What are Surrey County Council like with giving 'good' statements?

[mumgoingcrazy]

8 weeks ago I rejected the proposed statement as it wasn't worth the paper it was written on. I'm still waiting for the amended proposed statement. Today, I told them on page 120 of the SEN code of practice they have to give a finalised statement within 8 weeks and when can I expect it (I've asked them weekly for the last 3 weeks too). I'm trying to keep this nice, but I think I'm in for the long haul.

What are Surrey County council like? I've heard that they are notoriously tight with budget and everything will be a big fight.

Please tell me something positive, the thought of tribunal fills me with dread, but I have a sneaky feeling this is where we're going.

TIA
x

Just call SENDIST up and ask them what the guidelines are or check on their website. Generally I give the case worker a call and ask what is happening and they normally tell me there and then. If they seem to be working too slowly ask SENDIST to write a letter to them. They are really good at this and it does tend to give them the push they need.

I've found with Surrey it's take a bit one year and then get the proof for the next year to get an increase. I started with about 12 hours for my daughter at the end of year 2 and by the begining of year 5 we had 28. Each year I pushed for more, saying that what was in place wasn't enough.

Surrey did have a big finger pointed at them recently and were told to change the way they worked. They do seem to be a bit better since then. Saying that everything is a fight.

Hi, you know we are in the same area, are you applying for a named school with the statement as well? If you are get them on board as well, both E and W will contact your case officer to get them to get a move on. It's worked well for us. We have a good statment, clearly defined hours of physio and Ot, both lifted from the reports sent in. We don't have hours attached as we get them from the unit placement.

Aggree with DaisySue, Surrey were told to get their act together and things are moving a bit better but still phone call, follow up with email, repeat ad nauseam, daily if necessary. Get school involved and don't sette for the revised statement if it's not ok, get it revised again. Once issued although it can be teaked, getting major re-writes it tricky.

Good luck!

SOS:SEN are Surrey based and would know an awful lot about how this county work with regards to their SEN provision.

Good luck with getting a statement actually worth the paper its written on.

Thank you both of you.

Who are SENDIST?

DD2 is still in pre-school, so the named school is still the sn school she attends already and the ms pre-school. I'll be applying for a mainstream school with unit this autumn so will change part 4 when the time comes.

I'll ask her current sn school to contact the case officer if this will help. I don't want things to get nasty, I always avoid all confrontation.

The initial statement did list all her needs and was accurate, the problem was that no 1:1 or therapy was specified or quantified yet they described her needs as severe and complex (which they are).

Thanks again, I'm glad you both got good statements in the end, this tells me there is some hope.

By the way did either of you have to go as far as tribunal?

Thanks Attilla, SOSSEN told me to threaten them with judicial review. I'm just trying to hold back from getting nasty. I'll give it another week before doing this.

I find SOSSEN really hard to get hold of, and IPSEA, I have never actually managed to get hold of them. I must be trying at the wrong times.

Thank you

I am in surrey too - used ot live quite close to hairymaclary

I had a struggle getting dd1 statemented. lots of procrastination, fobbing off, and blatantly ignoring needs and evidence.

we had to file for tribunal, and get independent reports done, etc for surrey to even consider the school we were proposing - even though they had admitted (in writing) that a) dd1 needs a SN school, not a unit, and that b) they had no place for her.

so, in theory, dd1 was approved for a private SN school placement. in practice, LA procrastinated some more in the hope of finding a place for her.

we were due at tribunal yesterday, but thankfully surrey caved in back in April. dd1 now attends an out of county SN school.

her statement is still a load of waffly rubbish, but crucially it names the right school, and so we are less concerned with what it outlines, as know that the school will do what is right, iyswim. all SALT and OT is provided as part of school fees, so it doesn't matter if not quantified in our case.

The key to getting the therapy in the statement was the quantified reports from the therapists. They state, 1 hour per week for 6 weeks, alternate half terms throughout the school year, 1 hour per year / term (can't remember which) for equipment reviews and 1 hour per year to attend meetings (the Annual Review). It also states that the provisions will be provided by a trained OT and physio. Both OT and Physio state this so DS has OT one half term, phsysio the next and so on throughout the school year.

If you are at W then I'm not sure that support hours will be put in as any SN placement comes with a certain proportion of a TA anyway and you would only need that stated if you and the school think that your DD needs more than is usually provided by W. However you obviously need the hours for the ms preschool. This shouldn't cause too many problems for them as it's a common occurance!

Ds is at the school you are thinking of applying to and has no support hours in his statmement but I know of one child there who has 1 :1 at the unit. He really needed more than the unit provided though. I didn't need to go to tribunal but I did escalate very early on the advice of the SALT at W to the head of statmenting or something called Alan Brockelbank. I got his email address from the surrey cc website. That and pressure from the unit helped when we got stuck at the same position you are in now.

Sorry it's an essay - both DS's running around!

Has anyone got a link to Surrey being told to get their act together?
Currently struggling with them ourselves. Hate all the contradictions and half-truths and the seemingly sympathetic, we understand where you're coming from fakeness. We will persevere though.
Seems to me complex needs means have to fight tooth and nail for everything because ds needs more than they can possibly provide with the resourses they have.
Know lots of people who are having to fight them for help too.

Thank you all.

Glad it worked out well in the end silverfrog.

The annoying thing is I sent in 20 odd reports. Included in this was SALT/OT/Physio all stating very clearly how much therapy and how often DD2 needs it (same as your provision actually hairymaclary so might be the same therapists!). DD2 already has 1:1 at her ms pre-school and this was when they applied for discretionary funding which they got no problem.

HairyM, who is Alan Brocklebank? I've logged onto my email and got an out of office from the case worker so not back from hol for another week. Is he a manager of some sort?

Yes, they probably are the same therapists! Alan Brocklbank is a manager of some sort, I can't remember his job title but he's high up, the top or nearly the top man! It does seem so stupid to be arguing over provision that is so clearly outlined by everyone. As if we haven't got enough to do!

Another lot of people to talk to are partnership with parents. It was sceptical about them until I heard them give a talk and changed my mind!

I haven't got a link Helly, sorry but I know this was reiterated at a recent Surrey tribunal!

Thank you HairyM.

Hope your DS1 is enjoying himself at school!!

Just stumbled across this link, from this year's NAS professional's conference in Manchester - it's how Surrey LA was really poor at dealing with SEN ie it used to have a problem, but it doesn't anymore, given by the director of services......

www.event-space.com/actmarch2010/images/downloads/c/3c%20deborah%20johnson% 20commissioning%20stream%20presentation.pdf

I found a few of those presentations quite interesting, thanks (Link to the Surrey ppt and link to all of ppts from the conference.

Surrey folks might want a browse of the county's Spend Publication - entries under SEN Agency lists various out of county schools.

Thank you both of you. Discodad I wasn't able to open this address.

SCM, found that very interesting thank you. It seems we're really unlucky coming under Surrey. We will be added to their appeal statistic unfortunately, and no doubt tribunal .

The final statement was pretty awful.

Discodad's link is the Surrey ppt link in my post - just made it clickable for you .

One thing I will say about Surrey - they seem to be quite transparent about putting information and policies online. I keep stumbling across their documents when searching for other things, and I don't actually live there!

Whoops, thank you

I very naively went into all this thinking the LA would do right by DD2....... what a joke, I couldn't be more wrong.

Thank you for those links though, I guess I should be pleased that they are so transparent.

Oh I'm sorry to hear about your statement, mumgoingcrazy, we were obviously lucky - I hope it's not going to take too long or too much time to sort out. (hollow laugh!)

I also want to apologise for Monday at EGH - both boys were appallingly behaved and I'm sorry we disturbed your session - note to self - don't book a physio session on the first day of the holidays!

Don't worry, it was a shame to see your DS1 so upset, he did it in the end though

Re statement, after speaking to the various therapists it seems I need it all concrete in the statement, the IPA just won't be enough. Never mind, I was all ready to take them on anyway. See you soon x