Moondog - help! This is going to be difficult

[debs40]

DS saw the SALT today as part of the SA. She was from 'out of area'. LA had instructed her as she was a 'specialist'. She was very nice but clearly a very political animal!

The local S&L service is county wide but run together between education and NHS. She kept banging on about 'pathways' meaning that the local outreach team and TAs could have SALT delegated to them and there was no need for her to be involved in either drawing up a programme for him or monitoring it - although there was no doubt that he needed one.

Her argument was that there is a delegation pathway and to save duplication of services, there was an agreement that, in the absence of language problems, all SCD would be left to schools.

I pointed out that any blanket policy like this was clearly illegal and cases had to be assessed according to clinical need. I argued that at the very least she should be involved in setting targets, measuring them and providing some oversight.

Honestly, I think this is dreadful. She told me openly that she had to go back and discuss the report with her head of service before filing it. I told her that we were not adverse to going to Tribunal to ensure DS' needs were met.

Any ideas on challenging this? We had an independent SALT assessment for the SA application whic indicated that DS needed SALT sessions not just consultative SALT but she isn't even talking about offering the latter. Will we need to get our own report? Again!

Tell her the only 'delegation' you'll accept is delegation to parents, and you'll need a weekly training session. FFS!

My DS is only partly verbal and gets no direct SALT just consultative - the tribunal found this "significantly concerning" for an ASD child with severe speech delay. Ditto lack of direct specialist autism teaching. But the SALT also told us she had written the highest level she was allowed for DS - ie they just don't do direct teaching for ASD - but children with mild phonological problems get 20 mins a week right through school - but thats because they are easier to 'fix'. The SALT also delegated the social communication work to the outreach teacher - but she was even more useless than the SALT.

By the time we got to tribunal we had 6 months of SALT "advice" which showed they had failed to teach the nursery to teach him 3 words - in 6 MONTHS!

We could not afford a SALT report but did make sure we got very SMART targets on the IEP in the 6 months prior to tribunal which needed a certain degree of specialism to achieve. And of course they missed the targets by a mile.

Your original report should be fine to use again.

We were told by SALT when DS used to go the lang.unit that if he got an asd dx, then SALT would not be seing him anymore when he started school and that his place at the unit would be reviewed.
Camhs paed and SALT told us the same.

The only reason SALT is still now involved with DS now he is at school is because he has a dual dx, autism and speech and lang.disorder.
Without the SAL disorder dx it would be up to autism outreach and school to provide whatever speech and language therapy is needed.

It's not on but it is what happens in our county.

God, it's disgraceful isn't it? That's an outrage Agnes! Genie, you obviously have the same type of policy there too.

Agnes, a quick question, our independent SALT report says he needs 1:1 SALT and consultative sessions but doesn't outline what the sessions should contain except in general terms e.g. pragmatics, assisting with reciprocal communication etc. Would it not need to be more specific?

Debs wouldn't your EP write recommendations ect for the SA of SEN from reading all your professional reports?

I think the reason why the SALT may be saying about the delegation is because schools are thought better placed to be able to generalise the speech therapy into different daily situations for a child with ASD?

It will possibly depend on what your EP puts in her report as to what speech therapy will be recommended?

I wish it were so Wasuup. The EP does not deal with his SC needs and says that is a matter for SALT. She will submit her report independently and not as a result of reading the other reports. She has no power to recommend provision outside from other depts e.g. OT or SALT.

I agree that in terms of applying provision, SALT needs to be done in school and that someone in school needs to be trained and be available to do this.A SALT could not be available to do this.

However, that is different from dumping it on school and running providing no guidance regarding setting targets or oversight from a relevant professional regarding measuring them?

It also means that there is a problem in specifying provision precisely without expert involvement.

hmm slightly differnt circumstances we had to challenge the Lea here as they to did not want to offer ds a place in speech unit due to his other dx

We had to get independant report to show that ds is caperable and that speech is his biggest problem and that he does have dx of verbal and oral dyspraxia as seperate to any other issues .unit are good but they admit this is first time they had a dc with confirmed other dx in the unit normally once ge tother dx the place is in question

My sons EP put in her report that my son needs a speech and language therapy program in school. I get the impression that the specialist SALT assess needs and provides recommendations that the LEA specialist teachers advice school on how to carry these out.