Fed up of mindfuck LA, self-serving meetings, professional liars

[donburi]

Just venting. There is this march in London on Saturday all about saving local jobs in the public sector. As the child of socialist parents, I can't believe that I am thinking along the lines of: 'Sack 'em all, they have fucked around with my ASD child, my family life, my finances - I cannot recall a single, positive moment since DS' birth when I have felt proud or grateful in relation to my LA.

The woolly statement I now have in my hand has hardly redeemed them. When I was struggling to pay for private interventions, they accused me of pushing out their crap services and that it was a child protection issue. Now that I am asking them to put their money where their mouth is, all of a sudden, the bank is closed, DS is 'making progress' (obv untrue). Their corrupt mindfuck is all about communicating that they are right either way and all of the time.

They turned up to my sons paed appointment in force citing CAF even though I never invited them, making their little notes to help them gain an advantage over me if it goes to tribunal.

They have magicked up this appointment with ASD outreach which they could have done years ago when he was a lot more severe if it was out of genuine concern for him rather than lining up potential tribunal witnesses.

I do not think they can be out-crapped at LA level and I really wish they knew how little faith we have in them and how goddam awful they really are.

[donburi]

As an afterthought, if I so much as hint at my concerns, They always ask me if I am 'anxious' and whether I have considered a relaxing activity such as meditation, yoga and other activities which are the spiritual equivalent of smoking pot ... other than kick boxing, I can't think of how numbing down and dumbing down is going to help DS.

[bjkmummy]

could have wrote that post myself!!! i asked for autsim outreach to be written into his statement - lea refused cos they were about to make her redundant - then they had noone then they got someone who was not a qualified teacher - all the time i kept asking - my son needs help - they then promised me help once he started vomiting every day and went part time - finally outreach turned up but had been given a brief to find nothing wrong with him - she wrote it was fine for him to play alone at playtime, that his mainstream classroom of 29 children was a calm and structured enviroment, she quoted his new teacher as saying 'hes fine' even though he was only in school in a morning and he had taught him for 8 mornings, says teracher reported no incidents at playtime - strange then how when the nhs OT went in for the LEA she wrote a damning report saying she saw him having meltdowns at playtime and the SALT also reported isssues at playtime. the head was so digusted by the outreach first report that when she turned up a second time the head went in to observe again - 2nd report - same load of crap - head then emailed head of SEN and ask why did outreach observe him picking his nose but failed to even notice him with his hand placed firmly over his ears!!!! its just a big pile of rubbish and everyone has joined forces against us - parent partnership refuse to help parents going to tribunal

[bialystockandbloom]

Yep I think you'd find many of us nodding our heads in recognition.

Good luck with your tribunal, when is it? Is it against contents of part 3?

[inappropriatelyemployed]

"As the child of socialist parents, I can't believe that I am thinking along the lines of: 'Sack 'em all, they have fucked around with my ASD child, my family life, my finances - I cannot recall a single, positive moment since DS' birth when I have felt proud or grateful in relation to my LA."

I have to say I am a socialist myself and I have been disgusted with the lying, lazy, self-centredness of public sector workers in relation to my child (both schools, the LA and many in the NHS). I have encountered no evidence of NHS 'angels'.

Yet I have had to put up with their self-righteous crap about themselves and their roles as they lie and cheat my child out of provision. Challenge them and they cry you are stressing them out.

Seriously, you would not get away with this in the private sector and I never thought I would say that.

[Dev9aug]

NHS saved my son's life who was born extremely premature. I am very grateful for that and I thought they could do no wrong. But since my son was dxed with ASD last year, I have to agree with the OP's statement.

[bialystockandbloom]

The top priority of LEAs SEN dept is presumably to keep expenditure as low as possible. That must infect the whole of their modus operandi. Top down approach.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

It's Not to keep costs down. It is to keep their jobs and pensions.

Most of them would be out of work if provision looked the way most of us would like to see it.

[TheTimeTravellersWife]

That's why I am so concerned about the draft SEN Bill, it weakens protection for children and does nothing at all to make LAs accountable - and the Govt are spending money on the Pathfinders, as a means to justify the changes!

[bialystockandbloom]

Same thing star. If the overarching brief (from the top) is to always keep low expenditure as a priority, every action of member of staff will always be driven by keeping costs (ie provision) as low and cheap as possible.

Sort of same thing in many areas of NHS too but obv not so easy to get away with it if there are only ever one or two standardised medical treatments for a condition. In most non-critical cases they just try and discharge you if they can get away with it.

[willowthecat]

I could have written the op too. I am actually amazed at just how totally crap autism 'services' are. All they do is to waste your time and to encourage you to not look for better services elsewhere soon enough. The staff at ds' last school went on strike for more pay and pensions etc but most children in that school had been there for years with no SALT or OT input and the staff had never even asked for any help for them !!

[NoHaudinMaWheest]

I was told by DS's key worker today that it was difficult to recruit a support worker for him because it was 'draining'. This is to do for 2 nights a week with pay, holidays, sick leave and pension what I have been doing virtually every night for the last 7 years for nothing (oh I do get carers' allowance).

[AgnesDiPesto]

I work in the public sector and I could have written this too

I dream of winning the lottery so I never have to have any dealings with any public sector worker about DS ever again, so he never has to rely on these people for his safety. They have almost all, with just two exceptions, made a shitty situation a hundred times worse.

I feel when I had a disabled child I stumbled into some Hitler style ghetto.
Often when I am around these so called professionals I feel society has not come very far from sticking kids like mine on a one way trip to the gas chamber.

I don't understand the current abortion debate at all. Those MP's who say they are pro life don't give a flying f**k about our kids once they stop being a foetus and become a disabled child.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

I too worked in the public sector or for the public sector for 15 years. I am ashamed to say I was once employed by a LA to help them reduce their SEN spend .

What I know now, is how they talk about our children. It wasn't especially bad tbh, but it WAS impersonal and budget-led.

[bochead]

OP I hear ya!!!!!

IF the services were up to even semi par I'd still be employed!!!! Where's MY standard of living and pension?

I apologise if that sounds selfish but there's no rational reason why I should have had to give up my career (and any semblance of a decent life), IF the services advertised did what they say on the tin. I was a 40% tax payer, & bitterly resent having to eke out an existence on benefits. I'm still mopping up the damage public services caused, while my skills rust.

It's the constant patronising as they make error after error I've found hardest to stomach.

I was a socialist, yet I'm beginning to have doubts as to why some individuals seek a career with children in the first place tbh.

[bialystockandbloom]

Star And you have managed to keep that one hidden all this time

[bialystockandbloom]

Yes, I really truly cannot understand why someone would go into this field when they so patently don't give a fuck about the children concerned. Don't know how some of them can sleep at night.

[hoxtonbabe]

I couldnt agree more! I am always bleating on about why do in a "caring/safeguarding" role, when you really don't give a damn.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

bialy It wasn't THANK GOD as bad as it sounds. The LA in question were in a right mess and didn't even know what their SEN spend even was exactly and giving out statements without doing SAs on the school's say so and then subsequently transport. Schools saw it as a way of getting more funding and resources and nothing was being checked. It was a bloody mess, and nothing I did denied a child with SN any provision - I hope.

[ilikemysleep]

Is there nobody who has had a good experience? I have from autism professionals. GP referred when I asked. Assessment was thorough and had lots of integrity (ados, school obs, full history, partial cognitive assessment). Took about 6 or 7 months start to finish. Was followed up with school meeting and 2 day course on autism for parents.

My son doesn't need a statement so I haven't dealt with LA but I used to work with one and mostly they tried hard to be fair with a limited budget. They have to have due regard to spending as they have very little money. For example when I was there they were severely criticised by ofsted for retaining too much budget centrally for SEN. So they had to put 6 million quid into schools for them to use to meet children's needs, and only retained three quarters of a million quid to service all children with statements....the government both insisted on putting all the money into schools but didn't ring fence it, and then also left LAs with all the ultimate responsibilities but no cash to meet them.

The school ds is at try hard but they have been a bit crap, they tend to be very defensive.

I work as an ed psych and don't claim to be perfect but I always try to assess with integrity and with the child and family firmly in my mind as the 'customer'. So do all my colleagues. We most certainly do 'give a toss'. I find it so sad to see how poorly we are regarded , even though, for example, I just wrote advice telling the commissioning LA that one child clearly needed a continuation of their ABA programme at £22k a year and the LA said fair enough, if that's what he needs then that's what he needs....I sleep well at night actually....

[Veritate]

To be fair, it must be fairly hellish working in LAs at the moment, given that they are chronically understaffed because of the cuts and under massive pressure to save money. And you do come across individual officers who are prepared to try to act decently, only to get slapped down by their seniors.

What really gets me is that the system simply doesn't encourage joined-up thinking, and it involves a state of affairs where every department of state is desperate to protect its own budget regardless of the long term disadvantages of that. Joined up thinking would involve, for instance, working that it could make a lot of sense to spend money on proper educational provision for a child with learning difficulties, because that may well result in that child becoming productive, working, tax-paying member of society rather than becoming wholly dependent on others or even ending up in prison. But no one official dares to go out on a limb like that, because doing their jobs properly would blow the budgets. And for that, you have to blame governments that find it easier to take money away from the vulnerable than from businesses like Starbucks and Vodafone. Which is why I'm going to be at the march on Saturday.

[claw4]

OP couldnt agree more and i too could have written your post.

Regardless of cuts or understaffing, there is no excuse for lies and the lengths they are prepared to go to cover their lies.

[inappropriatelyemployed]

Veritate you obviously have a wider experience in dealing with different LAs than me, but my experience mirrors Claw's. it's about lies, deliberate lies to stop my child getting provision. If the LA was confident he didn't need it, why lie, together with his school and the health service.

I am against public sector cuts too and obviously the attacks on the disabled and support the effective taxation of global corporations rather than taking money from the vulnerable. I have been a Labour Party member since I was 16 and an active trade unionist.

but my own experience of the public sector dealing with my child is of lies and deceit and vindictiveness. This has nothing to do with budgets and everything to do with lack of accountability, transparency, and abuse of power.

[hoxtonbabe]

Well said innapropiately! The lies these prople tell is phenomenal. I am yet to come across an honest, ethics intact speech therapist, EP or LEA officer, they simply do not exist when working in government and I have spoken to many a EP saying they either had to leave and go independent or were actually relieved when made redundant due to the way the LEA would tell them to in effect lie or dumb down the child's needs and they simply could not carry on screwing kids over.