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?

Mompa....which LEA are you in?

My lea ed pysch told me not to apply and that in her opinion he would not get one anyway/didn't need one etc.
Following advice on here I ignored her applied and he's just got one, first time. So just echoing what others are saying.
Sadly I really do think this is a line spewed out bt ed pyschs who work for the lea's.

My Pre-school teacher counsellor told me no need to apply for one too. That there is provision made for him to get 15 hours of a ta from the school budget. She also told me it costs the LEA £6,000 to get an assessment.

I applied and got a statement.

Now, if only I did not follow her advice about which school... if only I found this site earlier.

Just adding my voice in agreement here...ur Ed Psych fed this line t the team who are working at home/pre-school with DS1. In reality it was because she is off n maternity leave any day now and didn't want to add t her workload.

I applied for stat assessment which is currently happening. And do you know what she did...got her trainee to do all the assessments. Seriously.

Trainee seems nice and thorough and has said she agrees with what I think that DS1 needs in a statement. She was very sympathetic when I cried on her.

However, thanks to the very kind people here I have noted down the two breaches of the SEN Code of Practice which this Ed Psych has done, the fact that she is a trainee, everything we discussed in our meeting and have two independent Ed Psychs lined up just in case her report bears no resemblence to our discussions/is a load of rubbish/is signed by the Ed Psych who is too pregnant to assess my son.

In summary...they are not necessarily as helpful in practice as they seem on first acquaintance...and are more than prepared to see you off if it makes their lives easier.

We saw EP in June after chasing school for months to get an appointment. She said we would never get a Stat Ass as he was doing so well. She wasn't being difficult, she said, just honest.

DS got his proposed statement two weeks ago. We had no problem getting an SA and no problem getting a statement.

We will have a battle to get decent provision but I will do what I have done all along: follow my instincts (with support from this board) and get my own bloody evidence as the NHS and LA cannot be relied on to have my child's interests at heart.

It's about money. It's the way it is. DON'T trust what your EP says.

As OPs have said, Ed Psychs are employed by the LEA... the LEA don't want to shell out anything, if they can get away with it.

I was under the impression that children can only go into specialised education (Unit or S.School) if they have a statement of special educational needs... that's what the statement is for!

Go for it, put on the pressure - now. Don't hang about and make sure they know you mean business. Find out for yourself what exactly your son needs educationally and find out what you need to have in place to get there. Make sure you have all the reasons why you know he needs this level of support written down and repeat yourself til you are blue in the face if you have to.

Thank you all so much for your replies. Relly appreciated. I will be applying (and getting a statement) Won't stop until I do!!!

When we relocated from Hereford to Cheshire, my son's Statement was upheld. The new school did an assessment pretty quickly since it was obvious they needed greater funding to accommodate his needs. This we got.