Attachment disorder and Education dept.

[chatnatno1]

I have started a personal appeal for my son aged 12yrs who suffers with Attachment disorder due to his adoptive background (AALAC - Action for Adopted and Looked After Childern). I am here to ask for support by way of signing the guestbook on my very simple website. This is so that I can present this as a token of support from the public, not just for my son but thousands of adopted and Looked After Children(LAC) to the Special Educations Needs dept. asking them make the necessary changes in the way that these children are treated within the education sector. I hope Mumsnet website administrators will allow me to display my site details and I hope that Mumsnet members can spare 5 mins and visit the below website for details. Please visit.....www.aalac.webs.com

I would appreciate your thoughts on this please, Many Thanks

TBH signing support is not going to achieve anything, either for your son or the many others.

I don't understand from your website what you want for your son. You've had a placement at a specilsit school, which has not worked. You leave too many questions answered for anyone to get an idea of what your particular issue is> You say your son enjoyed the BESD but they 'gave up' on him. Why? Did they ask him to leave? Whay could they not deliver what he needed?

Shouldn't you be trying to identify another specilaist school which can cater for his needs?

You won't change the SEN system in this country - many, many of us have been trying to nibble away at our own LAs for many years now. Each deals with SENs in it's own way.

You can only achieve the best for your child within the SEN framework.

we have been fighting our sons corner with the authority for 7 years,so we are well aware of the fact that we will not change the system. what we are saying is that careful concideration(which they clearly state that they do) has not been given on numorous occasions, and he has faced many failed so called ideal placements that they have expertly recomended. we have from day one, along with all the outside agencies involed with our son, requested two placements, and they have both been turned down because the "Panel" knows best, so much so that 5 schools of their choosing have been failed ones. our issue here is that he is now sitting at home self harming and they want to send him to yet another school which is mainly for children with very severe violent/behavioral issues with locked doors and no outside activities, if anyone is aware of attachment issues, this is an obvious NO NO placement,and should not have even been concidered in the first place. The Authority will not be concidering another placement for him and we were told we had to educate him at home. Our website does not go into all the issues we and our son have faces along his 7 year struggle, as it would have been very lengthy,and complex and not paticularly a happy one, but if anyone wants to here the full story then we are willing to do so, if you would leave your details on the site, it can be done. What we want for our son is (in his words) "to be in a school that is a happy place to be in" when asked what he wants out of a school his answer is " to be happy, and to leave school with an education so that I can be a policeman" the website is to gather parents/children in the same position to come together and speak out as more often than not, parents like us feel totally alone.

Firstlt the 'Panel' has no authority. The actual decision on a suitable placement rests with the Education Officer. The EO may take advice from the Panel but must arrive at his / her own decision.

If you feel your son has been placed in obviously unsuitable placements that should never have been considered in the first place then the LA is not acting reasonably - and should be reported to the LGO.

If the LA has told you t will no longer seek a syitable placement then again - complain to SENDIST and the LGO - every child has a right to an education that is "suitable to the age and ability". Home -ed is not.

If your child is too unwell to attend school and is just "sitting at home self-harming" then you need him to be 'signed off school' by either his GP or CAMHS and the LA must then send home tutors to him for at a minimum of 5 hours a week to teach the National Cirriculum subjects.

You shouldn't feel alone - there are many of us who have been through similar. This board can provide useful help and advice.

we use our collective experiences to find a way through the spider's web of LA constraints and 'lies'.

have you identified a suitable placement for him. Have you asked the LA to name that school on his Statement? Have you taken them to SENDIST?

There is a legal framework that you can use.

Wet August - you say the 'Panel' has no authority and that the actual decision on a suitable placement rests with the Education Ofiicer. The EO here told me that she hoped the Panel would award the place I want for my son and made it clear that it was the Panel who held the power. In fact, the EO said she was shocked when the Panel decided to send my ds's file to another (unsuitable) school.

Would like to know if it is all in the EO's power. She always made it seem as though she was 'with' me against the 'panel'.

Below is an extract of a letter sent to LAs by the Dept of Education. You can google to see the full letter of you want - it's a pdf so I can't link it:

Letter to Chief Education Officers / Directors of Childrens Services

from Ian Coates: Head of Special Educational Needs and Disabiilty Division, Dept for Education

Dated 15 Nov 2005

Last para:

Making Decisions

"Where a local Authority has established a panel to assist in deciding whether to assess, to make a Statement and / or in relation to provision, the local authority retains its responsibilities and therefore formal decisions must not (his underlining) be delegated but remain with an officer of the local authority."

--

So when an Education Officer tells you - the Panel decided this or we have to wait for the Panel etc - it's all nonsense as the ultimate decision rests with the Education Officer.

the Education Officers tend to 'hide' behind these Panels - as you have found with her 'you and me against the Panel' waffle. But the Panel can only advise. the Education Officer often sits on the Panel and puts the relevant facts to it - so it's hardly a transparent process.

Thanks for the above comments, emailed MP and cc Director Operations - Learning yesterday morning with the points :

1- whose decision was it - Panel or EO....we have EO who does not like us at all....so no guessess there then...
2- about the 5hrs of home tutoring which our son never got
3- and fact that we have not complained YET...

3 hrs later...reply...from the Directors office saying running an investigation 10 days before we hear more....

replied to that saying 'you have had 13 months so please try and fast track'....now once agaiin waiting...:-(...fingers crossed

Its a matter of huge concern that Children with emotional disorders are faced with such challenges that destroy what little confidence they have built up. Adopted children are often traumatised internally by the feeling of being abandoned as an infant and/or not being "Wanted" by their biological parents. A sad state that pushes the Children into emotional abyss where they need to be pulled out of. The authorities need to take this into account and help the children with specialised education/support thus creating a responsible adult/citizen for the society in times to come.
I have been following this particular instance and am aware of the fight the parents have put in and the stress they have been through s that their little boy can be Happy as any other child that age deserves to be... Not such a huge ask..!!

agree that it is the education officer who has ultimate responsibility.
re the 5hrs home tuition the relevant legislation you need to refer to and quote is here: www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationdetail/page1/DFES%2f0025%2f2002 you can download it or request a free copy to be sent to in the post.

chatnatno1

You're starting to get somewhere because you now know what your son should be receiving and is being denied.

Keep at them.

The Dir of Ed will have passed your email to the Education Service for them to investigate and respond to you.

You probably won't like their reponse so when you get it - Complain again by responding that

"The Stage 1 investigation of your complaint was not handled to your satisfaction so you now want to escalate the formal (important word) to Stage 2 of the Council's complaints procedure"

and sent that to the Dir Ed.

You will soon have exhausted the Council's complaints procedure and are then free to report this to the Local Governemnt Ombudsman who will investigate your case, remind the council of their statutory obligation to provide an education 'suitable to age and ability' and may award you and your son damages for the distress / lack of education he's experienced.

So keep at them - it's the only way out of this.

Thanks wetaugust
we have had meeting with out adoption support worker today and she has said the same, herself and her management team are 100% behind us and will do whatever, CAHMS also support us and both parties are not happy that LEA have undermind thier recommendations of placements for our son, they feel we are doing the right thing.This battle thing with the Authority has been ongoing for 7yrs. but now it gets serious, they have failed him long enough. Thanks for the info you have given us it has been a great help, and we WILL keep going at them...

CAMHS will be very reluctant to get involved in stating that he needs a particular placement. The best they will ever agree to put in writing is that he needs a certain type of placement.

2 reasons for this. 1) education is not CAMHS remit. Education id for the LA to decie and 2) if CAMHS state he needs a 24/7 placement then the LA could ask them to partially fund the placement. That's call bi-partite funding if it's LA + NHS (CAMHS), but is more usually tri=partite i.e. LA + NHS + SS all chipping in a third.

So you can see why your child could become a bit of a hot potato for them.

But what they are doing is very wrong. They cannot refuse to seek an appropriate placement and they cannot let him sit at home uneducated while they try to waer you down.

Best wishes

yeah, we found that out, our son has been under them for about 5yrs and We have asked previously about part funding, but were told by CAHMS they will not help finacially, they are great at letter wtiting and prescribing medication, but not sure what else they do :o)!! think they are all trying to pass the buck.

yeah, we found that out, our son has been under them for about 5yrs and We have asked previously about part funding, but were told by CAHMS they will not help finacially, they are great at letter wtiting and prescribing medication, but not sure what else they do :o!! think they are all trying to pass the buck.

yeah, we found that out, our son has been under them for about 5yrs and We have asked previously about part funding, but were told by CAHMS they will not help financially, they are great at letter writing and prescribing medication, but not sure what else they do :o!! think they are all trying to pass the buck.

ooops!! didnt mean to post that 3 times, thats what you get for doing to many things at once...

x 3!

Day 419 and counting...cant sleep so thought I'd ask some your opinions. Heard from CAHMS today (tel call) saying that she had a letter from the Ed Dept (not us the parents) explaining what has transpired in the last 2 weeks (10 days that they had asked for before they would get back with a response to our email)...yesterday - thursday - the so called experts from all agencies had meeting the dreaded PANEL again...

The purpose of the meeting apparently was to convince everyone across the board that my son does not deserve anything else apart from what they have originally decided for him...they will not budge from their decision...

I rang the Dir Of Learning's office at midday to get an update and was told a letter is on its way....

Bottomline is, this letter will tell us basically...like it or lump it....

We now will send off the application for tribunal this weekend and obviously follow wetaugust recommendation of writing back to the office and complain....to the LGO/Sendist etc...

Its 530am on day 419....i'm hoping that everyone at the ed. dept has a fabulous weekend....

I can't help you but wanted to send you and your son a huge hug of support I hope you can get through this mine field stick to your guns you are ds's mummy you know what is right xxxxxxxxthinking of you

Hi WetAugust,

your previous reply...You will soon have exhausted the Council's complaints procedure and are then free to report this to the Local Governemnt Ombudsman who will investigate your case, remind the council of their statutory obligation to provide an education 'suitable to age and ability' and may award you and your son damages for the distress / lack of education he's experienced....

this needs to be done along with the tribunal process I guess....or is this a quicker way to resolve the issue?

Thanks in advance

Hi Chat.

they used the 'Panel' to try to give their refusal to expend the funding your child reuqires a cloak of 'respectability' - however, at the end of the day accountability remains with the Education Officer.

You need to start the formal Council Complaints procedure. That's 3 separate stages, each time your complaint gets investigated by a higher-ranking officer within the Council. Once that's exhausted you are free to complain to the LGO.

At this stage you need to prepare your case for SENDIST. The outcome of that Tribunal hearing may strengthen any eventual complaint you make to the LGO (i.e. you may have won your case against the Council so will have been vindicted in your action against the Council).

SENDIST is the important thing. The complaint to the council can run in parallel but the complaint cannot be that they haven't made a decision you agree with, it has to be that they failed to follow due process e.g. delayed, refused to acknowledge evidence, caused unnecessary distress etc.

Best wishes