Statement help!

[Willmum]

Hi, I have a couple of questions that I think you lovley ladies may be able to help with.

My LA is conducting a statutory assessment for my, which I requested. I am currently writing my parental statement for this and have a few queries.

1. Do I have to answer all the questions of the LEA's form? Im not using the form as theres no room to write but wondered if I need to answer all of their questions. One is 'what does your child do well! Im kind of struggling a bit with that one.

1. Is it enough to write down my view of the problems and highlight findings and recommendations from key professionals, or do I need to start quoting 'law' at them?

1. If I do need to be doing the above are there any particular parts of the SEN code that I need to refer to?

1. My son is 3.7. SA was requested by me. He began pre-school in September for 2.5 hours per day (except 5 hours on 1 day). Pre-school are saying there are no problems. They told me the other day that when he is playing outside (which I think is quite a lot of the time, that ''you can't tell des different to the other kids'').

1. The head of the pre-school is exceptionally unhelpful and refuses to see that there are issues. (Apart from toileting, that really bothers them). School are not implementing recommendations for his iep from salt and ot etc, I'm worried this will go against us. Is there any way I can counter this?

1. I fully expect that he will be turned down as he is not 'severe enough' .He has a speech delay and severe speech disorder. He has sensory processing difficulties and poor motor/fine co-ordination. His attention is appauling and his listening skills poor (he verbalises constantly as if he cannot physically stop, he was doing this before he could talk).

He's been refered to asd panel and adhd and auditory prcessing disorder have been mentioned as possible issues as well as dcd.Overall I feel he has complex difficulties which span a whole range of areas but do not think they will fall under the 'severe' catagory.

Any advice on how to make it more likely that he will get some more help.

Should say that ed psyc, 2 salts and ot have all written reports which give good recommendations but little in the way of saying how they should be put into practice.

Any ideas/help would be great.

Thanks

Hi Willmum

A few thoughts, which I will post. I am sure lots of others will come along too, and you'll get great advice.

1. I would answer all the questions. Especially if your DS is a 'complex' character. It gives you an opportunity to really show the complexity of his needs. I found the 'what is she good at' hard to answer. I decided the key was to say something positive, but that had a really negative undertone. So I think I said something like "DD1 is very good at recognising emotions in others, and will show great concern if someone has hurt themselves/gets upset. She can be extremely persistent in offering care and support to others, and it takes a lot of effort to distract her from the injured party..." which on the face of it is answering the question, but underlying is saying 'she's like a dog with a bone and will interfere lots'.

2. Is a personal decision. I didn't feel the need to quote the SEN Code of Practice at them, and I didn't feel the need to quote law. What I did do was something a little more subtle. A bit like your question 1, I used the SEN Code of Practice as my 'crib sheet'. It is that which they rely on to make their decisions, to sift the applications, etc. They know it is that which their decisions will be compared with if it is taken to tribunal.

So, I made sure that in answering their questions and giving my views, I used plain English - particularly important because you don't know what level of education the person reading your report has. Plain language means that it isn't intimidating, so IMO the person reading it won't feel defensive.

What I did do, though, is make sure that I used phrases and key words from the SEN CoP. So, I would use the term 'complex' and 'severe' where you can. I would also use words like 'progress' etc. Basically, my intention would be that the person reading your parental advice can see that your DS fits their criteria easily.

5. I think this is a tricky one. The SEN CoP is very clear that if the school is not doing all they can under SA+ then they can issue a note in lieu, and tell the school what they need to do. HOWEVER, I think that the very fact that you have got to Statutory Assessment is very positive, because it is actually quite unusual to get an assessment without ending up with a statement. The SEN CoP says that a LA should only undertake an assessment if they think that a statement is 'likely' to be necessary. I would say that it is obvious that without extensive support your DS can't manage, and that his current setting have been unable to implement enough strategies to help him cope thus far.

6. Your key here is in showing that whilst each difficulty alone may fall short of the severity which is required for Statementing (be careful here, because parents tend to play-down their children's difficulties) when you factor the difficulties together, and consider the fact that a classroom contains 30 children who all need to progress and share the attention, the complexity of those difficulties increases the magnitude of his problems.

Make sure that if he is at all likely to be disruptive in a class setting you stress this. Make it clear that if they don't support your DS adequately, the whole class will suffer a detrimental effect on their education.

I hope that helps

Thank you so much for such a through and clear response. I feel more confident now that I am heading in the right direction and also feel more hopeful that he may actually get a statement.

Thanks again

Glad you found it helpful

I fully expect that he will be turned down as he is not 'severe enough'

Please don't think that. Your ds sounds quite severe compared to mine and I have just won a statement. I have been on this board a while now and sometimes think that everyone's dc's sound much worse than mine but every one of them has different needs. The hardest part is getting them to assess in the first place so well done for getting this far. As Lougle says it is true that most assessments will end in a statement although it can depend on the LA. Good luck.

hi Willmum,

With regard to answering every question, I sometimes found it easier to merge my response to 2 questions where there was a lot of overlap but numbered my replies to make it clear which questions I was responding to.

Re salt and other professionals' reports not giving enough expicit recommendations to show how needs should be met - my ds'case officer told me that it is always possible for a parent to request clarification from any professional who has submitted evidence towards the statement. You could talk to your named officer at the lea for advice or go back to the professionals directly.

Hope it works out well for you and ds.