Hello,
This is the first messge I have posted on Special Needs- Education, but have posted in the past on other Special Needs boards, and I hope some of you lovely ladies may be able to help.
DS turned 3 at the end of August. He was born at 29+5, and In July 2009, we had a diagnosis of mild CP and left sided hemiplegia. We are lucky that the CP is only mild. He wears an AFO on his left leg due to walking on tip-toes, and wears a heel support on his right foot. He is able to walk with a fair amount of confidence, and despite a delay in speech compared with other children his age, he is making great progress and can make his needs understood.
We looked around a local nursery (attached to a primary school) in November, and the staff there and then were made aware he has CP. We had a home visit in July and DS was given a start date of 22 September, yet when I mentioned again to them about his CP, everything was brought to a halt, and we were told SENCO would need to get involved before they could let him start.
I met SENCO and the school's inclusion manager at the start of September, and I was told an application for funding needed to be made and approved before DS could start at nursery. The inclusion manager told me she had enquired about 'emergency funding' but that was turned down as no funds were available.
We have a CAF meeting on 8 October at school with everyone involved in DS's care. His consultant has already told me that he believes because DS's CP is mild, that any application for funding is likely to be turned down.
I spoke to the inclusion manager this morning, and she told me that after speaking to the Early Years manager yesterday, it is looking likely that he won't be starting nursery until January. She said that the delay was due to his physio and SALT not filling in the appropraite education forms due to there being talk of us relocating back overseas (DH is foreign).
This is complete rubbish. The SALT filled out the appropriate form out in front of me a couple of months ago, and there has never been talk about us relocating back overseas, or else why would we pursue DS's nursery place with such a fight?
I have written to the local MP to see if there is any way the process can be made quicker. I have had nothing but conflicting advice. They knew about his CP from last November, yet say the funding application couldn't have been started until September, yet at his home visit in July, he was given a start date of 22 September!
Im new to the whole education process, so if anybody can please share any ideas or experience, I will be very grateful. Thankyou.