How/when did you start the Statement process?

[happyfrogger]

DD is 21 months and has a moderate hearing loss. We've been told by her Teacher of the Deaf (who supports her in nursery, as well as her speech therapist - both about once per month at the moment) that (a) she's unlikely to get one as she copes very well and her hearing loss doesn't count as a learning difficulty and (b) that they are all changing anyway and she'd be unlikely to qualify under the EHCP.

When and how do I start the process for her to be assessed? This will influence my choice of school and even state vs independent. The earlier I can push for being reviewed so I know where we stand, the better.

I've not really got this answer from my ToD yet and don't know if she initiates this or if I have to contact the LA, where and how the assessment takes place, is it one session or many, do I need to collate reports from her consultant etc etc.

Bump

You initiate the statement process yourself although I believe it is usually done through the SENCO at the child's school. If you look up the education department with your local council you should be able to find information on there about statements. I would presume though that this probably isn't something that can be started until your child starts school (so reception class) but I am not entirely sure. Good luck

Opps was meant to say you can initiate rather then you

Hmm, frustrating. I was hoping this is something we could start PRE school - if she does get one it would influence our preferred school (which may have a great track record for SEN support) and if she doesnt, we may prefer to go private. Both of which influences where we move house to. No way to start the process at 3 via her nursery?

You can s

Bloody iPad.

You can start pre school. Just write a letter to your SEN department requesting a 323 assessment. There is no hard and fast rule. I just completed one for a child at 20 months due to the type of provision she was likely to require

My daughter has hearing loss and we started the statementing process when she was under 2 (can't remember when exactly as LA has been faffing around for so long). Our LA pays for children with statements to attend nursery at 2 so we wanted to get the statement underway well beforehand. We wrote the LA a letter (I think I found the address of where to send it via a Google search) saying we wanted to start the process and they wrote back telling us what to do next.