School not providing statement entitlements.

[Looby2k]

I wonder if anyone can give me any advice for my friend. Her son is autistic and is statemented to recieve 5 hours of one to one help a week. The school, however, are not providing any help, one to one or otherwise. I also have an austistic son so I am all too familiar with that 'pulling your hair, out close to crying' anger that she is going through right now although he is homeschooled. Am I right in assuming that a statement is a legally binding document and the funds the school recieves for this help should only be used for this? Any advice would be greatly recieved.

She needs to speak to the HT and write to the LA. You're right, the LA has the legal duty to provide what is specified in the statement.

There is a model letter on the IPSEA website here which she can modify to suit her situation.

If the school/LA continue to fail to make the provision, she could apply for Judicial Review. I think this would have to be done through a solicitor but she could get legal aid as it's done in the child's name.

However, your friend's legal rights are only as tight as the statement itself. If it's not specific enough then she could have trouble enforcing it - most LAs deliberately write statements in a vague way with this in mind.

Carefully go through the statement and look for information about the funding offered to the school and how many hours of support this equates to. Then I think the next helpful step would be to ask the school for a 'provision map', this details the exact support that they are offering a child. If they cannot provide this then ask them to put all the support they provide in writing.

It may be helpful to consult with the SEN department who manage the statement if there are discrepancies between the paperwork, or between the paperwork and the reality of support actually in place.

get in touch with the parent partnership link below they will help you get all the help you need on your behalf eg writing letters, phone calls to school ect and its all free. they have helped me and my child a lot over the last few year to keep her in school.
and they are really good at it to they will be able to tell you if you are getting all the help for your child or not www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Schoolslearninganddevelopment/SpecialEducationalNeeds/DG_10016184

Hello can anyone help, if a child has an educational statement and it is point eight and the school is covering the point two, does that mean that your child is to have a full time classroom assistant, if so and there is already a classroom assistant does that count, as a teacher for your child.
Sorry if this does not make sense cause I am going mad with frustration.

Please please please anyone !!!!!!!

It really depends on what is worded in the statement.

LA's often use weasel wording to making it 'look' like a child is getting somethng they are not.

For example:

'DS will have access to 5 hours of TA support for 1:1, group work and whole class support'

does not mean that your child will get 5 hours of 1:1. It means there will be a classroom TA that will ocassionally work with your ds (pretty much as he/she would for all the other children).