Teacher has said today that the government arent funding statements at present?

[brandy77]

Is this right? i thought education wasnt being cut back on. My 6 year old son has poor attendance due to numerous hopsital trips/outpatients and this has had a knock on affect on his behaviour, in the respect that he can refuse school. Teacher has told me today thats shes phoned CAMHS to get them reinvolved. We have another CAF meeting after half term. She said shes concerned about my sons learning, namely writing i think, poor concentration, in the loo a lot because of medical reasons, reluctance to try anything new, needs heaps of encouragement to do anything from what i can gather. Anyway she said theres no point at present going for a statement as it would be a lot of paperwork and if we got one then it wouldnt be funded so would basically be useless. Is this correct anyone know or am i getting the runaround? I want to have things clear in my head before the next big meeting. School nurse, attendance guy, CAMHS will be there. Thanks.xx

imo, they're giving you the run around and trying to put you off. Budgets for education aren't supposed to be being cut afaik. If you get a statement it is a legally binding document and has to be funded. She's right about it being a lot of paperwork and hard work but it's the only way to have a legal requirement for support for your ds. I would strongly recommend you looking here at the ipsea website. You can apply for a statement yourself and it's usually recommended a parent starts the process, ipsea have a model letter you can use to do this.

What are parent partnership like in your area, some are more independant than others from the LEA? Worth asking them too.

the sen code of parctice here is a very useful resource.

ROFL You are SO being given some bull.

Don't mention statement again. Look on the IPSEA website and write off yourself to get a statutory assessment started.

It's a lot of paperwork and hard work for them, because once that statement is issued, they are legally obliged to provide what it says.

So they don't want your son to have one.

I cannot believe she's fed you just a giant steaming pile of shite though, that's shocking.

They are legally obliged to fund it too, they do not have an option for that, and can be prosecuted if they won't comply, I think.

Is she the SENCo? (I hope not!)

Do bear in mind, though, that if your DS is refusing school, the LEA may not agree to some of what you want (such as an increase in LSA hours) if they think he isn't going to be there often enough to receive it, as it could be funded for a child who is.

What a lot of bull someone has dealt you!

Not unusual: we re told SENCO had applied and had been refused, in fact ds1 wasn;t on register of SEN, 4 years on he has a half hours statement (max in MS here unless you are fighting for MS provision) and maybe a place in SNu compe.

Ignore, and apply anyway.

Oh and ask her to put it in writing just to shake her up a bit- tell her some bull that a charity said they would fund if you got it in writing. talk about ammo for SA application in school not meeting needs bit!

Thanks for all your replies. My sons school attendance is affected September to April, this is when ill health hits him (a normal cold knocks him out because of his underlying medical probs) and when hospital admissions for tests generally take place in autumn/winter months. May, June and July he has nearly 100% attendance.

Ive spoke to my ex who is attending the CAF meeting with me. I am going to request (especially after reading these replies) that we apply for a statement. His class teacher is the SENCO who told me statements wouldnt be funded, i think she is probably more bothered about the paperwork too be honest. So at the meeting next tuesday if i say i want the statementing process started, what response can i expect from her and how long do i give her to provide evidence that she has started it, before i apply for it myself?

I know its coming up in the meeting because she asked me what i wanted out of the meeting and i said for my son to have 1:1 . Will CAMHS have any clout with applying for it? They know how my sons behaviour affects schooling and so does his paediatrician, who has said he has a Severe Emotional Disturbance (he said its very common with children with chronic illness who go to hospital a lot).

Thanks.xx

big car, ive never heard of parent partnership before x

Mumi, his attendance was 59% at the end of the winter last year but by the end of summer it had gone up to 79%.x

gideansmum, what do you mean by the charity fund comment and putting it in writing? sorry i didnt quite follow,lol.x

Parent Partnership are the right hand person working for the LEA be careful what you say to them as if they are funded by the LEA your better off sitting with the LEA as P/P tell them everything anyway and they also inform the P/P support worker what to say to you.

brandy, parent partnership can certainly be useful, worth ringing them any way to find out.

personally I wouldn't leave it to the school to apply for the statement, do it yourself then you have control and know exactly what all the timescales should be for the LEA response. If you apply you can send off any reports you have from CAMHS, paeds etc that you want them to take into account and you will know for sure what info has been passed on, send everything you think will be relevant. Definitely before tuesday have a good read of the ipsea website. And if you have time have a read of the SN children board, plenty of experience there on going about statementing.

I think gideonsmum meant create a paper trail, try to get the school to put as much in writing as you can, then there is no arguing over the facts of what you have been told and may make them less likely to lie to you again.

Thankyou for the info about the parent partnership, ive found the IPSEA website very good and sent my ex a copy of the layout of the letter to see what he would put in it. He did rather waffle on about our son having medical probs since birth and it now impacting on his emotional and learning difficulties, and that he is falling further behind each year and this will continue as he progresses through school, and that the school have said even though our son needs 1:1 they have admitted they cannot provide it.

Is this ok or is it meant to be more like bullet points and briefer? I couldnt ring the IPSEA today for advice as ive had a houseful of relatives for a kids party. I wanted to go armed with the letter tuesday really.

Thankyou for your helpful replies.xx