Need help with statementing and school choices

[loueytbg]

Currently going through the statementing process with DS1 (ASD). He's 3.5 and we will be applying for primary schools this autumn. We will hear whether or not we are going to get a draft statement within the week - based on what I've been told already we are very likely to get a statement but obviously will have a battle about the wording. He needs one-to-one assistance and OT and SALT at least once a week (and ideally more often).

The SALT report is a disaster as she has only recommended 5 contacts within the first term and then once a term after that (and that includes meetings, training with teachers so not a lot of actual speech therapy). In addition, she has clearly pasted in these recommendations from another child's report as it has his name in it and not DS1s .

I am having serious doubts about where to send him to school. I realise that we don't have to name the school until right at the end of the statement process but obviously we need to think about it now. We have been told that he will cope in mainstream, and I'm sure he will, but I am worried that he won't reach his potential there. He appears (to us at least) that he's actually pretty bright but that he will struggle because he has severe communication problems and lots of co-ordination problems. He also has quite a few sensory issues. I am starting to wonder whether we should push for a more specialised school.

There is a school near us with a speech and language unit attached but we've been told informally that they wouldn't accept him as he has more than just communication problems. They seem to take children who only have communication disorders but are otherwise fine. There are special ASD schools in our area but my impression is that they take children with more severe LDs which I don't think he has. (Admittedly I haven't been to see these schools yet). I had been looking at another type of school run by ICAN in Surrey which on paper looks ideal but it would cost the LEA a whopping £30k a year (plus transport costs). I am going to arrange to visit it but if it looks good, how on earth would I get the LEA to fund it? Have I got any chance of it happening????

I guess assuming we get one-to-one in the statement then they would be paying the salary of a TA at the least if he went into mainstream school. The ICAN school has OTs and SALTs on site so there wouldn't be any additional costs in relation to therapy.

Any thoughts/ideas welcome. I'm going round in circles a bit and I really don't want to start a hopeless fight.

I think you might want to think about getting a private SALT report if you are not happy with the recommendations made. Is the SALT an NHS or LEA employee? In my experience their recommendations are resource led and they only recommend what they are funded to supply. On the issue of schools, this is more problematic. IPSEA would be a good organisation to talk to about this, especially if you decide to try for a specialist independent school. My own experience is that you have to prove that the LEA's provision whether it be mainstream or special school is inadequate. It isn't about what is best. I succeeded in getting a specialist indep ASD school for my son, only after five years in the LEA special school. It was a massive fight, but obviously worth it. This will sound dreadful but you may have to put your son into an LEA school first and gather evidence should the placement be unsuitable.

Definately get private SALT report-expensive but worth it
Our NHS salt recommended 5 a YEAR for when he would start secondary MS school, which also included meetings etc,we knew he needed more and battled and won, he has just started residential SS last week for severe language disorder. You would think you were talking about two different children!!
We still can`t believe he is there.

ican do assessment days too which can be free or subsidised depending on your income they then write reports you can use for statementing whether you want their school or not so might be worth a try, if you gte no help with costs its about £1000 but if youre on low income it could be free and is a sliding scale. hth

I also have a child at an independent special school and when I first looked at the possibility I thought there was no chance of the LA funding it, so I do understand your wariness.

It was a long and difficult fight - the LA wanted to send DS to an inappropriate (but cheaper) special school, so we appealed and took them to tribunal, who ruled in our favour. We needed independent reports to support our arguments and you'll probably need to do the same - not only for SALT but possibly OT and definitely an Educational Psychologist. They also appeared as witnesses at the tribunal.

The LA does not have to fund the best provision for your son, but it must be appropriate and adequate to meet his needs. They need to avoid 'unreasonable public expenditure' so they will look at all the other options before agreeing to fund an independent special school.

You need to research all the possible schools in the area - they may even prefer to send him to a state special school in another LA as that will still be cheaper than paying independent school fees. So get in touch with the schools and ask for a visit and chat with the HT/Senco.

Agree that IPSEA would be good to talk to, SOS SEN and the NAS education line are also good.

Hi Loeuy

Just wanted to say I understand about inadequate SALT provision. SALT recommendation may be standard as my DD (4.3 ASD) has similar recommendations 5 contacts in the first term then once per half term. Funnily enough DD's report also contained the name of a different child .

I do not know what to suggest other than maybe visit all schools you think may be appropriate for your DS and take it from there. Good luck

Lots of good advice above but just wanted to add the possibility of a split placement if it would feel appropriate. We have 2 days at SN school and 3 days at MS school with 1-1 in each setting. So far so good-ish..but it's early days.

There were some difficulties re SALT report too and I had a heated discussion with SALT during which she let slip that they are not allowed to suggest levels of provision if they know the resources aren't there..

Having said that she did agree to change her report and we were happy with the suggestions she made for the level of interventions in the amended version.

Good luck..

Hayes Park has an ASD unit - and from what I've heard it's very good. I would really really try to get into there.

www.hayesparkschool.co.uk/acorns.htm

Apologies - I tried to get on last night to reply and MN was down

We have an independent SALT report, submitted at the time we put in the request for statutory assessment. Reading it again though it doesn't set out exactly how many sessions of speech therapy he requires on a weekly/termly basis. I think I wasn't as clued up about it at the time we put that in.

We also submitted an independent OT report last month as we were warned that the NHS OT report was not likely to include what we needed. The independent report does state that he needs weekly OT.

I spoke at length to ICAN in June when he was diagnosed and they said he was too young for them to assess (they don't generally do it until they are 4). That's too late for us although if I can go and see them I will ask again.

eveiebaby you're not in LB Hillingdon are you??? I actually think the fact that the SALT report is so poor and has another child's name on it could work in our favour as we can show that they haven't really thought about what provision DS1 actually needs (as its supposed to be tailored on a individual basis )

indigo thanks - will have a look at the website. I am going to the library tomorrow as I found a special needs schools book which is in stock there so will have a look and see if there is anywhere else which might be worth a look at.

If I could get him weekly OT and SALT provided within the local ms school that would be the best outcome but I just can't see it happening. I also think that if he had this provision over the next 2-3 years he may well not need much support at all after that because he is making very steady progress.