OMG - Professionals meeting next week.......

[StarkAndWitchesWillFindYou]

There are 9 people coming, including Autism Outreach Worker, Autism Advisory Teacher AND Head of Autism Advisory Service.

Is that really necessary? It's only lil ole me!

A bit heavy handed don't you think? Unless it is that they've taken my concerns VERY seriously and want the people there empowered to sort it out. On the other hand it could be an attempt to bully.

What do you think?

Also attending, Class teacher, TA, SLT, OT, SENCo and HEADTEACHER!

A little bit mad.

(the cynic in me says it is just a meeting so they can say they had a meeting)

Compared to what school did for us, I would say that you are very lucky to have all those people there at one meeting.

I would say that it is good that three Autism specialists are going to attend.

Do you want 10 mnetters as back up Star?

Why would you say it was good? They have continually failed ds and I have complained big time about their approach.

Yeah if you could make it fighting.

Please keep your name. I think zombies is apt. I get to fight 9 next week!

Lucinda, why would it be good that so many people are going to attend?

quantity does not equal quality.

ime, having toom any people there just menas they can all squabble amongst themselves as to who hasnt doen what, and then suddenly realise the time, scoff the bicuits, and leave, with vague empty promises of reports of meeting, targets, etc to follow in the post

Star,yeah think I will keep the name for a bit. As I've just got the statement I not be fightingthLA too much for a little while at least. I think they've decided they need to be mob-handed to have a chance of getting one over on you.

Hi.It would be nice to think that all these people were going to be at the meeting with your ds best interests at heart.
But..... you and I know, it is probably good to be "slightly" sceptical. The number of profess. going from Autism Team does seem excessive. I suspect that this is because you have pushed some buttons by asking them to show how what they have done has helped your ds. This has probably not gone down too well, as you know, that us "mere" parents should accept the stock answer of, "cos we are the profess."
What is the purpose of the meeting? What do you want out of it?
I think you should expect some of those present to be a bit prickly, as you have been direct with them and asked them to fill-in the profess. book to explain what they are doing with your ds, but so far they have refused to do so. This would be a good opportunity to ask them why.
Maybe I am being too cynical, but I know what you have been up against so far, so I would just say, be on your guard, take notes, make sure you ask that a copy of the minutes are sent to you to agree on, before they are sent to everyone else. If possible, take someone with you, as I think sometimes, a parent having another presence in the room, makes the profess. a bit more guarded, polite and sometimes agree to what you want. Let us know how it goes. x

I have often had this experience. I think it shows the professionals are nervous and therefore by coming in numbers can support each other. does the meeting have a specific agenda or purpose? That might be helpful to know in advance so you can ensure that the things you want to discuss are on the agenda. Judging from your posts you are very experienced in dealing with these people so you probably already know the 'I will think about what you have said' but agree nothing mantra. You might want to take someone with you. I actually think that this approach is bullying and would probably intimidate most people. It kind of intimidates me but it also makes me more determined than ever to try and appear unconcerned. Good luck with this.

I would be very wary if that many turned up. I would suspect you have got them seriously riled and the numbers are there to "educate you in the foolishness of your ways"
Our autism outreach service is really rubbish tbh so my view is maybe biased, hopefully yours is better..

9 is nothing! In the past, we have had: Ed. Psych, Consultant Psychiatrist, Occupational Therapist, Social Worker, Behaviour Teacher, ASD outreach worker, Educational Officer, SENCO, Headteacher, Inclusion Officer, class teacher, TA, both parents, head of Behaviour Service, deputy head and Speech Therapist!

I like to see it as a sign that they take ds seriously; equally, it could show that they are trying to join all the services together and work together

Of course, it could be bullying and arse-covering and 'we will all stand together against' your approach' but let's think positive...or, in the case of your LA, maybe not!

I INSISTED on an agenda. My constant request for 'outcomes' was extended to wanting a purpose for the meeting.

I have it. I cannot for one second think we are going to cover much of it in the hour and a half them have allocated with 'some professionals needing to leave early'.

I don't think the meeting is for any purpose other than recording that there was a meeting with all these people there.

I predict now that the meeting will be 'well we'll have to agree to disagree, and we'll review it all at the next meeting .

My response will be that since nothing is agreed we need to go back to the provision taht ds WAS progressing on until ds is safe to be handed over to their provision and say I want our tutors in right away.

I'll then be firing off letters containing all that crazy research stuff I've unearthed on other thread.

BUT, It is good to have a plan B. I will try as best as I can to give them the benefit of the doubt and an opportunity to do right.

But it is still like a dagger hanging over me.

I know from my experiences that it is not and never is 'the last chance' but it IS quite possibly an unnecessary step for the purpose of continually dragging out the time before my ds gets what he deserves.....

We had a similar meeting recently with 11 proffesionals.

Best thing we did was turn up with a prof minute taker - kept them all to the agenda for once and we ended up with some decent outcomes.

Don't know if there is anyone you can get to take the minutes but it is worth it if you can as it frees you up from note taking.

Why can't they see that we know our children the best.

Horrible waiting for the meeting though - take care of yourself and remember to eat well between your research sessions!

if its a proffessionals meeting, are you allowed to be there? that isnt standard practice ime.

No Lisad. I asked for a meeting with the people on the ground. It escalated to this. I requested that the 'meeting' be called a 'workshop' or TAC or even a CAF.

They have called it a professionals meeting on purpose to intimidate. I have an invitation to a 'professionals' meeting.

ah, well we had 8 at Js TACs a few months back. Stay strong, you taking someone with you?

Yep. Think so. Just got to finalise.

Well I kicked their arses

They even had a 'surprise' attendance from the deputy head of SEN.

I STILL kicked their arses.

The reason I'm telling you this is because when I look back at just 16 months ago at the first TAC meeting when I was just a piece of worried scared jelly, even I'm impressed at myself.

I want you to know that you shouldn't be afraid to get practice in. You can get good at it. There will always be the next meeting

What went on?

Well I had an answer for everything and they didn't basically.

They said they can't change ds' IEP targets because they have been set. I told them they were invalid and contravenes the Code of Practice 8.39, not to mention their own professional Code of Conducts and that I expect these points to be included in the 'parental views' part.

They told me DS has made much progress in their setting. I asked them how they knew that this progress was made in their setting and that he didn't already know these things. They replied that obviously they didn't. I replied that 'obviously they could have done, had his prior learning been taken into account from his ABA programme.

They said that his ABA programme isn't real life and has been 1:1 so they can't use that. I told them that our focus is on moving on from 1:1 asap, and his ABA programme happens in real life not a sterile classroom environment which might be why he isn't demonstrating the skills he has everywhere else in their setting.

I also said that the Judge had not discredited his programme or the independent evaluation of it. He had simply agreed with the LA that ds could make the same progress in their setting for cheaper.

I refered to the milestones that we had set that we would have expected ds to have achieved by now on our programme and pointed out the wide discrepancies between that and what he had achieved in their setting.

They said that I was wrong because he hasn't actually achieved the IEP targets they have set so they cannot be unambitious. I told them ambition isn't the problem, but appropriateness is. DS will be on the target 'must respond correctly when a peer asks him what fruit he had at snack time' until he is in secondary school because it is simply polite conversation and nothing at all motivating in it. Even I would be reluctant to answer such a question.

The Head said that you can't expect everything to be motivating. Children have to learn to do things when they aren't motivated.

I said, then his target should have been 'completes a task that he finds unmotivating' which is fine, but how does that address his deficit areas, and for what reason should this be a priority for his learning.

The Autism Outreach person then told me that the reason he hasn't made as much progress as he should have is because I am against visual support (I have NEVER said that).

(This one is on hold because it is her service that is the issue not her. She is fairly low in the pecking order)

Then I asked all the visiting professionals to fill in a short form that shows the focus for their visit, what OUTCOMES there are for ds of their visit, what the TA is going to do to support their work, what parents can do, date of next visit blah blah blah.

HT said no way. Paper work removes from hands on. I said this is a way of tapping into his 153 hours of resource outside of school and in any case all recent publications show that outcomes are better when agencies work with parents and each other.

HT told me that was rubbish. OT and SALT have different targets and don't need to liaise (can you believe it? )

I gave an example that the OT would need to understand ds' language ability and would be able to support the learning goals set by the teacher as well as use them to motivate ds. The OT and SALT at that point agreed with me.

The SALT and OT surprised me again when they agreed to fill in the forms every week despite the HT protestation.

The sticking point - as always- was the threatened Autism Advisory service. Absolute refusal to comply or consider or do anything we want. Refusal to engage in a mutual feedback system so that we can trouble-shoot or work together despite the fact that they go in every single week for 3 hours.

The school have brought forward the IEP review meeting to next week (From after christmas).

The SALT has invited me in to talk about how to approach ds' disordered language as she wanted to use colourful semantics but is now scared that I am anti-visual so she has suggested we meet and talk about how to do it.

The best outcome I suppose is that they know not to bother inviting the whole world of senior people because I know my stuff, know my child, know their code of practices, know all his prior learning and won't stop.

Bloody hell.
Once again, am speechless.
Did you have support? (ie another person with you?)

I think you are absolutely right. they will now know that they can't intimidate you. Well done. I know what you mean about getting in the practise. I am and always have been incredibly shy, but have really had to develop a much more assertive external face to deal with all this kind of crap.

Yes, my DH came and my Mum (Education Professional) in the end.

Why are you speechless? (I can think of lots of reasons but I wondered specifically)

It was actually helpful to have the surprise visitor from the SEN Team because she understood that I understood the policies iyswim. She has at least read them. The others didn't appear to have a clue what I was talking about when I referred to them.

They genuinely don't seem to know there is another way to do things and more worryingly are not willing to learn about it.
They seem to be like cornered animals, insisting they are right and you are wrong, despite it being obviouls you are at a complete impasse.

Dreadful.

Well there is a meeting next week with the teacher and Senco to 'review his IEP' and set the new targets.

I suppose the outcome of that will establish whether we can work together or are at war.

TBH I can see why they are so reluctant to work with me because all I can be is critical and when they DID allow me in (i.e. today for the SALT) I concur they were right.

He's like a different child. Switched off, fidgety, unengaged, and one minute they are telling me how difficult he finds language and the next minute they are using the most complicated sentences. The clearly expect him to learn from exposure alone.

I almost wish I hadn't been there, except for the fact that the SALT genuinely seems to want to work with me now and provided I'm gental might be open to suggestions. (although it makes me cross that I have to be gentle to spare her feelings whilst we are losing valuable time, but I am genuinely grateful at the 'small' chance she is giving me and am quite keep not to use the fact that she has given me an audience to bitterly complain about everything).