Need help on tribunals

[loueytbg]

Quick question - had a meeting with the SEN officer and parent partnership about DS1's draft statement and my comments on it (there will be more threads about that shortly...)

I thought I had 2 months from the date that the statement was finalised to appeal the contents of the statement. PP told me today that I have 2 months from the time the draft statement is issued, which means I have 3 days to put an appeal in.

Which is right??

Also, roughly how long does it take from the time you put in the appeal to getting a tribunal date.

It looks as though we are getting a final statement which will then be reviewed in 6 months time because he's under 5. I queried how much we can amend it at that point and PP said that they have recently changed the rules (when it changed to SEND) and they are supposed to take account of any new/updated evidence. Is that true?

Our problem is that the current statement has inadequate SALT and OT provision (surprise surprise) and I'm not hopeful of getting more put in despite trying. If DS1 gets a place in the ASD unit we want him to, then it doesn't matter as he will get it there as a matter of course. If he doesn't then we will definitely need to appeal to get more provision. The problem is that we are not going to find out about the school until at least the end of Feb.

I am not sure whether we should put in an appeal now, in case he doesn't get into the unit so that we have time before he starts school to get a tribunal date, or whether we should let this statement be, wait for the review in 6 months nad then appeal that if its not adequate. Problem is that would be sometime in May/June.

It is definitely two months from the final statement. You should have been sent a cover letter with the statement; the two months is counted from the date on the letter (and the letter should have details about your right to appeal).

It takes about 4-5 months to get a tribunal date I think. Bear in mind though that LAs sometimes back down during that time and agree to make changes, especially if you submit new evidence which supports your case.

It's true that you now have the right to appeal following an Annual Review, if you request amendments backed up by evidence and the LA refuse to make those changes. In the past, you could only have a right to appeal when a statement was amended, and often this only happened when the child moved to a new school at transition points.

I would recommend putting in an appeal now to deal with the SALT and OT issues. If the statement is amended to name a school, you will also have a right to appeal against the new statement, but SEND will merge the two appeals. You don't have to submit all of your evidence to SEND when you first lodge the appeal; you have to set out your grounds for appeal but you are allowed to send in extra evidence afterwards.

Where are you? SOS!SEN is running a regional workshop in Conwy From School Action to Special Needs Tribunal on January 15. It is their first regional workshop.

They also run workshops in London if that is nearer to you but I don't know when the next one is.

sugarcandy thanks at least we don't have to do it this week. Interesting to know they would merge the appeals. If we put in an appeal now and he got into the ASD unit, we would probably withdraw the appeal - I assume we could do that?? Any idea how much it costs??

keepyourmouthshut we're in London - I will look up and see when they are doing the next one around here. I've heard they are very good but difficult to get hold of!

Yes you can withdraw an appeal at any time
It doesn't cost anything unless you employ lawyers, an advocate or independent experts

loueytbg, yes, they are very difficult to get hold of on the phone. Use their website. They are good.

Actually I'm not entirely sure that merging appeals is a SEND policy as such - I had a similar situation where I knew the statement would be amended for transition. But they said it would make sense to deal with all the issues at one hearing so they would do it for our case if we requested it.

I think if you appeal now, it makes it more likely that the LA will name the unit anyway as they will realise that you're persistant!

SOS SEN are doing a London workshop in Feb and booking now. I went to one of their talks and they are excellent.

sugar thanks for the link - it may be too late for us as we will have to put an appeal in around then, but I've noticed they do drop in workshops too and I could travel to one of those if I can't get hold of them by phone.