anyone else with a year 6 statemented child still waiting to see what year 7 placement will be?

[bjkmummy]

my son is in an indie school won at tribunal - at the year 6 AR in dec LA wouldn't comment on at all about year 7 and said it would need to be 'discussed' still seen no paperwork yet from the AR from the school.

just wondered if everyone else has their year 7 places all sorted out? im expecting something yucky is going to happen.....

[MeirAyaAlibi]

Don't they have to issue amended statement naming the same (or new) school by mid-Feb?

If you're expecting funny business, you could ask the Head of Children's Services (or whoever your equivalent is) to make his/her SEN minions discuss with you ASAP plus crack on & issue amended statement now. Even if it doesn't work, ignoring a reasonable request won't help their case at Tribunal.

The other thing is to get your appeal paperwork ready now, so if dodginess comes to light, it's ready to go in the post. If not needed, you had a bit of stress, some wasted time & photocopy £. But if it is, you'll gain a couple of crucial weeks.

[MeirAyaAlibi]

And if you would be using indie experts for Tribunal reports, you can provisionally book them now- so you know they won't all be full up. Most are happy to accept a cancellation if they have enough notice to fill their gap (and they don't often want for work- at least from Feb-July, all the indie professionals seem flat-out)

[ouryve]

We've had no indication of the LA planning to take DS1 out of his Indie placement. He's been there over half an academic year, now and is coming on in leaps and bounds. Hoping, despite the EHCP transfer that we're embarking on, that the LA are true to their habit of not fixing what aint broke, because we haven't actually applied for any secondary places for him, given that he started at this school as an early transfer because he could no longer cope with MS primary.

[bjkmummy]

they have to do it by 15/2 which is a sunday so will be Friday the 13/2 this year. indie school already said their professionals will write reports so that's helpful - I have no idea if they have consulted any other schools - we have no special schools in county so any other school is going to come out of the blue. no one from any other school came to the AR as it was held at the indie school. IF they do play any games it could mean im facing 3 tribunals this year alone........

[uggerthebugger]

I'm still waiting for the AR meeting for DS2, bjk. In theory, it should be a straight transition from one site of his indie SS to another. The LA don't plan to send anyone to his AR meeting. So pretty straightforward, right?

I wish. None of these fuckers know their arse from a hole in the ground.

The LA agreed back in October that DS2 could stay on the statementing track. So of course, last week they sent the school all the forms they need to help convert his statement over to an EHCP. I remind the school that DS2 is keeping his statement - school starts to flap, "well, they've sent us the forms so we'd better fill them out, right?"

• "No, they're EHCP conversion forms, full of carroty crap like "My Story" and "Tell us what your child does well," "Tell us about your child's specific needs in 250 words or less, ideally in Japanese haiku poetry" - we don't need to fill these out, we sorted all this in October. Can I speak to the head?"
  

• "No, head's unreachable, working out how to contort herself through the latest insane hoop put in place by Ofsted. Oh, and the AR meeting? She can't make it, we'll have to reschedule."
  

• "Riiiight. You do realise this is a phase transfer? And there's four weeks to go before the LA have to do their thing? And the reason I asked you to hold this meeting back in November was precisely to avoid this sort of three-ring shambles, to avoid giving the LA getting even the slightest pretext for dismantling DS2's highly specified and quantified statement?
  

• "So when will you be filling out these forms?"
  

spontaneously combusts

So I've got no AR meeting, two organisations hellbent on transferring me over to an EHCP - despite clear and present warning that it ain't going to fucking happen - and only one person who actually understands this process.

Me. The one who hasn't been given nearly £1 million by the DfE purely to help with training. The one who hasn't had three days of school-mandated CPD. The one who fits in working out this system whilst caring for two disabled DSs, running the home, and holding down a full-time job in part-time hours. The one who doesn't sleep at night worrying about this shit.

But I'm also the one who does have you lovely MNSN people to help me work out which way is up, and thank you for it

I think we'll get there in the end. But sometimes I wonder how so much money can be spent on so many fuckwits to such little effect. I really do.

[bjkmummy]

i hear you ugger - ive got dd tribunal very soon and her class teacher now asking to meet with me on Tuesday whilst winking at me furiously so god knows what tahts all about.

ive also got my elder sons ehcp draft which the LA are chasing me for as it needs to be finalised on Monday... its so dire I cant even bring myself to speak to them cos I have no words to express how dire it is.....

and then this with my other son......... the whole system will go into meltdown and the only people who seem to have any clue is us as parents and it doesn't help that each LA have their own form and are doing things their own way so everyone is doing it differently depending on where you live

[MeirAyaAlibi]

Ugger, the second part of the rant sounds so very, very familiar, I briefly wondered if I'd written your post in a mini-trance .

Schools haven't got the balls to refuse to do paperwork goodness knows why, NHS & social services seem to manage fine So tell the school to fill in the forms: putting 'not applicable, transfer deferred under current Y6 arrangements' in every single box. Fill your bit in with exactly the same wording. Cc to the Head of children services and your local councillor asking them to find out if this is a simple admin error, or if you're deliberately targeted for some reason.

Await denial & retraction (not apology, obviously)

[uggerthebugger]

So let me get this right. With DS1, they've converted his statement into an EHCP, whilst at the same time stripping it bare of any real content, and the next 4 weeks are do or die? Have they reassessed him at all?

And DS2 is going through transition now, but you're sticking to the statement? And you're going toe-to-toe at Tribunal for DD in a matter of weeks?

Hell's bells. You're going to come out of this as the University of Cambridge's new Emeritus Professor of SEN Administration.

[ouryve]

I considered begging the LA to delay DS1's transfer, but then figured, no, DS2's in year 4 and I appreciate using DS1 as a dry run. I know DS1's needs inside out, so can concentrate on the crap involved in getting them assembled into the correct format. DS2 is a lot more complex and a lot more changeable and I'm going to have a lot more thinking to do, including finding a suitable secondary placement for him that isn't the local rather grim SS.

[uggerthebugger]

Exactly what I'll be doing with the form, Meir. 18-point red font. Hell, I might even make it Comic Sans. On the LA front, it's most likely cock-up rather than conspiracy, a pointed e-mail to the desk officer ought to do it.

The thing is, I work in a part of government widely regarded as the most dysfunctional in the UK. Even its closest supporters believe it's nothing more than a mini-welfare state for otherwise unemployable white-collar workers. I thought I'd already seen, already experienced every last piece of office-based arsewittage known to humankind. How wrong I was.

[Bowwowchikkawowwow]

Ds is currently in mainstream. School for Y7 has been agreed as indi.
We have transfer review meeting next month, I am still expecting an updated statement naming his new school by 15/02.

[bjkmummy]

yep ugger that about sums it up! ds1 is year 9 in a special school - last seen by an EP at age 5 so asked for the EP to see him - report was dire to say the least and I sat with a friend yesterday who is going through the same with her son who is the same age as mine but her son in mainstream with support - the questions where they ask the child how they found the assessment - there were 4 questions - both our children answered exactly the same word for word to the questions! the LA phoned to day chasing me to return the draft ehcp - im going to let it go as they are leaving him where he is happy in his special school and will fight that battle another day.

ds2 and dd are twins so both in year 6 hence why ive got a double whammy not only of transition and tribunals ....... if I make it to the end of this year still sane I will have accomplished an awful lot

[uggerthebugger]

As the LAs are doing their EHCP forms in their own way, can we run some sort of competition for most carroty text box?

In my neighbouring LA, they've got "Tell us about your weekend" - as well as the blatantly trolling, "Tell us about what makes you most stressed as a family"

Tell us about what makes you most stressed as a family? Big clue - it ain't the disability.

[bjkmummy]

oooooo ugger - here goes then - I want that carrot......

the things that are special/important to me are:
A I don't know

my favourite lessons are:-
A I don't know

I am making most progress in/what helps me do well is :
A maths I think - I don't understand the question

The staff who help me are:
A xxx struggled to name them

The staff I get on particulary well with are:
A I don't know

Other students I get on with are:
A I don't really want to talk about that

I have problems getting on with
A no

I could do better in school if:
A not sure

yep that's my son's 'my story'........

[uggerthebugger]

both our children answered exactly the same word for word to the questions

I know you're going to leave it, and you're absolutely right to for your own stamina and sanity. But FFS. That's beyond unprofessional. How anyone can get away with that - how anyone can work that way and look at themselves in the mirror - I'll never get it. Misrepresenting the words of disabled children for professional gain.

[bjkmummy]

I know the other mum has raised it today at her meeting and im pending it for now but will come back to it at a later date

[senvet]

I fear the LA will go red and then say it must be a cock up and a chunk of text has strayed from someone else's report.

The real question is: how many OTHER kids have given the same answer? I think your friend should suggest they go back and check, they wouldn't want someone to complain to the British Psychological Society, now,would they?

Bit harder to claim cock up for stripping the quantification out of a statement on conversion to ECHP.

They won't like it when ugger and bjk start demanding an increase in provision to reflect the change to 'best possible'.

What worries me most is the huge number of parents (and their kids) who don't really get the system, or just can't keep going for whatever reason.

sigh

[uggerthebugger]

^^

This blog is a perfect example of someone who can handle the disability, but not the system.

Best of luck for the next few weeks, bowwow

[bjkmummy]

senvet - my job for today is to check my middle sons LA EP reports and my ds1 LA EP report and see what answers they have given to see if this has been going on for years....... my LA just love hand delivering stuff amongst this mess -my friend had the LA EP on her doorstep last week handdelivering his report, my dd school had the sen officer on their doorstep hand delivering the tribunal bundle.... I know times are tight but ........

[MeirAyaAlibi]

This is the perfect opportunity

Dear High King Of Local Fiefdom

I am writing because one of your serfs seems to have cut&pasted ANOtherDC example responses into my dc assessment. The same error has arisen in respect of at least one FriendsDC, and perhaps others.

I attach DC's actual responses below. I trust that you will ensure that this unfortunate error is corrected speedily, and does not impede the statutory timescales.

I would also be grateful if you could check how many other dc have been affected, as their parents may not be aware of this problem.

Love & hugs
Mrs CarrotCruncher

[bjkmummy]

well on checking my younger sons LA EP reports which were done 2 years apart he also gives the same answers in his reports both times........ I know he has rigid thinking and all that but nonetheless.

anyway PP phoned today and ive took their advice and am planning a meeting with the LA and will address it head on albeit any meeting will be post dd tribunal......

[MeirAyaAlibi]

You need a representative sample of reports really. How many SEN parents do you know locally?

[MeirAyaAlibi]

Bjk, I know you haven't got time for yet another appeal- but it's worth filing a brief one (failure to amend?) if ds1 EHC-Wotsit is dramatically different (in a bad way) from the Statement & the schools report. It'd be a relatively low-stress appeal- "Here's the new one, here's the old one, here's the school advice- wtf"

Because pis*g up a dc Y9 paperwork is the best way for a LA to ensure they lose SS place at 16, & just get dumped in a mainstream college. If no needs are listed, they set you up to lose the inevitable 'failure to maintain' appeal in Y11.

Getting dc off the books at 16y is now really important to the LAs, given the new system will otherwise potentially extend support to 25y.

[ouryve]

The same as another child? So the blatant C&P fails haven't been magically abolished by the new system, then?

Our LA uses this proforma. I had the joy of filling in section A with DS1, this week. I tried not to laugh when he seemed determined to get the word "prioritise" in there and when he came out with a statement with the word in, it was placed totally randomly!

For the "how I communicate" I made it clear that DS1 is fond of long words, but it doesn't mean he understands what you're saying to him.

search3.openobjects.com/mediamanager/durham/fsd/files/ehc_plan_template_-_updated_october_2014.docx

[ouryve]

bjk you should meet with the LA with a carrot sharpener in your bag.