Autism Advisory refuse to work with parents because......

[StarlightWonderStarlightBright]

their support is to the schools.

How do I tackle this one.

They don't work with parents because they support the school. If parents want to know what their advice and strategies are they should speak to the school.

I have requested that I am liaised with when forming strategies and recommendations as I have a wealth of knowledge about ds, and also so I can support their work.

I have asked for this to be done through a weekly 'log' with 5 headings. All other services have agreed to this and after almost half a term have fed back to me that they like the system and find the feedback from the parents helpful, as well as the opportunity to correct or challenge one of my suggests to improve it.

The autism outreach spend 3 hours a week in ds' nusery and says filling in this form will detract from hands-on time. The SLT spends just 30mins a week with ds yet still manages it (in fact she's got so enthusiastic about the form she fills it in and then continues on the other side).

But the autism lot still refuse any direct liaison with parents. The say that isn't how they work.

My argument of course is that the way the work should be in the best interest of ds, not their preferred methodology, but I'm told that is tough.

DS' statement says that their service will support the school, but it doesn't say that this should be done without parental involvement.

Any clues/ideas?

You and your posts have helped me loads Star, I am sorry I have no wise words for you (you are much further along the fight than me)

One idea - do the autism outreach have a mission statement or code of practice that may somewhere say working in partnership, if you could find a loophole of their own making you could quote it to them.

Good Luck.

Would anyone at the school tell them to use it?

Surely they must do some sort of record-keeping? Are they really saying that their hands-on time includes no note-writing at all?

I have no real words of advice but I have made it perfectly clear to the school and the hospital that I want to be involved in any meetings/discussions that take place re my DS, and if I am not there then a report detailing what was said!! x

Thanks. LOL. I really AM clear as a bell about what I want!

Mak They send me a report 2 weeks after their visit (even though they visit weekly) which is just a stream of consciousness 'ds did this, then he did that, then he did something else'.

Then at the end they put 'advice - encourage ds to interact with his peers'.

er - yeah. What a waste of bloody time and money!

Also, I suspect some of the advice that 'isn't written' is quite dodgy and actually detrimental to ds' progress.

They say they can't fill in my bloody log because they can only fill in their own service format proforma as that is policy. (I suspect it is because filling something in on the day can't be controlled by the top bod)

All I want is: what issues does ds have, what strategies are recommended, what should the TA do, what can the parents do, box for feedback from parents.

Hardly gonna take more than two secs. And I have suggested that 'encourge ds' doesn't specify 'how', and it is the 'how' that is going to make a difference to ds' learning.

yes I have been told that as well starlight -didn't even receive a copy of her report (although she fed back verbally in a meeting). Shame as our advisor was really for ds needing support/reasonable adjustments in school. I wonder whether they're instructed not to give hard copies of anything that we can use? After all they work for the LEA.

i think its ridiculas that they wont do this Star-
they should be telling you what theyre doing ect because supposing that they are telling the school to have these strategies-and because you dont know what they are-you are using diffrent ones?
this isnt good for the children.
can you see what im saying star?
everyone needs to know what each other is doing.

Yes of course sparky. I sent a KILLER email and their response shows it's got their backs up.

BUT, I don't want to put their backs up. I want them to frigging treat the parents as equal partners.

So what's their proforma like?

I'd love to know what your headings are by the way... [takes notes]

Their proforma is like

start writing here:
finish writing here:
Don't use headings and write anything you like regardless of it's relevance to ds.

Mine is:

Date of visit: Targets/Outcomes worked on: Problems: Strategies used: What TA can do: What parents can do: Date of next visit: Parental feedback:

It is one A4 sheet, no more. I did an example of one or two lines/sentences for each.

OK, so who monitors Autism Outreach? (sorry for cluelessness). How on earth are they supposed to be measured with no information requirements? Or is that the point?

They do internal evaluations and parent questionnaires every 5 years.

They won't do an external evaluation because that costs more money that could be spent on aimless galavanting and school visits the children they work with.

Apparantely parental feedback is very good, as is their own evaluation of their provision.

Does your Autism Outreach only work in schools? I recently found out that ours was also to support any problems we have at home and therefore we can get them into the house. Found this out through someone who works for Family Fund who used to work for the LA.

Might be worth a check.

Nuts.
I do a form everytime I visit a class (where often 10 kids) in addition to doing individual files and data base.

I'd happily show my form (which has 'Discussed' 'Plan of action' and 'Date of next visit') with any parent after deleting detaisl of other kids.

I still can't beleive this.
Their idiocy will blow up in their faces.
Keep at them like a dog with a obne.

SOrry summum - there is this which I don't think they've ever seen or if they have think they're exempt.

They're the final nut to crack moondog. Sort them out and my ds is saved.

They are also the biggest nut to crack though.

Do you have to have them?
Most 'Autism Advisory' stuff is a waste of time.

Yes. It's in his statement. Remember they threw provision at us? Well this was the icing on the cake that convinced the judge ds was getting excellent provision.

If I throw them out, if I complain of lack of progress they'll all say it was because I didn't allow the autism advisory lot in.

If I throw them out, it looks like I think he doesn't need any autism specific education.

Grrrrrrr

I sincerely hope that we can bargain it out of his statement review. Say, take away 3 hours of autism support and give us an extra 30mins of cooperative SALT. DS would fly!

Are you sure?
If you haVE A SOLID REASON FOR GETTING RID, GET RID.

I have known of several parents 'sacking' useless provision.

I smile demurely but inside I scream 'You go lady!!'

Star

you might want to quote their own words back to them from their website

"What happens if I am unhappy or uncertain about the service?

* In the first instance you should talk directly to your child?s school or autism visiting teacher directly. They will try to resolve any difficulties.
* You can also speak to the Head of the Specialist Advisory Service who manages the teams.
* Your views will be welcomed, any concerns carefully listened to and action taken when necessary to implement improvements. "

It is noticeable (and odd) how their service description goes from working with families at pre-school level to seemingly only liaising with staff at school level

Oh thanks pink. has been a while since I've looked at that.

The trouble is I KNOW what they should be doing. They either don't know or do know but have got away for so long with delivering crap and getting away with it that they have an arrogance that makes them believe it is fine for them to say one thing and do the opposite.

DS is preschool after all, given he is not yet 5.

I mean. You can throw policy documents at these people and ask them to justify their position and the reply is always 'because I said so'.......well it isn't very easy to argue with that.

I mentioned getting them into the home so that at least you know what they are doing.

Just read your post again - their service will support the school. Sorry - a little slow.

The outreach standards do apply - not that I have ever seen any evidence of it.

Our Outreach staff did the exact same thing not wanting us to be involved indeed they even told the nursery that they should not talk to the parents either, just have their own jolly clique of nursery, outreach and DS! I think they would have preferred it if he just stopped having parents we were such a darn inconvenience.

However I am impressed your service wants to be hands on. When we got the outreach notes for tribunal it turned out ours did nothing but advice and support ie aimless galavanting and generic nonsense and NO hands on intervention AT ALL. They had to tick a box if they did direct therapy or demonstrated anything and they never ticked either box ever in a whole year. We already knew this as the nursery told us she stood on the far side of the room from DS and just watched and then made some nasty criticisms of nursery staff, waffled on about white walls and igloo tents and waltzed out. She did not interact with DS once. Apparently she said hello to him once and when he ignored her just didn't bother again.

What about IDP anything useful in there?

Thanks keepyour but we won't get anything that isn't in the statement and going into the home most certainly isn't, although in the ASD Good Practice Guidance it says the LA should observe any home programme in order to establish things that are working that can be carried into the school setting.

But, since when has anything they do been good practice?

Moondog I know what you are saying but it is a risky strategy if I need to go back to tribunal. There is no guarantee that the school would work with me once the autism service are out, but ds' failure will be blamed on me. What is ridiculous is that if they would only work with us, ds could make so much progress we wouldn't even consider going to tribunal (As he has made such substantial gains and has a good base for learning now).