Ed Psyche attending TAC meeting today, what can i expect?

[brandy77]

Normally its CAMHS, attendance man, school nurse and SENCO. This is the 1st time the EP has been asked to attend.

What exactly can i expect? This meeting is mainly going to focus on getting my son back into school, hes year 1, medical/behavioural probs. Due to his anxieties and after a 4 week programme of trying to get back to schol and failing, he is now not attending. Have to say hes been so much calmer and non aggressive!! Ive got a letter from his nurse/paed stating that many pituitary patients have cognitive difficulties and he needs assessing. School are saying for him to be home tutored, dont know if this is showing support or copping out and getting him off their hands. Tribunal for SA in June as he got turned down

Thankyou. xx

anyone ?

Has the EP assessed him? Not much use for her to be at the TAC meeting if she hasn't even spoken to him.....

hi indigobell, no no one has assessed him, i applied for the SA and turned down. School have asked her to attend because of the difficulties with getting him to school. just wondering what shes going to ask. my ex is coming to back up that my sons challenging behaviour is at his house also and is directed at his parents and himself also as school/camhs are still implying the behaviour is just with me and thats he is "fine" at school. god i hate that word, if he was fine he would go to school happily

unless she has seen him without me there? but it wouldnt have been before xmas as after xmas i spent 4 weeks going in with him just to get him in and then taking him after a short while because of his upset about staying there and hes not been in yesterday or today and got hospital tomorow in london all day so wont be in

push for an assessment from the ed psych- if no-one has actually assessed him they can't claim that he's fine at school

hi cornsilk, so would the assessment rule out the SA? are they 2 different assessments? im a bit confused as ive got a tribunal in june for a SA application. The nurse/paed has written a very good letter supporting the need for him to be assessed as many pituitary patients have cognitive deficits (only found out what that meant from on here the other day )

You have to give permission for him to be seen by the EP (or anyone else)

Who knows what question the EP will ask. Like all profs they vary dramatically.

But without assessing him I think it's all just another delaying tactic.... The EP can't give any kind of support or help without talking to him.

thats been my question to the teacher all along, if hes not been assessed and is struggling as SENCO says, why do they say he is fine

right ok thanks indigobell, so do you think i should be asking outright "so when are you going to assess my son" and give her a copy of the paed letter? sorry so many questions, i wasnt nervous earlier and am now! meeting at 1.30

they can assess him regardless of the SA

oh right thanks cornsilk, il ask them then and present them all with my photocopy of the paeds letter asking for him to be assessed, il let you know how it goes! thanks for both of your help. xx

Brandy - can I suggest you also update the LEA about him no longer attending. And if the nurse/paed letter was supplied after you were turned down, get that to them too.

Sometimes (speaking from my experience and that of another friend) it can be a really good idea to keep meeting with LEA - a pain on top of everything else I know. But if they see further evidence, and talk face to face with you it can make a big difference.

In both our experiences LEA pulled out of tribunal long before due to take place, presumably because they could see how strong the evidence against them was.

I would be wary of tutoring, although we did have some, because I felt it was then easier for people to pass on the problem and let things lie for too long. We did it to cooperate, but the real issue is they need to assess your DS NOW before not going to school becomes entrenched (of course you know that but LEA needs reminding forcefully of this).

Find out who the SEN Officer is for your area, phone up and introduce yourself, get her email address then just keep updating her. Enlist Parent Partnership too and they will come along to any meeting with you.

In our experience TAC was supportive, but info did not always get to SEN Officer, and that is who can change the SA decision.

Apologies if I am telling you things you already know! Good luck for the meeting.

hi andperseand, thankyou for your reply

Ive got a copy of the paed letter to send to the tribunal as it states any more evidence to be received by 31/5 before tribunal on 28/6

im also hoping they will read this letter and back down.

I know a few kids waiting for home tutoring and they have been waiting 5/6months and now the parents have been told they probably wont get it because of funding.

Is the SEN Officer, the Named Officer? Thankyou.x off in a minute! taken some precautionary head ache pills already

thankyou justaboutfraying, i think il make some notes of what to say quickly before i go!

brandy, hope it went ok today. Named Officer sounds like the same thing.

Don't assume they will read it - send it to them direct and then meet to discuss. You need to put them on the spot face to face. (Happy to pass on the excellent advice given to us re. best way to do this if you want it )

In our experience EP will not push to do anything (though they may be better in some areas). I spent too long after meetings where people had agreed to put our viewpoint across for us to LEA, only to find they hadn't really.

Visitors tonight so not back on, but hope it went ok, will catch up tomorrow.