper the evil plan by asking tribunal to delay for a few weeks.