How to argue the point on ASD with Appeal panel

[Kalimero]

We filled the Appeal for our school of interest, but in the meantime we sent Social medical form to the Council.
Today we got the answer which is quite shocking.
They say that autism is NOT considered as exceptional need.

Exact quote from the refusal letter:
'The Panel were also in agreement that the prevalence of autism is also on the rise nationally as well as in (Council name) and unfortunately it is not considered as exceptional need, as it is fairly common condition affecting 1% of children and adolescents.'

I am shocked by this blanket statement. Is it even appropriate statement to make?
How do we argue back this kind of statement if we face it from the Appeal panel?

Thank you all. We're in London. I don't feel like going into too much detail in public, as for all I know current Appeal panel members might be reading those posts. Just trying to get my head around it all, I am completely new to the Appeal process so all your insights on this forum are very helpful 🙏🏼

Think to yourself:
Why is this school better for my DC?
Not better teaching/results but things specific to your DC.
Eg
. Nurture room (uses one at primary)
. Dungeons and Dragons club (has interest already)
. Staggered lunch breaks so quieter (better for sensory overload)
. Electronics club (he tinkers at home)

As a panelist and school governor - The "exceptional" (social or
Medical) criteria in admissions is by its nature a very subjective one, and is increasingly being phased out by schools and admission authorities because it is very difficult to judge.

It requires that this School, and only this School, to be the one that meets the child needs; this is actually an extremely high bar to reach in most cases, and obviously is something that is often a subjective determination by a panel of Governors/senior leaders/sometimes a panel from the LA. There is no specific requirement for how that panel is constituted (though the admissions authority must lay out how they will define the need and what evidence they would require). Very few applications meet this criteria.

The threshold to win an appeal is different; that is about the balance of prejudice between the child and the school. It does not require the parent to categorically prove this is the only school that meets the child's needs. That is what you need to focus on OP - what is it about this school very specifically (and provably) that really meets the needs of your child?

My understanding is that school X may view ESM Need as a need that only school X can meet.

Did you provide ESM Need paperwork with the original application or has this come up subsequently?

ETA x-post with PatriciaHolm who is an expert!

Exceptional social medical form and all documents were sent together, this morning Council panel member phoned me to clarify few things and then told me that there's no evidence that that school is the only school that can provide care we need. He then said that Appeal is our better option. Which now makes sense after reading @PatriciaHolmexplanation and differentiation between Exceptional social medical application and Appeal. Thank you

@PatriciaHolm Thank you for your valuable input. At the Appeal hearing, would you advise to talk about the points already submitted to the Panel, explain them in more depth? Or talk on eg. additional challenges child is going through but haven't been mentioned in the main Appeal form. I read somewhere that's not advisable to parrot the points already written in the submitted Appeal form.

My DS1 was born at 24 weeks over 20 years ago. He was born on the cusp of viability and there were no statistics recorded for babies born as early as him regarding their future progression, because so few had survived at that gestation. We have been told by neonatologists and paediatricians that he’s a medical miracle. He has multiple disabilities including autism.

We were unsuccessful with applying under the ESM category for his primary school place and were told there was nothing exceptional about our son’s situation. We hadn’t applied for an EHCP at that point because we’d been advised that it would be better to wait until he was at school. We then received different advice and did get an EHCP awarded with 1:1 support, without any struggle at all, for when he started school. Clearly his need was there - but it (entirely fairly) wasn’t deemed to be a need that could only be met by one school.

As others have said, it is incredibly hard to prove exceptional social or medical need. Have you applied for an EHCP?

It's not exceptional - it's pretty much a certainty that every secondary school has at least one student with T1. There's a long standing protocol of the Diabetic Nursing Team working with schools to ensure that the relevant staff have training, it's taken for granted that a kid with a CGM will be exempt from all rules regarding having a phone visible and switched on, schools will have fridges and storage for medical supplies and snacks.

Neurodivergent doesn’t just mean autism - in a class of 30 on average 3 will be dyslexic, 1 will have FASD, 1 or 2 developmental language disorder, 1 autism, 1 adhd, 3 dyspraxia, 1 very high IQ, there may also be brain injury, epilepsy, dyscalculia, rare genetic conditions…

Reported. Stop spamming appeals threads like this.

The panelists will have read your submission, So there's nothing to be gained by just reading it out, although sometimes people do that because it makes them more comfortable - The main thing is to present in a way that you are most comfortable with.

The key thing on the day is to emphasise your key points. Panelists (and the admissions authority) will have a chance to ask you questions if there's anything they feel you haven't covered.

Don't introduce any new evidence or new points at the Appeal itself, unless it really can't be helped - a new diagnosis for example. Technically panels don't have to accept any new evidence on the day.

@PatriciaHolmThank you