SEN tribunal

[YogaBuddy]

Cheshire West area... where do I get legal advice about a SEN tribunal? The school say they can not afford to continue with the level of support provided. Can I request a financial breakdown to see if they are spending £6000 in support for my child???. IPF refused twice. Child 3 years behind due to dyslexia type difficulties.. HELP PLEASE.

contact ipsea or sos sen - often people will say contact parent partnership but they often sit hand in hand with the LA as they are funded by the LA. ipsea you can book a telephone call back. ive just had a refusal to assess so am heading to tribunal over my daughter who is 3 - 4years behind. I did a full sendist tribunal last year over her twin brother so am now facing my second tribunal in 2 years

You should be able to do a Freedom of Information request to get the breakdown of their spending. Probably worth reposting this on the SN children board as it gets lots of traffic and lots of knowledge about this area there.

also post on the SEN children forum as lots of very experience people on there who can advise you

Does your child have a statement? If not then you will need to apply for statutory assessment as a first line. If you/school has done this already and SA has been declined, then you are looking to make an appeal to tribunal. As said above SOS SEN or IPSEA are very helpful for the process, and the special needs children board here is very active with many people having been through this.

OK, you say you have been turned down for IPF funding twice but you claim to have a child 3 years behind and those two comments do not stack up together. To get IPF funding from CWAC the school needs to have gone through school action and then school action plus bringing in appropriate outside professionals to assess what the needs are of your child. They then have to show appropriate evidence of the issues around you child in order to convince a panel that the child needs extra resource. If they have evidence of your child being 3 years behind and the school has done all the necessary form filling then you should have been well positioned to get some level of IPF funding

How far do you know this has gone?
Do you have any proof that the school have actually applied for IPF funding?
Where has the 3 years behind statement come from?
What has the school done to address these dyslexia type issues?
How have they been supporting your child?

It is also the case that the school does not have to spend £6000 on your child's special needs. Only if IPF funding is agreed or a statement is agreed does the school have to fund the first £6000 of any interventions. To be brutal about it pupils in CWAC get less than £6000 each in funding, so when the school is funding the £6000 for pupils with SEN they are balancing the overall funding they get for the school against what is needed for SEN children.

You may feel that it is more appropriate to PM me, rather than start to put specific detail on the open web

Try the special needs: children board as many of the posters there have been through the SEN Tribunal and you will probably get useful advice.

here