How quickly does school have to act on a statement?

[northernterritory]

DS's final statement was issued last week. We are appealing a couple of issues.

I was told by the LA that the school has a duty to act on the statement immediately.

School have been rubbish to date at making provision for DS and have been dragged through the statementing process. They have offered no guidance or assistance and DS basically does not even get his SA+ hours.

This has led me to flexi-school.

I am anxious for the hours he has been given to put into practice and would like to know how quickly you would expect the school to start taking action.

No one has even mentioned the issue of DS's statement thus far. I have always been the one to chase everything, ask for meetings, sort out provision and this allows them to take action in response (albeit begrudgingly and after much discussion) but they then had behind the action they have been forced to take as evidence of their commitment to DS!

I'm wondering how long it will take anyone to mention anything if I do nothing!

Sore point for me this one as ds's statement was finally fully implemented on Friday after 12 weeks stress! He got his 1:1 just under 6 weeks after the statement was issued though (current member of staff was reassigned to ds in the end when initially they said they'd have to appoint someone new).

The legal obligation is binding immediately. However if it requires therapists etc to come in who don't already then you need to allow them a reasonable period to organise themselves apparently. I interpreted this to mean two weeks before I started chasing them regularly about it. Before that, though, I did tell everyone he had got his revised statement and summarise the main headlines for them so everyone knew their obligations. (There's a long story to tell after that!)

If you have a pre-existing relationship with anyone who will be involved in his provision I'd send them an email straight away. (Tend to be quite pushy and my experience hasn't helped with being laid-back.)

Good luck.

Have you made an appointment with the senco to find out what they are going to have to do, do they have to employ a new person, how much reorganisation is involved? It would be lovely to think things could happen without us chasing wouldn't it

Thanks. It's just awful that you fight to get a statement and then no one is even bothered when one is issued.

I'm so annoyed at being pushed quite unnecessarily through the appeal process by the LA too, the last thing I need to do is start battling to get the basics in place.

Email to the head it is then.

Super - head says school was named 'in spite' of her reservations. Nice touch.

They haven't the space apparently for the occasional 20 minute session outside class.

I can't see what they are really. She is able to accomodate the literacy/numeracy catch up for her SATS.

How wonderfully inclusive these outstanding schools are?

when the final statement is issued your copy should come with a caovering letter sataing that the school have x NO of weeks to impliment.
From memory i think ours was about 8 weeks. Inreality the school was doing it already.
IMHO you cna have the best statment in the worls but if the school are not interested it will be a constant battle.
Is there an alternative school?

Not immediately. But it does annoy me that someone considered a 'National Leader' in Education is allowed to be so dismissive about children's needs.

Sore point with me too. Sm agreed end November but I can see nothing that has been implemented so far except increased threats of exclusion!. Lsa is being appointed but are waiting for CRB checks so don't know when they'll start. Have said they can't do any of the social skills,behaviour or self-esteem programmes until Sats are finished in May as don't want to take him out of class! He leaves there this year so they plan to 'do a lot' (their words) after Sats.

Doesn't matter what head's reservations were she has to comply.
Would record your conversation about lack of space in an email. Ask her what her solution is, whether that requires additional funding from the LEA and when she will have it all in place. Then thank her for her reply and say you'll hold her to this deadline. Copy in all connected people at school and LEA. When deadline comes and goes speak to all the layers at the LEA (case worker, finance office, person that wrote statement). They may well chuck in a few extra hurdles at this stage. Also maybe get SS in on the act now so that they can help you stir. Our new SW actually knows the pitfalls of this stage (have tried it on with various people in the past at the same stage in this area apparently) and was able to have a word when we got to the last week of wrangling.
Would also seek confirmation that everything else is lined up to happen as soon as space issue is sorted (separate email to separate issues?). Seek to name names, copy in those people, ask for those people to confirm this is the case etc Once have deadline for space issue, timetable start dates etc ... Confirm everything by email and chase a lot if necessary.
Once you've exhausted everything there are a couple of useful paragraphs in the SENCOP that you can use for one last kick up the bum. (This is the email that got everything implemented an hour later.)
Our advice was we had to exhaust everything before we could notch it up a level.
Also started copying in our lawyer on all correspondance once deadline had passed to add a bit of focus for everyone.
In long-run I think you can only keep a close eye on the situation to see how it develops to see if head's attitude remains a problem. For us I can't think of a suitable alternative to the school ds is at so have my fingers crossed.

Justunbelievable - Can't believe others are going through what happened to us. Honestly thought it was all over when we got ds's RFS. Celebrated too early

yomellamoHelly - her view is that the school does not have the space to cope - full stop. I think her argument will be that the LA will have to come up with a solution.

Did anyone else have any involvement in recruitment of a TA?

Yeah,think school thought that we were only trying to get one to get ds into a certain school. Worst thing is I have always been really supportive of school so maybe they think I won't make a fuss - wrong!

Interestingly, I know someone whose son went to the same school and thought they were great as he came back from 3 years HE'dding and got a statement in 6 months for special school.

I think they think that is where all children like DS should be....if they've got to do anything about it themselves, they're not interested.

Unbelievable when you think the same lazy lot were telling me he was 'miles of SA+' 18 months ago. Now his needs are too complicated to meet. The only thing that has changed is the requirement to meet those needs.

Northern - What about the library, or the school hall. What about using the after-school club (the one in ds1's school is empty during the day). Can't believe there's not somewhere that could double up. Could you schedule a meeting at school so you can have a walk-round and discuss the options? Get the case-worker in on the act. Can't believe there aren't children on SA+ who get withdrawn from class from time to time. Where do they go?

When we had the whole no-space-to-work-with-your-ds-on-a-withdrawal-basis argument have to say I was quite disbelieving and head had to concede we could use school hall if necessary when faced with our lawyer and statementing person (got argument out of the way early on before revised statement agreed as knew it was coming). In fact our ds uses the ante room to the main classroom which had become a bit of a storage area and has been cleared a bit to make room.

TA / LSA was all done by school.

Know of another set of parents who were involved in finding the LSA for their son (sat in on interviews)and ended up finding them on their own (with required relevant experience) and got the school to appoint her.

So suppose it depends on the school.

I agree yomella there are definitely areas which can be used - she is just trying it on as she doesn't want him and his increasingly specific provision!

I have asked her to explain to me what the withdrawal issue is.

In fact, I think part of the problem is that half the class ends up outside the classroom in 'catch up groups' at some point in the day. If there was better teaching, there would be less need for these groups.

Part of the withdrawal thing is the exclusion which Ofsted don't like, so has potential to affect school's rating. You just have to keep repeating that it is what your child needs for now, the experts agree and it's not for ever - who know how things will develop if they're properly supported now.

Thanks. It is a horrible feeling to be battling against someone, knowing you have alll the right arguments, but also knowing that this woman just does not want him at the school if they have to do anything to meet his needs. Because, academically, he's doing ok, I know that she doesn't see the point in offering him the support he needs. She has already said on a previous occasion that she has better things to spend resources on.

I'm also annoyed that she wrote to the LA, as part of their consultation with the school pre-statement, and asked for school not to be named. She didn't even bother to mention this to us.

This woman is a disgrace and I'm sorry, if this is what Governements/Ofsted think a National Leader in Education looks like, something iis very wrong with our system