Special Need Tribunal advice,

[Nagr]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and this is my first post, so apologies if I don't make myself very clear.
My son is 7.5 yrs old, have a diagnosis of ASD and goes to a special school and because of lack of progress in the current school, we asked for reassessment and change of placement. In the annual review last year in Mar-2010, school advised that they can't meet his needs because of his severe speech delay, behaviour problems etc, yet LA is insisting to keep him in the same school or suggesting a school which is totally inappropriate for him. We are due to receive final statement by the end of next week and it looks like we'll be going to the tribunal. We want ABA funding for our son who is making good progress in a part time home ABA programme funded by us.
Could anyone suggest a good solicitor? Does anyone have any statistics on surrey tribunal or could advise if I can find this information somewhere? Any advice on how to prepare for the tribunal will be very helpful.

Thanks in advance.
N.

Let me offer my sympathy for your situation.

Solicitors can be expensive, legal reps can be cheaper. I can recommend Fiona Slomovic at The Advocacy and Mediation Partnership 07734 679857

She can help you prep for trib, and represent you if you wish

Has a lot of experience around ABA

You can find some stats on the SEND tribunal website under publications. The annual reports contain some useful info

I would suggest you call SOS!SEN as they have helped parents deal with Surrey tribunals.

They are also running a 'How to Appeal a Final Statement Workshop' on 12 March and are a good source to go to when you want recomendations for independent expert reports.

Thank you both, I have contacted Fiona and hope to see her next week. How frustrating received a letter from LA saying my son is in appropriate placement and his needs can be met with a modified curriculum. Can't believe panel failed to see that he is already on modified curriculum and it's still not working for him.

hi hope it goes well for you, Fiona is also helping my DC at the moment.

I would also also recommend you contact your local parent partnership service, they are there to give you independent advice and will support you at the tribunal.

Are you asking for a home programme or in school (mainstream / special / ABA school)?

As he is 7.5 you will need to show meeting his social needs eg contact with peers / playdates - you want to clear away the myth that he will be stuck at home being drilled in a sterile room.

You need to produce evidence of why special school are not meeting need and how ABA is. Try and get very clear IEP targets in the time between now and tribunal which you think the special school cannot meet but ABA can eg behavioural ones - allow the school to fail then teach them with ABA

You can FOI the Council to ask how many ABA programmes they have funded in the past 5 years.

You need to show how you will meet all the needs and objectives via ABA and how these can't be met elsewhere OR that the alternative is no cheaper and so parental preference is appropriate.

You also need to cost everything out you want and find out by FOI their costs eg for the special schools they are suggesting - if you go on the council website there are budgets called s.251 budgets which should show how much a place at each school is costed at - but you also need to ask what banding your child will get and add on any costs which ABA will save eg SALT, less social services input

There are 3 main reasons for getting ABA:

1. Lack of progress with alternative & good progress with ABA
2. Challenging behaviour which can be managed by ABA and not otherwise especially if this may need to a need to residential placement or high social services costs (respite)
3. The costs are similar to the LA offering so you win on parental preference

Thanks Agnesdipesto. Thanks for telling me about school budgets, really useful and interesting information.
As he is already 7.5 years, I asked for an ABA school. I work full time so home educating is not an option for me.
I had sent FOI request regarding ABA funding, so waiting for their reply, also asked my case officer for the costs of his current provision but she said as it's a maintained school she doesn't have to cost it. I also offered to move close to the school but still no luck. I think mediation is not the job of case offcier so probably need to contact global mediation. We didn't have any respite until recently and we get about 3 hours a week now. Now someone told me that we could apply for direct payments instead.
Here problem is he is not making progress in current provision and school also said that they can't meet his needs anymore. There are some behavoural issues as well. Today I got an email from the school LA was proposing as an alternative that they don't have vacancy either. LA has named current provision in part4 which itself said that they can't meet his needs so bit stuck here. Since last one year his papers keep moving from one panel to another, one school to other one and nothing happens.
What evidence do I need to show ABA progress?

I can't offer any specific advice on ABA but your description of ds' case circulating between panels and schools with no end in sight certainly resonated with me. You may well find that receiving notice from sendist that you are going to appeal is what finally galavanises them into action to try to meet his needs appropriately. While finances are not the only motivating factors, fact remains doing nothing costs them nothing whereas defending case at tribunal will cost so there is a financial advantage to meet his needs beforehand unless they are sure tehy have very good chance of winning. You already have written evidence current provision can't meet ds' needs and Lea's other proposed school have no places so so long as you can show your preferred school can meet his needs, you have a very strong case.

By all means contact global mediation, as it will show you are happy to continue negotiating, but I would suggest you don't delay with the appeal meanwhile.

Is progress in the home based ABA evaluated by anyone else - whoever trained you initially for example?

Hi There,

Please be very careful about what legal team you use we used senlegal and were also fighting for an ABA school.

We never got what we wanted and the bills were really high and the service was very poor.

Hope this helps

pinkorkid,
Did you contact global mediationa and did it help you? Did you get waht you wanted? Yes, home based progress is evaluated by our ABA consultant.

asulikeit,
Could you please share your experience? What did you get? We are planning to use Fiona Slomovic. Senlegal are too expensive for us. What evidences use used?

It would be really useful if both of you could share your experiences.

Regards

Hi Nagr,

We haven't used mediation yet and haven't got as far as tribunal yet either. However, just registering our appeal with sendist seems to have had the effect that lea are suddenly willing to countenance provision which was out of the question before. Having said that, we only have oral reassurances at the moment so although feel much more hopeful than have in a long time, I can't relax until we have it in writing. I'll post here when and if that happens.

I don't know if there is any downside to appealing immediately to tribunal but I can't think of one - perhaps others will advise if they know of any.

Nagr

please PM as i will then share my experience with you.
Thanks

Is it an LEA special school he is at. If so and it is Surrey then if it is either Woodlands or Linden Bridge and they are saying they can't cope then that is fairly major - they are after all set up for ASD pupils. If you can get something in writing regarding the 'they can't cope' then you've got it nailed. Have you got the school you want him to go to in mind - ie, do you know where. More importantly, can they 'cope' and have they accepted your son. If he is already at private SEN school then I wouldn't have thought there would be a big difference with fees and if you work out the money you might be able to do a cost for cost like swap.
If you are West Surrey then they give in far more than East Surrey do.

Recommend an advocate - Claire Franklin as she runs a charity and charges much reduced fees much cheaper than a solicitor. She does represent in a tribunal but will also recommend a barrister or solicitor particularly if the LEA are likely to put up their own barrister.

Good luck. It is incredibly stressful but worth it in the end.

Is it an LEA special school he is at. If so and it is Surrey then if it is either Woodlands or Linden Bridge and they are saying they can't cope then that is fairly major - they are after all set up for ASD pupils. If you can get something in writing regarding the 'they can't cope' then you've got it nailed. Have you got the school you want him to go to in mind - ie, do you know where. More importantly, can they 'cope' and have they accepted your son. If he is already at private SEN school then I wouldn't have thought there would be a big difference with fees and if you work out the money you might be able to do a cost for cost like swap.
If you are West Surrey then they give in far more than East Surrey do.

Recommend an advocate - Claire Franklin as she runs a charity and charges much reduced fees much cheaper than a solicitor. She does represent in a tribunal but will also recommend a barrister or solicitor particularly if the LEA are likely to put up their own barrister.

Good luck. It is incredibly stressful but worth it in the end.