Think I'm wasting everyone's time

[sweetteamum]

Spoke with an EP this morning. Not one who is attached to the school, someone who's feeling bad that we've been messed about and been told to look after us for now. Anyway, I mentioned that dd wasn't in school still, and as she has an appointment this week, it would be better to be done at home.

While I was on, I mentioned a few things Camhs and I spoke about last week (re: dd poss better off in ss, rather than ms) and her current school just isn't appropriate for her needs. He simply dismissed this (as starlight said they would) and said to take no notice of Camhs as they don't know anything educational. That was before he said not to look at the code of practice in too much detail as we are almost pre assessing the sa process!!!! he said people are usually known years to the lea before requesting sa. He then went on to tell me that dd is possibly not as educational needy, as others haven't picked up on it in school and IF she has asd. I just said that they were the experts in healthcare etc and saw these difficulties straight away with her and he wasn't medically able to suggest this.

Anyway I don't want to bore you but he suggested that a particular ss in the area would be no good as they're much more disabled than dd!!!! And they were a lot more disadvantaged ???? And he couldn't see her there. That's fine but he quickly added on that it may be worth a look and not to rule it out (maybe he sensed the tone)! I really don't think we will get anywhere as school and EP are obviously not behind us.

Ffs think I just need to get her into a more supportive school now as this school are clearly pissed off with me and he said that our lea are incredibly supportive

[wasuup3000]

Trust your instincts, sounds like an LEA gatekeeper, just keep believing in yourself and what you are doing.

[crappypatty]

I would push and push for ADOS, we were told he doesn't need as everybody was in agreement that he has Autism. When it came to the crunch though with the ADOS nothing was being done including LASC being involved.

I think I know which school you mean, have you been to look around? I know the parents of some of the children who go there, even the children who are non verbal had to fight to get a place.

Good Luck

[crappypatty]

*without

[nothinginthefridge]

Rubbish about LEA knowing a child for years. Don't often like to say this on here as so many have a difficult time, but for my DS its was:-

First realisation DS was having difficulties - March 2011
Speech & Language Assessment - May 2011
Request for Statement - July 2011 (refused early September)
Request to look at again - September 2011 (accepted end of September)
Statement finalised - January 2012
Moved to specialist resource - February 2012

We were told that we shouldn't look at special school for the same reasons you were told. Totally ignored them. Me and DS went to look at the local special school together, both of us loved it, but realised it was not the most appropriate place for him. Found a speech and language resourced unit the other side of town. Best move we made. Just now need to wait for ASD assessment and been told the waiting list is 3 years!! Ds will have left school and be in college by then.

[sweetteamum]

Thanks Wasuup. He was certainly defending the LEA (quite rightly) but he was determined to get the point across.

Thanks Crappy. Well at camhs last week they are sure it's an asd and at the multi-team meeting, and will be saying that. Lasc have been really helpful and if it wasn't for them, school would still be saying all is well despite the huge amount of evidence I sent in (paed report, salt reports, camhs letter & plan, dyslexia report) as well as proof of little progress (ie year 2 being level 2 and year 6 being level 3) etc etc. They have already got enough and more to go ahead but I believe this is standard from them!!

We haven't been to look around but would just like a feel for a more specialist school. If it's not suitable thats fine but he was dismissing everything.


Thanks Nothing. I did say that unless the LEA thought there was no possibility of an SEN (in which case why send an ep/lasc) then the fact that she's been on School Action + for a good few months with no progress, as well as all my evidence, then I can't see how they can refuse. He just said not to take too much notice of the code of practice as they're already 'kind of' assessing her needs!!

Forgot to add, Camhs don't feel an ados should be needed and lasc are fairly certain it's an asd too. On top of the Paed's conclusion of "dd has emotional, social & communication difficulties. She is immature and has learning disabilities). So it's only the people in education disagreeing (ie the ones who haven't got a clue and don't know what to look for)

[sweetteamum]

Sorry Nothing, How did you get them to look at it again at the end of September?

Really pleased you've got there and you shouldn't be wary of saying that here. You did really well to get that :)

[bjkmummy]

i think sadly over the coming months we are going to hear more and more about people being refused SA especially with the new EHCP coming in summer 2014 - the LA will now try and stall all statements as long as possible and hide behind the new care plans.

The EP is towing the LA line. My LA sent in the EP to assess my son again for an emergency review - he made further recommendations for the statement which the LA then promptly ignored. Remember the EP is employed by the LA.

I would deffo start the appeal process - the LA can agree to assess at any point in the process so you may well not end up at tribunal in any case.

[nothinginthefridge]

I kicked up a big fuss school also did the same (by this point he had moved to secondary school). Ds was so unhappy that he was saying all sorts of things that made both the school and me very concerned. School used some of their allocated EP time for DS and the EP also then got in touch with the panel and said it needed to be reconsidered ASAP.

It was therefore put on to the next panel 2 weeks later and they agreed to assess.

Just on a side note, DS results in yr6 were level 4's. LEA used this as one of the excuses not to assess (the other being lack of evidence from an EP), but I knew the SEN COP inside out at that point and found a section that said in effect you cannot just look at levels. The SEN COP is your friend, use it to the full I say!!

Hope things go well sweet.

[sweetteamum]

Thank you both so much. I am trying to memorize the SEN COP as well as going through every email (in fine detail), and picking out the contradictions - which, there are lots of already.

If I could just ask if anyone knows (or thinks the same as me) if the following is rubbish for DD needs:

There are two TA's in the class that DD is in - One is for a funded child the other is for the rest of the class

In addition to that DD should also have

1 hour 2:1 Literacy session

1 20 minute 1:1 Reading session

1 hour 2:1 Numeracy session

1 hour 2:1 Nurture session

1 hour 1:1 Nurture session

Just to add, we have an updated Timetable from the most recent meeting and there is only 1 hour a week accountable for out of the list. So how can they say they give her everything else too. Each lesson is 1 hour and they have 5 lessons per day, so i'm bloody suspicious confused . Where does the the rest of the so called time get taken from, or have they added support for the LA's benefit.

And that is how the LA are happy that school are fucking not meeting her needs