what to do when specialist provision is not meeting childs needs?

[AlysWho]

Does anyone have any advise what to do?

My dd is in an asd unit, aged 13, and its not working out. (school refusal, transition issues-MASSIVE-, anxiety etc..)

Our local authority are being about as helpful as a chocolate teapot. as usual.

I have been reading through the SEN CoP but it seems to refer only to proving a need for statementing or dx of SEN, both of which we have already.

honestly, any advise welcome.. thanx

I think:
You can ask for a reassessment.
You can appeal the statement after an annual review.
You can ask the LA to name a different school on the statement (but I think there are restrictions on this eg more than 12 months since school named)
It should be in COP - look at bits on Annual Review
Also Education Act 1996.

Ipsea probably have stuff on their website

The main thing is you must find an alternative.

If you post a thread about where you live you may get some suggestions. You need to look at schools in other areas, private ASD schools etc

Are CAMHS involved?

Not sure if its an option but Home Ed / internet school / home tutors are worth considering. Again I'd suggest posting a specific thread if thats something you are considering.

you could consider calling an emergency review, put your request in writing to the lea and list everyone you want inviting. It can take up to a couple of weeks to find a time that everyone is free but if the placement is breaking down you need to deal with it quickly and it will help the lea focus!

Thanks for your replies.

Agnes, I will look again at CoP and Ed act.
Home Ed is not an option for me.

There are no other schools in the area with provision.

I'm not sure how to get them to name another school in Part 4 as there aren't any more in county so our only option is residential, which they are resisting due to costs.

CAMHS are involved, but apart from a disastorous attempt at meds for anxiety they have nothing to offer that we haven't already tried.

Bigcar, I have had 3 emergency review meetings, multi agency. At first I was pleased to get such a response, but its really just been a paper shuffling excercise for them..

I'm at this point now because I have written to our SEN manager, Inclusion Officer and head of SS to say that we are not coping and they had meeting no. 3 yesterday (in my absence, I couldn't get there because she was off school again), and came up with an action plan that made me cry, because its FULL OF ALL THE THINGS WE'VE ALREADY TRIED! Its so frustrating.

They now are talking about a Complex Needs Meeting, but the Inclusion Officer is off for two weeks and I get the feeling they'd like to keep this up ( all talk no action) for EVER.

I think I need some legal advise, to see what the law says about school refusal and the LA's responsibilities. Trouble is I'm skint.

Sorry to be so down, its just that I've had to give everything up in the last year to become a full time carer and its getting me down not having a life. She's a lovlely little girl and does really try hard to'be good' but its all too much for her and she just wants to spend all her time at home, which is frustrating for me and detrimantal to our relationship...:(

I'm sorry they are putting you through such crap. You do have the right to appeal if after an annual review they refuse to consider a request to change of placement. I'd suggest you look into sendist especially the bit about appealing after annual review here as you say, sounds like they are just paper shuffling and wasting time.

i have had problems with my dd and schools she has asd as part of her diagnosis. did you know that if that school isn't meeting dd needs and is the only school on offer you can look out of county. my dd tried 2 schools in county and got excluded as school and dd couldn;t cope i was told to look out of county. i didn't find a school that could meet her needs and am awaiting residential college was promised jan start but went to easter and now probably september

If your child is too ill to attend school for more than 15 working days your local authority should be providing some education for them. If they provide home tuition this should be for at least 5 hours a week.

from ace worth a look round their site too. Have you got your gp to sign her off school sick?

Wow thanks for that.
I will work my way through the Tribunals service docs, they look like they contain what I need to know about what proceedure the authority SHOULD be following.

RE the ACE site, I have forwrded that to my friend who's son has Cystic Fibrosis, and is missing loads of school in Yr 8, and of course they've not been told anything about extra support available. So thanks again.

David sounds like we're in the same boat, they'll happily listen to my request for residential/alternative placement, but seem to be completely paid-up experts at knowing how to do NOTHING about it.
Fingers crossed for you yr dd gts her place.

I'll let you know if we get anywhere..

So just appeal - you don't need to have everything together to start the appeal - you can just put in grounds of appeal and then add more evidence later. the most important thing is to get a tribunal date even if you hope never to get there. Once they have a date your case will move up the priority list and if they want to reach a compromise and avoid tribunal they will start engaging with you. As soon as the date is in the diary and they have to put time and effort into drafting an official reply then you will know if they are serious about going to tribunal or willing to talk. Many of us have had LAs settle appeals once they get the letter from SENDIST which shows you are serious.

I would second just appealing. It takes months to get a date anyway and you can keep talking/meeting while it is all ongoing. Our LEA settled!

The thing we were relieved to find when we appealed over Part 4 is that the time scales are set up so that the LEA has to put forward their case pretty early in the process but you have much longer and will have seen their argument first.

So there is always the possibility that they will look at the details and realise they have not a leg to stand on. They have to prove that they can provide for your DD not the other way round. Three emergency reviews and the fact that you can show they are still suggesting the same things which haven't worked before (make sure you have all that in writing), although highly frustrating and upsetting for you, are strong evidence to tribunal that they are NOT providing for her.

After a lot of research and a long chat with IPSEA, I'm going to appeal.

Apparently if you want to apply for independent schools, you have to appeal the satement. And as there's no other SN units in our area, it'll have to be independent.

As you've pointed out I'm hoping I wont have to go all the way to Tribunal, but if I do at least I've got information and support behind me .

A bit of a sad wake up call for me though, as some of the professionals I thought I had a 'good working relationship' with (let alone sort-of-friends), have toatlly fobbed me off with a load of boll*x. Oh well that'll learn me for being so trusting..

Thanx guys, help yourself to a on me, its gone midday anyway xx

Good for you. Many LAs don't sit up and take notice of parents until an appeal is lodged.

When was the last annual review? You have two months to lodge an appeal after an AR. So get it sent as soon as you can, you can send additional evidence later on and you'll probably be waiting around 5-6 months for a hearing date anyway.

Do you have a particular school in mind that you want named on the statement?

Just to second the "go straight to appeal" advice as best way to galvanise the lea into action.

Also as your dd is out of school you have a good reason to request they expedite the hearing. You can request sendist to send you the extra form to expedite over the phone. They will ask you to try to agree an earlier date with the lea but even if lea do not cooperate with this they can overrule and give earlier date if they judge your reasons are compelling and lea acting unreasonably in refusing.

The relevant legislation re getting home tuition support is here www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationdetail/page1/DFES%2f0025%2f2002

You will need a letter from camhs or other consultant saying your child unfit to attend school (due to eg anxiety) in order to access the home tuition service.

Most important thing to bear in mind is that the 5 hours they will offer as standard is in fact the statutory minimum and the recommendation is for as much support as the child can access given their medical needs in order to meet their need for access to a full and balanced curriculum.

Sugar AR was on 25th Jan. Again, I brought up (and you'd think it'd obvious) that she's having severe transition issues, making getting her to school (and everywhere) v difficult and that I felt we couldn't go on like this, and requested in writing a move to residential schooling.
None of this was noted in the minutes (expletive**) and the Ed dep have left the Statement in place unameneded.

We're in Wales BTW so have found equivalent to SENDIST, its here

I havent had a chance to visit schools, though I've researched online and phoned a few, its difficult for me to get away due to my dd's needs, so I dont want to to it til I've had some indication from LA that they're going to consider it. So, no I dont have a particular school in mind, though I do have a short list of 5, in S Wales and SW- Brstol/Stroud areas.

So my nx move is to phone the Tribunal Service on Tues and take more advice from them as to next steps.

Problem i'm having is that when she's at school she's generally ok, its the transition to and from that causes meltdowns and problems (obvious need for 24hr curriculum surely). So the school keep saying they CAN meet her needs as she's 'fine' when shes there. This is obviously because by the time she gets there we've generally either

1. gone through hell at home, or
2. the fact that she's there means its a 'good day', or
3. worst of all, she's stores all her 'worries' up and they explode out in the taxi or as she comes through the door.

But the school maintain they're meeting her needs. OBVIOUSLY they cant be if she's not getting there.

Pink i'll chase CAMHS for a letter, though they are truly useless here.

Thanks again for info and links etc it really is the BEST HELP I've had.

I didn't realise you were in Wales, I believe that SENTW doesn't have the new right of appeal following an Annual Review. It's a fairly new right of appeal, only introduced last September for SENDIST (in England) and I can't see it on the list of things you can appeal about on the SENTW website. I would call them to check.

However, you could ask for a re-assessment or ask the LA to change the name of the school (but it seems this only applies if you're asking for an LA maintained schools). Going through the re-assessment route would take longer than appealing against an AR/change of name though.

I would go ahead with visiting the potential schools now though rather than waiting for the LA. My DS is in a residential placement and I visited lots of different schools before I made my final decision. There were many that sounded right on paper but when I visited, I felt they didn't have the right ethos for DS. Conversely, there were a few that sounded right for him but when I visited and spoke to the HT, they felt that they couldn't meet his needs. So the visits were crucial for me in making the decision.

Our LA insisted that DS didn't need a residential placement either, even during the tribunal hearing, so I wouldn't wait for them to indicate that they might fund it. The tribunal panel disagreed though and concluded that he needed a 24hr curriculum.

Residential placements are considerably more expensive than an ASD unit so it was essential for us to get independent evidence from an EP, OT and SALT. Have you looked into getting private reports done?

Alys, having experienced very similar "were we at the same meeting?" moments with school/lea, I would suggest you put your objections to the inaccurate minutes in writing with suggested corrections to be circulated to all involved. Also if you have partnership with parents or similar in Wales, I've found it really helps to have someone independent to support you in taking minutes at meetings.

It can be hard to keep fighting but you'll get there in the end.