SEN Panel doesn't keep minutes

[benito]

I know some of you 'old timers' have had issues with this before but how did you challenge it?

As I understand it, the Ed Officer is resonsible for decision-making in any event but can be advisd by a Panel.

It clearly undermines transparency and accountability for no record of any Panel decision to be kept. I have not even been told who Panel members were or what they considered.

take parent partnership with you one they will back you up and two they always take notes and its reasuring that whatever they say someone other than you heard them say it its harder then for them to go back on what they say as you've a witness and the notes

Complain to the Chief Education Officer and copy your Local Councillor.

They;ll tell you it's an 'internal process' but ultimately their advice can impact the decision that's made for your child and you should be able to see what underpinned that decision.

(Betty's talking about a general meeting with the LA - not a Panel meeting)

i thought she ment the one you can attend sorry doh not with it today (or any other ) just dealing with DS throwing a complete wobbly his game wont work properly .. having said that read this tells you whos there ect HTH

www.youthnetsouthampton.org.uk/documents/SEN/assessment/SENPanelParentsLeaflet.pdf

its really useful, sorry once again

We were priveleged enough to recieve the "summary document" of the panel meeting re a placement for our ds after requesting the minutes of the meeting from the case officer. It did list who the memebers of the panel were and I was able to find out what most of their roles were by searching the county council website. However it was very brief and didn't give much information about the reasoning behind their decision. Nevertheless we were able to point out the inconsistencies in the points that were made so it is useful to have especially if planning to appeal to tribunal.

As wetaugust says, a complaint to chief education officer is warranted. If they don't comply you could try involving mediation service while you wait for tribunal date.

Did you make a request for the minutes or was it a general DPA request for 'everything'?

We got the panel minutes but it wasn't really a full set of minutes - like pinkorkid's it was brief and didn't list the members of the panel either.

I would do a full DPA request as it should uncover anything that they do have in writing, it might not be described as minutes but a summary as mentioned above. We dug up some useful emails and letters which I would never have known about and they were useful evidence.

Thanks I have made a DPA request and have twice had to point out what has been omitted from the file.

I have asked three times for the SEN Panel record, minutes, composition and the matter was sent to the dept complaints manager. She has just advised me that the SEN Panel do not keep minutes or records.

Interestingly the file seems to contain only the stat assessment reports and my emails!

There is nothing on there at all from the Ed Officer herself - my correspondence has always been with her assistant.

ive discussed this with PP they obviously cant give you the full mins because they discuss empteen other cases so thaats why they will give you a basic summery and they wont say who's on it or they might have lots of rather angry parents after them all i know is it has the "profeshionals" on it and some HT's from SS ect as transparent as milk really hey

lol ok i wasnt saying you cant ask! i was saying they make the panel closed to parents for a reason so you will only get a summery its not bollox btw its fact it might be what we dont want to hear im in same possitiona as you im just saying what they WONT do and what they WILL , why so hostile im not the enemy

When I requested minutes I was just given a page listing all the cases they had discussed at the panel meeting and the decisions made. My ds's details were there and all the details of the other dc's,their d.o.b and what schools they attended had been blacked out with pen. If you held it up to the light you could see everything (found out a child in my ds's year had been given an assessment when my ds had not). Whilst arguing the refusal decision with LA I mentioned to Senco about this breach of confidentiality and that I would be taking it further once I had sorted out my ds's situation. Shortly after this LA agreed to assess and I now have a sm in place. As Star says not a lot you can do other than complain through the proper channels.

oh my thats a worry isnt it, great you got what you needed for yr DS though Dame seems once again what they do in one area is different in another