In Preparation for Appeal Panel Day

Have you had your result yet op?

I have no experience of these appeals but I do have a similar dd whose mental health fell apart when she started secondary school. She spent time home educating and then started a different school on a reduced timetable in y8.

All schools are required to make reasonable adjustments for your dd under the Equality Act 2010. So if the worst comes to the worst and your appeal fails, the other school do have to provide her with a quiet space to eat, allow her to take a friend with her, etc.

I pick my dd up for lunch, on the days she is there over lunchtime. She can’t eat in school and nor can she use the loo. Unfortunately it means I can’t work many hours. It’s been a long saga. But they do have to accommodate - dd can eat in a quiet room with a TA, and can take a friend with her if she chooses (and if the friend wants to).

Just wanted to say that all isn’t lost if you lose the appeal. You can meet with the new school to discuss how they can meet DD’s needs. If you haven’t already, it might be good to do that before appeal so that you know what they actually can provide?

We thought my dd would be better in a school with her peers from primary but in the end that didn’t work as she was unable to cope when they made new friends (she couldn’t cope with the new people). She attends a smaller school now and is starting to make friends slowly although her severe anxiety would impact this in any school.

Don’t know if any of that is useful.

I'll say upfront that I have very little knowledge in this area, but if this were me I'd be cautious about relying too heavily on the peer group as an argument, because to my mind that could theoretically come across as you expecting other children to be 'responsible' for supporting your daughter, which obviously isn't appropriate. Peer relationships change at secondary; there are no guarantees that her existing friendships will hold. I'd focus on the provision for additional needs and the dining arrangements, perhaps secondarily on the extra-curriculars.

Good luck.

Statistics from journals don't help because they aren't specific. Don't include journals. Tbh @Hye000 I think you have a really good case and adding material such as journal articles will just dilute it.

You want your appeal document to be concise, with every bullet point adding to your case. It's about your child, not 'children with eating disorders'. Every child with an eating disorder is different. What matters is what your child needs.

I agree with @PanelChair. The appeal panel wants to know specifically about your child's condition and how it affects them.

I am thinking of several appeals I’ve been involved in, where parents have submitted journal articles, bits of journalism and the like. I stand by my view that they really don’t help, because they talk in a generalised way about children, not about the child whose appeal is being heard.

I didn't read it out.

I will never know if it was helpful or not, as we never received a letter on reasons why our appeal was allowed from the panel. However we felt that it was important to back up our claim (that siblings of those with depression and anxiety are substantially more at risk themselves of depression and anxiety than the typical child) with some evidential trail. As described, I just said 'as the enclosed research shows, genetically, our child, as the sibling of a child with depression and anxiety, already has a two to three times greater chance of themselves developing depression and anxiety, plus....'

Respectfully, I do think that that backed up the claims I made more than me just making that claim.

Please don’t submit journal articles and the like. They’re really not helpful. The panel wants to see solid evidence of what your child needs, not a general discussion about children with eating disorders. The more you fill up the document bundle with journal articles, or the more time you spend at the hearing reading them out, the less space and time you have left for discussing the specifics of what your child needs from the preferred school and how they will be disadvantaged if they’re not admitted.

I dare say that parents who submitted articles have from time to time won appeals, but I very much doubt that the articles helped them do it. It’s more likely that they won because they had other, solid evidence of need, relevant and specific to their child.

No we included articles of this type in our appeal submission "bundle" that the panel had before the meeting, and just referred to them in the thing I read out ("as indicated in the article submitted, the risks to DD are....")

Sorry, this isn't hugely relevant to your thread, but do be aware that NHS waiting times for ASC assessments in children are 2 years + in many areas of the country. Often there is no "pushing" that will get you up the waiting list, so it would be a good idea to get her on the waiting list ASAP.

This may sound like an exaggeration, but TBH you may need to get her on waiting lists now to get an assessment before she starts her GCSEs.

If she won't attend another school, I'd also suggest getting the school named on an ECHP for her- the longer you leave this, the longer she could be without a school she will attend if the appeal fails. Again, this is another thing that can take time to sort out.

I fully understand that you have a lot going on, but I would start the ball rolling on both of these ASAP.

This is the kind of thing we would have used (relevant screenshot and full article, with references)
https://anorexiafamily.com/meals-anxiety-school-eating-disorder/

Yes we did include stats and a summary article with research references from a relevant website. So we weren't just saying "we think siblings of those with depression and anxiety are at risk", we had references that proved it.

Just try to remember that the panel is neutral. They have no interest in preventing your DD from getting a place, just as they have no interest in awarding places without foundation. They just want to establish the facts and decide whether your DD's need for the place outweighs the school's detriment in having to take another child.

Have you considered applying for an Education Health and Care Needs Assessment?

"I want to make sure they are aware of the detriment being more complex and not being something they will necessarily get better over time."

@Hye000 again, not to be picky, be careful with this. You could have a panel who take the view that if it won't get better over time, it doesn't matter which school she's in. You'd be better to approach it from an angle of "This is a complex disorder which is driven by anxiety. School A has the infrastructure to allow gradual exposure to the sensory input that food halls bring. School A also has areas that my child can go to if she can't cope with the food hall. School A has dedicated pastoral staff who can support my child during break times. My child will need consistent support to gradually build her resilience to the lunch time environment and school A are more equipped to support her."

@Hye000 I've read the thread and am very glad that @prh47bridge and @PanelChair have corrected many of the errors.

One thing I would caution against is making any comparison to any needs that another child may have. You said upthread: "sadly this isn’t like most kids anxiety, the anxiety controls this eating disorder, most kids anxiety does not have the detrimental impact on them like this does on my daughter." Whilst I can understand the sentiment completely (I have a 2 children with EHCPs, both now in specialist education, and one with an ED that hospitalised her and still under a psychiatrist), it really isn't possible for you to know how other children are affected by anxiety, and the panel can't agree with you that 'most other kids won't be impacted by their anxiety' - anxiety is only anxiety if it has a detrimental impact.

However, you can argue this point just as successfully without comparing to other children. Just focus on the actual detriment it has on your DD.

Definitely don't read out your case. The panel will have read it already. In fact, when I sat on panels, we used to say "Is there anything that you'd like to say that isn't already covered in your appeal statement?" It's a perfect opportunity for you to share your concerns regarding rehospitalisation, the increase in anxiety that you've observed, etc.