Aibu to think this is a big fucking joke?

[TheBigEasterBunny]

DS has been out of primary school now for 6 months with anxiety. DS has autism. All kids are entitled by law to full time education. I’m really keen to get him back in school and have tried everything.

All I hear about is obstacle after obstacle from the council, if indeed they even contact me at all.

Latest is that a panel needs to review. Another special form needs to be completed by the school SENCO for that panel. Local parents are commenting online that there is then a waiting list for these medical education services.

On my taxpayers money, as a single parent, while I pay for a private tutor to come and see DS. It’s a massive fucking joke.

All these services are blaming parents for not getting their kids in school. Meanwhile councils are a bureaucratic nightmare who are denying rights to vulnerable children. If I as a middle class, educated mum, cannot sort this, then what hope does any more vulnerable child have?

Haven’t been through this myself but do have an autistic son in year 6. Been through the diagnosis and just got ehcp and just dealing with the Senco etc I can see how your situation can come about. Yanbu. It’s not good enough. Provision for sen kids is not good enough. X

Have you got an EHCP in place already?

I've been there few years back now. Trying to get an ehcp for my child was so hard. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. No support. And ridiculous waits for everything. Absolutely infuriating

Email the Director of Children’s Services informing them of the situation, reminding them of their duty under s.19 of the Education Act 1996 and threatening judicial review if they do not provide a suitable, full time education ASAP. If that doesn’t work contact SOSSEN for help with a pre-action letter.

Provision should have begun once it became clear DS would miss 15 days, the days didn’t need to have already been missed or consecutive. Lack of funding or resources are not lawful excuses. Sadly, many LAs only take action when parents begin to enforce DC’s rights.

Save receipts/invoices as you can then complain and then complain to the LGO.

As well as this if you haven’t already you should request an EHCNA. On their website IPSEA have a letter you can use. If you have already applied is the LA sticking to the statutory timescales?

We went through this a while ago. I now help other parents who are going through similar.

Most importantly get up to speed legally. You need to be aware of SEN legislation. I made contact with IPSEA who are a charity that advise on SEN law. They were really helpful. So much that I did a course on SEN law with them.

Once you know your legal position you can start banging the drum loudly. This may mean a phone call to IPSEA.

Many if not all LA's have a significantly reduced funding for SEN provision to the point that they cannot fulfil their legal obligations. They make money stretch by delay tactics, which delays the provision and the costs which is hard for most frustrated, tired and battle weary parents.

They legally must assess for EHC plan if SEN is suspected.

IPSEA give clear guidance on deadlines. How to word letters. Who to contact.

What I found worked the best is to gather evidence. Dates, times, duration, people involved, outcomes. Always quote evidence for the panel this gets results faster than them asking for another XYZ form.

It helps if you can find out the types of funded provision available through your LA.

If you are temporarily waiting for jointly funded Health and Education provision through hospital school there may be other ways to have this delivered.

This aside, do apply for EHCP as the parent, do it asap. They will try to tell you no because the school have to do it. They don't.

You'll get there. Be prepared for a challenging ride but it will come right for your son.

Local councils don’t have enough money or staff and this is why things take so long.

They legally must assess for EHC plan if SEN is suspected.

No they don’t. The legal threshold for an EHCNA is a) has or may have SEN, and b) may need SEN provision to be made via an EHCP. Suspecting SEN on its own isn’t enough to meet the legal threshold.

Local councils don’t have enough money or staff and this is why things take so long.

Lack of funding or resources are not lawful excuses to failing to comply with their statutory duties.

Whether or not you think it’s lawful, when they literally don’t have the staff (massive funding cuts) or money then what do you think happens?

I am not saying it is right, but like it or not, that is the impact of austerity.

and, disclaimer, I worked in a local authority for three years and saw first hand the devastating impact of austerity.

It is not a matter of me thinking it is unlawful, it is unlawful.

when they literally don’t have the staff (massive funding cuts) or money then what do you think happens?

The duty is to actually provide the provision not attempt to provide it. I have supporting hundreds of parents through the process and in every single case where the LA claimed they couldn’t provide provision because of a lack of staff, resources, funding the LA have been able to fulfil their legal obligation when forced to do so via judicial review, and often it doesn’t even get to a hearing as the LAs know they don’t have a leg to stand on. If LAs don’t have the staff internally they can, and do, outsource. While ever LAs are spending vast sums of money on representation to defend indefensible cases against unrepresented parents their claims of lack of money doesn’t wash.

Yes at what cost? Councils end up going in special measures because they’ve run out of cash.

More and more councils end up issuing bankruptcy notices and this will be part of it.

They know they have obligations - councils have so many legal obligations, it’s unreal. But without central government funding, they’ll do what they can to try and minimise what they do because if they spend according to legal requirements, then they will run out of money.

I am not defending local authorities, just pointing out they’re not sitting there twiddling their thumbs. They’ll have staff who are resentful, burned out, stressed as they cannot do what they should.

I didn’t used to think this way about local authorities but do now. And strongly believe they need more funding.

Look up the ststutory guidance on children missing school. They should provide the tutor or sccess to one or to s small group. Soeak to the educational officer for children missing school .

Keep him.on school roll

Yes at what cost?

I could say the same thing about the LAs failing to comply with the law. What cost to the children, to the parents of disabled children? In many cases LAs end up spending far greater amounts meeting needs that are a result of children having spent so long out of education. Why do you think it is excusable for LAs to fail children?

They know they have obligations

They may do, but many try to avoid them. Many have unlawful policies and practices. Why do you think they should be allowed to continue to fail children unchallenged?

You absolutely are defending LAs by excusing their unlawful behaviour because they claim to not have the resources or funding.

They’ll have staff who are resentful, burned out, stressed as they cannot do what they should.

You mean like many parents of disabled DC?

Of course LAs need more funding, I have not posted otherwise, but that is not an excuse for failing to provide what they legally must.

I have a 28 year old autistic son. I remember the nightmare we went through all those years ago to secure him a place in a special needs school. Sadly it seems that things are not much better.
I was a nuisance parent, on the phone every day to get results. You just have to keep fighting and shouting like we did. Don’t be fobbed off. Contact your MP, we’ve had help from ours. My son is now in an excellent supported living set-up but we had to fight to get housing benefits for him, it’s disgusting.
Good luck.

Went through this myself, 3 tribunals to get the correct EHCP in place and the right school.

If you don’t fight for it then you’re not likely to get it, it’s become increasingly hard to secure educational support over the last few years (I can only speak for the last 10 years as I’ve only been involved that long). It’s necessary to fight via the correct channels, tribunals, not arguing with school.

It is absolutely horrendously unfair that parents who are unable to fight the system are then put in a position that their children don’t receive the education that they need/deserve. Particularly when children with additional needs often have parents with additional needs who often times the battle really is not accessible to.

I have been fighting for years for every single thing. There is an EHCP in place and has been for years. I have written the letter to the Director of children’s services, written to the MP, the MP has written to them, lobbied all sorts of people and we are still being spun along.

Absolutely.
Consequences of voting Tory

If you have already written to the Director of Children’s Services threatening judicial review for failure to provide a suitable, full time education under s.19 of the Education Act 1996 and anything specified and quantified in F of the EHCP under s.42 CAFA 2014 then contact SOSSEN for help with a pre-action letter. That mostly works, few get to an actual JR hearing. JR will work.

If there is an EHCP have you appealed to SENDIST? If not, do you have the right of appeal currently? If you don’t need to request an early review in the hope of getting the right of appeal. Does the EHCP include therapies?

I suspect unless people have worked for an LA they have no clue how dire things are. They're not the enemy, the government who has screwed all public services are. It should be criminal.

Call emergency review of ehcp so you have right of appeal, appeal for a suitable placement.

Have you taken legal advice to see if you are eligible to begin judicial review?

They may not be the ‘enemy’ but many think absolutely nothing of acting unlawfully over and over. Unfortunately parents who advocate for their DC and enforce their DC’s rights get better support. It shouldn’t be like that, but sadly parents need to fight for provison.

It's not an excuse no, it's reality. Those who take it further legally invariably get support not because LAs go ah we will stop messing around better help them now, but because at that point those children become prioritised. Most LAs do not have the funding or the staff to provide what they legally should, just because its a legal obligation it doesn't mean they can magic the means to do it out of thin air.

It doesn’t have to be reality for any parent.

Most LAs do not have the funding or the staff to provide what they legally should, just because its a legal obligation it doesn't mean they can magic the means to do it out of thin air.

That doesn’t wash when LAs spend vast sums of money on representation to defend indefensible cases against unrepresented parents.

It doesn’t save money long term either.

I disagree. It actually does save LAs money. For example, I had 3 tribunals in 2/3 years. The funding at the start with no ehcp was around £600 per year, at the end it was around £30k per year. If they’d agreed from the start rather than made me go repeatedly go to tribunal then they’d have been paying £30k a year from the start, not 2/3 years later. So we are talking £60-90k difference/saving to them there.
LA legal staff are salaried, irrespective of how many appeals are lodged and LAs use their own specific pool of barristers who are able to reduce rates based on repeat business.

To add - even if a parent does take a LA to JR successfully they may be awarded a few thousand compensation but I’ve never seen a judgement amount anywhere near what the LA would have saved by not providing the provision. So even then from a financial perspective the LA have still won!

This!