Moving counties (possibly Hants) with a proposed statement

[debs40again]

Can anyone tells me what happens if you move counties before a statement is finalised?

If we wait until we get a statement, what happens if we move then? Should we contact the LA into which we are moving and ask?

Anyone any experience of Hants?

I can ony speak form my experience.

we lived in Kent, and started statementing with dd1 when she was 3ish - at MS pre-school.

a year later, with little progress overall, we had a proposed statement - up to 7 hours extra support.

It had taken so much chasing (blood out of stone stuff) that we knew it would be a massive fight ot get any more (dd1 was at preschool for 15 hours), and we had been turned down for the ASD unit - dd1's best chance for where we were at the time. the expectance was that she would go to the SLD school.

we moved.

it was the only choice for us and her.

so, moved ot Surrey, dd1 still in preschool (an ASD one htis time), but out of year - she should have been starting in reception.

Surrey re-started statementing, on the basis that 1) all the reports were out of date (thye were coming up to 18 months old, due ot Kent's procrastination); 2) dd1 was now in a specialist setting, so a reappraisal of her needs was due; 3) the old statemnt had been for pre-school, and we shoudl be looking at school placement/hours of support.

it took another 18 months of wrangling to finalise her statement.

genrally speaking, it will depend on what provision new LA has, and what space within that provision. also what you current statement says.

eg, if your statement is likely to say 12 hours support, and Hants statements routinely start at 15 hours, it is intheir interests to keep the old statment.

if, however your statemnt is likely to sya flltime 1:1 within a unit (extremely unlikely ) and Hants has no unit, so would have ot pay out of county costs plus transport to keep your ds at a place, when they have a provision within county that they think would suit, then they will reassess.

you could do worse than call them and ask, I suppose. but naturally take whatever they tell you with a large pinch of salt...

Hi Debs, I don't have any experience of moving mid-process, but I do live in Hants.

My experience has been really quite positive. DD1 started preschool without any SEN identified. They let her settle for 6 weeks, then we had the Summer break. 2 weeks into the new term, they asked to have her observed.

3 weeks into the new term (so week 9 of her preschool career) she had been observed and 1:1 was needed. It started STRAIGHT AWAY, and the sorted the funding retrospectively.

We had lots of input to the setting - regular visits from OT, area INCO & Portage, and SALT (more hit & miss, refused to see preschool).

Starting the SA process was tricky - much procrastination on the part of the area INCO. However, I just said 'right, I'm doing it...'

All professionals told me I wouldn't get SS for her, she was too able. I felt she would only cope in MS with full 1:1 and safety measures.

The actual SA process was very painless. The SA request was accepted first time (by then we had a brain malformation & epilepsy dx), the decision was made to issue a Statement first time, etc.

The actual proposed statement was thorough and detailed, listing all her needs in Parts 2&3, and I could see that my Parental Advice had been used in its formation.

Amazingly, it recommended SS. Having considered all the elements of DD's needs, the case officer felt SS would be best. When I asked how likely it was to get a place, she said 'I control the list!'.

DD1 is in a class of 7-8 with 4 staff now.

I'm another one in Hants, but no experience of the Statementing process I'm afraid.

I'll be in Hythe tomorrow morning, fancy a coffee Lougle? Is that anywhere near you?

Ah, purplepidjin, that would be lovely. Unfortunately DD2 has a sickness bug so I can't make coffee tomorrow. Maybe one day when she is better though

Definitely! I'm West of the Forest normally...

Hope DD2 is better soon

Thanks for this. I will contact Hants.

Does anyone know what happens if you home school prior to the issue of a statement?

For example, if I took DS out of school now before we moved?

again, I can only speak from experience (is there any part of statementing we didn't cover?! )

as we were nearing the ned of statementing in Surrey, we were increasingly dissatisfied with the place dd1 was in.

LA were making noises that she should stay there anothe ryear (this was a pre-school, remmeber, and dd1 should have been in reception. staying another year meant she would be 2 years out of sync)

we obviously didn't want that (both because the pre-school was not set up for reception or Yr1, and because they were crap anyway and we didn't want dd1 staying there)

we had found the school we wante dher in, but she couldn't start there for another month.

if we had left her in the pre-school, we would have had an issue arguing that we didn't want it named on the statement, as why were we leaving her there if so unsatisfactory?

so we took her out, notified LA, told them we expected a school place, and continued with our home programme.

after a few weeks, dd1 started at the new school (private, funded by us). statement came though a few weeks after that naming the old pre-school (which we contested, and LA backed down before tribunal date)

so, yes, you can leave current school and home school before statement is due, but don't expect LA to change what they were going to do to reflect this.

a SA should be an assessment of what needs your child has, and the statement should reflect those needs, and name an appropriate placment. where your child is currently schooled should not have a bearing on this at all (other than at the parental input stage), nor should it influence the outcome (again, unless you are happy, and want your child to remain there, and therefore you name it as oyur choice)

hth

Thanks, that does help. The woman from the LA said that she could put 'a primary school' in the placement section for now.

Is it worth raising this directly with them?