Is this appropriate conduct for solicitors?

[AugustaFinkNottle]

A solicitors' firm which acts for councils in special educational needs tribunals has tweeted the following:

"Great ABA Trib win this week ... interesting to see how parents continue to persist with it. Funny thing is parents think they won ;)"

I can't link to it due to having been blocked but it's been retweeted, e.g here.

The original tweet resulted in numerous complaints and a quick change to the tweet.

The case they're triumphalising about will have involved a disabled child. Lovely.

Oh Lingle I've been trying to find you! - LOL

Bit late now but son has grade 1 violin on Monday and still can't read music - Doesn't matter for his choir as he only has to hear the tune and harmony once, but sight reading exam isn't going to go well......

Awwww - good luck!

I think the Trinity exam board doesn't require sight reading. ( certainly not for piano).

Do you want to start a new thread and we can chat? Don't want to distract from this important thread

Ta. If I near The Muppets Theme tune one more time..........

Though I guess it is fitting for this week!

Comments on the last LS Gazette article are depressing. I love the one who has suddenly become so concerned about the SEN system that he feels IPSEA should be concentrating on that and not on complaining about MS. What does he imagine IPSEA actually does? Plus, as someone has pointed out, organisations can work on the SEN system and complain about abusive solicitors at the same time.

So is this thread in The Guardian

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/15/children-disabilities-education-support-mockery

Someone is going to offer his support to Mark Small, because he does not believe in ABA, when appeals to the tribunal over ABA form a minute part of what is wrong in the SEN system!

Way to miss the point then, it's not about ABA.

The scientific evidence base for all education interventions is limited.

If we're relying on those grounds, we ought to abandon most mainstream teaching for NT children too.

And perhaps we should? After all, if we can just leave dc with SEN to 'mature' without education, maybe we could save the country a fortune by not teaching the others either.

I wouldn't worry too much about that comments thread. Just because someone says stuff, doesn't make it true.

You can't argue with ignorance really.

Why don't we leave ALL children to mature without education?

There are many HEers who believe that their children have done well with this method with the added bonus of good mental health.

The posts also fail to mention that MS is against ABA because that is what the LAs pay him for.

He's perfectly FOR it, when parents pay him to get it.

I still can't believe that he assumed parents would want to hire him after many of the LAs distanced themselves!

There might be an interesting bunfight to come. LAs saying MS is a maverick. MS saying he was reluctantly following client orders...

On the side subject of grade 1 violin:

1. us.abrsm.org/resources/specialNeedsAutisticSpectrumDisorders.pdf
2. us.abrsm.org/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/specialNeedsDyslexiaOtherLearningDifficulties3.pdf
3. rhythm & tempo seem to get you as many sightreading marks as notes/pitch & are possibly easier to 'read' us.abrsm.org/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/markingCriteriaAll.pdf
4. games like 'magic piano' on the phone rapidly reinforce confidence & the concept of 'see a blob + make a sound = sightreading'
5. and there's one called recorder magic which actually does teach you to read music - I think it kind of works with violin but only if you're in tune

Hiya lingle-it's Maria here

Son's violin bow has just broken.

Clearly I'm a drama queen who attracts disasters!!!

I don't believe for a minute that MS was reluctantly obeying client orders: no-one forced him to take on clients who behave like that, and it's a basic professional conduct rule that solicitors should refuse to continue to act if their client requires them to act unethically.

However, it's quite fun if he's now claiming that each and every one of his LA clients demanded that he be a shit to the parents in their locality. I wonder if the ones that are continuing to use him realise that?

The LA who I was in when the worst was going on, use to call me into meetings for basic stuff (like agreeing a Home-school diary) with loads of professionals also in attendance, to ridicule and laugh at my tribunal loss.

They would then give the home-school book as if giving me a kind of 'pardon'.

They recruited BakerSmall because they were vindictive and wanted a vindictive legal case.

The general view seems to be that, whereas with most lawyers in the SEN world you would be surprised if they expressed such shitty views, with MS no-one was in the least surprised. Or rather, they were surprised that he was stupid enough to post them, but definitely not surprised that those were his opinions

Absolutely Augusta.

MS serves one person and one person only.

There has still been a resounding silence from central government about the BS scandal. If you haven't already done so, please can you sign the petition below.

"SEN budgets need to be ring fenced for children's education not LA legal fees."

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/132715

According to this, Shadow Children’s Minister Sharon Hodgson has announced intentions to raise the issue to the House of Commons.

citiblog.co.uk/2016/06/18/milton-keynes-based-law-firm-baker-small-dropped-uk-councils-following-disrespectful-tweets/

I've had a personal response to my complaint to the SRA - it sounds like an investigation is underway! Let's hope something comes of this.

Me too. Would love to know how many of these letters will be going out!

ANewDay I imagine there have been quite a few! I wonder if many people have complained about his conduct in the past too. This isn't just about a few offensive tweets or people jumping on the bandwagon on social media. There is a clear pattern of behaviour. It's also not about a few disgruntled parents who have lost against him and have an axe to grind. He has made it clear that he holds the whole system in contempt. To tweet about the result of a tribunal as he did - not just about his "great win", but implying that he'd tricked the parents into thinking they'd won - surely that brings the whole thing into disrepute, on so many levels? I hope that this is being looked into very thoroughly by all concerned, not just the SRA.

MS appears to be rising from the ashes

beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10234384

So we now need to watch out for the company name:
"ESSENTIAL SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS LTD"
I wonder if he'll set up a new twitter account.