Proposed statement here..help!

[starfish71]

Have just had DS's proposed statement (hand delivered by nice lady from the LEA - been waiting since 6th September for it).

Lots to look through but under part 3 - Arrangements for support it says-

Special provision made through a Statement of Special Educational Need is intended to complement school based provision and DS will access school based support provision which includes 15 hours of Teaching Assistant support. This may be extended to other pupils being taught in the same group or class with DS provided that this does not compromise his support. The arrangements on a day to day basis will be the responsibility of the classteacher and SENCO.

It is also full of 'would benefit from'and 'opportunities to' . I know from reading on this thread that those are meaningless.

Will need lots of help and advice to sort this, any help would be wonderful.

The arrangements for support sound very vague. It could mean he is in a class with lots of other children with various difficulties sharing one TA. If he is in a normal size class of 25-30, then this is virtually useless. If you think your dc needs 1:1 support, then this is no good.

All the meaningless 'opportunities to' and benefits from' also need highlighting. The statement provision should be quantified. If you don't know what it means, how can anyone else? I had plenty of this crap in my dc's statements. I went through all the needs in part 2, added any that had not been included and then made sure there was a piece of provision that matched the need and then made sure it was specific in terms of what is to be done, by whom and for how long each day / week etc. I also asked IPSEA and NAS for advice on how to proceed with LEA.

I'm sure there'll be plenty of other people along with good advice soon. It's kind of a specialist subject on here!!

Thanks cansu. DS is currently in a class of 29 and will be there until a place comes up in an ASD unit within a mainstream school. Oh am going to have a hard time with this I think.

Very tempted to have a big glass of wine tonight and then tackle this from tomorrow..
but will be very grateful for any help.

It all sounds a bit vague. Are you looking for him to have 1:1 support because I don't think that is what they are offering.

Sounds very much like they are saying your son will have support from the classes TA as any other child will.

Hi starfish,

re your comment:-
"This may be extended to other pupils being taught in the same group or class with DS provided that this does not compromise his support. The arrangements on a day to day basis will be the responsibility of the classteacher and SENCO".

Not good at all - would reject the statement outright on that sole basis let alone what is stated below in your other comment.
"It is also full of 'would benefit from'and 'opportunities to'. I know from reading on this thread that those are meaningless".

Too right. You need provision that is both specified and quantified, as required by law. Anything less than this should be rejected by you.

Also Starfish you need to read Part 2 closely as well as this part as well as part 3 are the most important bits of the statement. Both 2 and 3 need to be 100% right because that is where you really start from.

Try and get hold of some organisation that is fully independent like for example IPSEA, ACE and or SOS;SEN (they are Surrey based but are very good at cutting through the waffle that some LEAs come out with). They will tell you what Parts 2 and 3 should state.

"Special provision made through a Statement of Special Educational Need is intended to complement school based provision and DS will access school based support provision which includes 15 hours of Teaching Assistant support. This may be extended to other pupils being taught in the same group or class with DS provided that this does not compromise his support. The arrangements on a day to day basis will be the responsibility of the classteacher and SENCO."

What they are saying is that they are formally documenting that your child will have the same suppport as he would have had if he didn't have a statement

In other words, they will give him whatever support they think he needs as minimum, and only increase it if he isn't coping. The school has devolved funding for the first 15 hours anyway, so they won't set aside any specific funding for him.

REJECT, REJECT, REJECT.

HTH.

Thank you Atilla and chocoholic. It is so wishy washy and vague am really disappointed.

Will have to really study all the advices and parts 2 & 3 carefully and point out all the things missing and as you say get proper independent advice. Do you know if those organisations actually can look at the proposed statement and steer me in right direction? Know we only have 15 days to tell them we want to negotiate.

We want DS to go to this lovely ASD unit but provision is very limited and there may not be a place there for up to a year we have been told. Do I still get them to name it in part 4?

Oh Lougle thank you for that. It is rubbish isn't it? And I know our school won't give any extra help unless they really really have to. Not a very ASD friendly school. And DS is now the only child in the whole school with a statement, speaks volumes doesn't it? :(

Thank you starlight, I did wonder why the LEA officer told me that DS's current school would be named in part 4. Didn't sound right.

Have to try and settle DS2 so will check on thread later, but am very grateful to you all.

Will send an e-mail off to them tomorrow. After waiting since we started this in Feb am really upset that they are trying to fob me and DS off with this.