Ed Psychologist said no need to apply for statment yet

[mompa]

Saw ED psychologist for first time y'day. She agreed DS needs ASD UNIT and will recommend this and one hour a day funding for mainstream setting DS also attends. She said that no point applying for statement yet since they will not give anything in additional to what she is recommending anyway. I asked if this would put us at a disadvantage if we wanted to name special school and she said no since he would not be going until Sep 2012. I have the feeling I am being fobed off and in any case specialist nursery are planning on apply for statement for DS. Also how many hours should DS have funded at specialist nursey and how long does this take to come through. At the moment we are paying. Any thoughts anyone?

I don't think you will be able to get into an ASD Unit without a statement. If you think that is the best kind of a school for your DS you will need to apply for a statmenet - now.

Don't believe the Ed Pysch - apply for a Statement yourself - now.

Hi mompa

You must remember as well that the Ed Pysch is in the employ of the LEA and these people as well are under pressure from them re statements (i.e not to readily issue).

"She said that no point applying for statement yet since they will not give anything in additional to what she is recommending anyway".

Of course that is an out and out lie. Also statements can take around six months to set up anyway and that timescale applies only if there are no undue delays/LEA messing you around.

If an ASD unit is needed you need a statement in order to enter it. Five hours per week of funding which is what the EP is currently proposing is woefully inadequate.

"I asked if this would put us at a disadvantage if we wanted to name special school and she said no since he would not be going until Sep 2012"

Apply yourself for the Statement now, what she has told you is all a load of old bunkum.
Also if you apply for this yourself you know its been done then. Importantly too you can appeal if the LEA refuse; the others cannot do that. You have far more power than specialist nursery ever would in this regard.

Agree with the others - apply yourself now. We were told ds 'would not get a statement' and so did not. It took till he was 7 (rising 8) to get the support and sn school he needed because we had to start jumping through hoops again!

Another one to tell you it's lies! Apply for Statement yourself. IPSEA are good, if you can persevere to get through to them.

A) The threshold is higher once he is in school, because you have to show not only his needs, but that the current school can't meet his needs.

B) The Ed Psych informs the LA, she is not the decision maker. She doesn't know what they would give.

C) If I had listened to the 'inclusion co-ordinator' who told me to let her apply for a SA in December for September start, then DD wouldn't be in her Special School now because all the places would have been allocated. Instead, I applied myself in September, got the Statement by January, and was on the list for SS straight away.

the specialist nursery that mompa's ds is at is quite good at handling statements, up to a point.

they certainly know their stuff re: how to get LA to respond.

BUT (and it's a big but), they aim it towards a narrow band of onward schools, imo. a couple of which are owned by the same group.

fine if that is what you want.

not so fine if you want somethign different, as they are reluctant, ime, to take on board that a different style of report might be needed, or they might need to explicitly state that no progress has been made at their setting, etc.

they are known by the LA, and have a good relationship with them. again, good if what you want coincides with what they want. awful if you want somethign different, because then you have a whole team against you, backing each others' arguments up.

I would say aply yourself, then you are in control of the situation. I was very glad I did, as it was necessary for me at times to wrest control back from the nursery placement.

definitely apply now. places are allocated in the December before you need them, so you would be looking at placement panel in Dec 2011. they are always oversubscribed, so if you miss this panel, you have no hope (which might be somethign you want to bear in mind, if you don't want what the LA are offering! it worked for us ) if there are any delays in your statementing process, and you need to appeal, you will ned to have applied now if you want to be placed at panel next Dec.

I put in for SA in May but was told I wouldn't get it and should wait until Nov/Dec . As school choices had to be in by Jan there is no way I would have managed this particularly as they refused me at first. Am so relieved I didn't take their advice as I may not have been able to get ds into the great school we've chosen. Don't delay - go for SA!

"Don't delay - go for SA!"

We need to adopt that as our SN slogan

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha and blardy ha again.
apply for a statement yourself (and get yourself a copy of the SEN Code of Practice).
She is either a lying gobshite or utterly incompetent (probably both).
you cannot get your child into a speciailist unit without a statement initially.
Also, if you ever have to move schools, the statement is a legal document outlining what your child needs are and how they should be met.
ha de bloody ha again

um, where we lived, pre-school children were regularly accepted into special units without a statement. in fact, most of them were accepted into the special units with the express purpose of statementing them during their attendance, and prior to them entering full time school (yr r), so that the statement was in place by that point. i think they called them 'assessment places' - as in, not SA, but assessing if it was a suitable placement lol. they lasted a year without SA being requested iirc.

dd2 wasn't statemented until just before yr r.

i suppose it depends on where you live, and what the standard practice is there.

personally, i would contact the unit and ask if you can visit, and what their entry procedures are. they will happily tell you if the ed psych is trying to pull a fast one.

Please make that application NOW!! And don't be fobbed off with what we were told..."there's no difference between what a Statement provides and the banded (additional) funding available in the county (of Hereford).

The Statement, which I pushed and pushed for, has been crucial. A Statement gets you the help you need for you child, or pretty close to it because it is a legal and binding document, reviewed yearly AND if you move school for any reason, as I did relocating to Cheshire, IT GOES WITH THE CHILD. No need to wait for assessment at the new school whilst everything goes tits up for your child.

Anyway, wish I had a quid for every time someone has asked me "ah, but does he have a Statement?" like "is there REALLY a problem?" I'd be loaded!!

A Statement gets things done and in a quicker/more efficient fashion than NOT having one.

Do it.

P.S

My son is 10, was diagnosed with autism aged 4 and recently diagnosed with additional OCD in the summer.

He gets 25 hours of assistance in mainstream.

Fnar!

urm I think that is a standard thing to say to put you off... In fact I think it's written in an LEAs EPs response to parents handbook.. :)

apply for it yourself :)

are statements now a portable document then wendi? afaik, each lea can decide whether to uphold the statement before it carries out its own assessments and decides support (most do, until they assess themselves), but they are not bound to. they can defer support until their own SA is carried out?

if it has changed, then that's really good news. was it recent? dd2 was only statemented in 2008...

My understanding, madwoman, is that the new LA upholds the statement until they carry out their own assessment. I thought they were obliged to do so until then.

Of course, how quickly they carry out that assessment would be an indicator of how likely they were to continue the provision outlined within...

mm, afaik most do, but they aren't under any obligation to... i must look it up. it's always handy to know! we were warned in 2008 that a new lea could refuse support until the new SA had been carried out (military family - we move a lot) - it would be a huge benefit if it was now a legal requirement... (i probably should just have checked the aff sn webpage lol, it probably tells me on there. ) it's been a huge bugbear for military families with sn children that statements aren't portable.

i have always intended to use the 'old' (tee hee) statement as an opening gambit though.

i moved with ds statement and yes they do ahve to uphold it till they reasses but since i wanted ds out of ms and into speech .

Informed them ds would not be going to ms with the statement from essex as temporary measure while they reassed .Knew once they had him in a school be harder to get him out

It worked they got on with itand was quicker as they was aware he was out of school.Should been in Reception when moved had previously been.But did get awya with it probably due to pointing out that ds did not need attend school till after was 5

with regard to moving authority, i was originally alluding to moving to a different school in borough so no change of LEA therefore the statement is portable without having to go through an assessment again as it moves with the child.
my son is placed out of borough and our LEA funds it. I'm scared to move as don't want to have to go through the 'battle' again. It took too much out of us the first time round.
With regard to some units being assessment units - this is sometimes the case in our borough (can think specifically of a speech & language one locally) but our LEA used the unit without then carrying out an assessment saying that the child was coping with support in the unit therefore didn't need a statement setting out the needs. Go figure! This is all well and good until the time comes to change schools (again my original post was more geared to a move to secondary) when, without a statement already in place, trying to garner support is very, very difficult.
My original assertion still stands that you should ignore the ed psych and request an assessment - she may be giving you an honest opinion but, remember, she is an employee of the LEA which would be committed to funding the statement (just saying...)

I think it has to be said that the SENCO who refers the child to be seen by the EP needs to give them a good idea of what input / type of assessment they are looking for from the EP1. EPs would tell you that most SENCOs just fill out the EP1 with little / no regard or any understanding of what they are asking theEP to come in for.

This is a negative starting point for everyone and a waste of time / resouces.

You can always have a private assessment done?