EP report for statutory assessment - utter tripe, can I contest it?

[BialystockandBloom]

Ds's statutory assessment has just been completed, the deadline for reports was yesterday.

The Ed Psych has forwarded me his report. He had one session observing ds in nursery, and he also came to the home for a short observation.

His report is (I guess as expected) is vague, generalised and meaningless, with what I assume is standard bullshit hyberbole about what ds will 'benefit' from.

But there are some parts which are actually completely incorrect. Eg that "Views ascertained from Ms xxx(both formally and informally) would suggest that ds has benefitted from the learning opportunities he has enjoyed while at The xxx Nursery and that he has made significant progress since his inception into a more formal educational setting."

What I actually and explicitly said, both in my parental submission and informally to him, was that ds had made no progress within his nursery for the 1.5 years he was there until his ABA tutor began shadowing him.

The remainder is, of course, unhelpful - especially to our cause which is asking for a full programme of ABA at home and school, with ms school. Eg section on play talks about ds benefitting from 'structured play sessions' which totally contradicts what he told me his views were of the special 'integrated' playgroup nursery have set up for ds, which he actually said he thought was doing nothing for his social interaction with peers.

Is there anything I could or should do at this stage? The report has been submitted to panel, he just sent it to me for info. Should I write a letter to panel correcting the clear inaccuracies, or leave it till the panel decision?

Sorry for very long ranty post

Its always difficult to contest anything they report as "observations" as there is generally no evidence to either prove or disprove whatever it is the claim to of observed.
However where he has incorrectly reported anything that you have said to him you can write and tactfully point out that he obviously misunderstood what you said.

I'd advise writing to panel and ep pointing out the inaccuracies - ask the ep to correct his report and to copy revised version to you before submission to panel. Remember the panel only have the written reports to base their decision on and you may have difficulty persuading lea to re-submit to panel if they make the wrong decision. So if there is time left before panel write with your corrections referring to your original submissions and quoting ep's contradictory comments too.

Remember also that the issue of a statement is, legally, a decision for the Education Officer and not the Panel, so you should write with your comments to them.

LAs like to hide behind the idea of a 'panel' as ultimate decision-maker, but the panel has no statutory status: LAs can set one up to advise them that's all.

Write a letter and copy it to Ed Officer (point out s/he should take this into account when making their decision) and EP. Ask for it to be sent to panel too.

Get your own EP report too if you haven't already!

Thank you all for the replies. Didn't know if it was permitted/done thing to write directly to the panel (or Education Officer, thank you benito) but will do so.

Thanks.

You learn the hard way you have to write down these conversations at the time and then when they fudge the reports send them your 'note' of the conversation. But yes always correct everything at the time - we let a few things go and then later realised the slips were actually very deliberate.

I think you can probably tell he is writing the report to resources not to need so you are probably going to have to appeal.

Our request for ABA was turned down unanimously by Panel in favour of mainstream which actually was not recommended by anyone in any report. So how the entire panel was so convinced by an invisible report remains a mystery.

Agnes, you are so right (as ever) - I got an early indication of how he was going to write his report when he threw in a few veiled cautions about resources etc during our conversation...

Yes, we're reconciled already to going to appeal.

Thanks again for your help.

I forgot to ask (Agnes if you're still reading, your advice would be really useful): should I just write to correct the unambiguous inaccuracies at this point?

I'm assuming I'll have the opportunity to address the actual provision offered in the statement itself, so shouldn't dispute what I consider to be inadequate observations/recommendations at this stage?

Your evidence about need/provision is in the form of your parental advice to the SA process and you will need your own EP report to challenge theirs, but, I see no reason why you shouldn't write whatever you feel is appropriate about the report if you have criticisms of it.

However, be warned- it won't make any difference. The process is a nonsense. It's about getting away with what they can, and reducing needs to the minimum necessary to match resources. It's not about evidence. But the Tribunal will look at evidence and it does no harm to keep a paper trail and warn the LA that you expect them to undertake their decision-making lawfully (i.e. by taking into account all relevant evidence) and to follow the SEN COP process to the letter.

I tried as mine was much like OPs and LeonieDelt I asked as mine was like yours for the mistakeslies and like LeonieDelt say's "invented imaginings, 'chats' with staff, anecdotes and second/thirdhand info, and plagiarism / miss quotes from other reports, and myself" it was total fabrication from a 1 hour with my DS session spent in her office, no other meetings with him or us and she came up with this pile of dross I complained , met up with her boss head of EPs and was told in writing and in person you cant have the report changed info added or taken out its her PO and I wasnt allowed a second opinion eitherso utterly unfair PP told me (they helped) write a letter with everything that was wrong with the report stating we were totally unsatisfied and felt it was completely biased ect ect to go with the draft when we return it so now doing the waiting game for the final statement fingers crossed, pmsl head of EP insists her report isnt all that important wtf point in it if its not that important then and heres me thinking this would be THE definning report well silly olle me,
me being the cynic as i trust no one , they said ALL the evidence is just as important yeah well we shall see

oh sorry i still wish you luck though LeonieDelt and just because i was turned down sure doesnt mean you shouldnt complain its certainly worth a try

Our LA's Ed Psych didn't write a particularly accurate report, the only one we've had when we were trying to make the decision main-stream versus special school. The only suitable ss was out of county, so cynical as we quickly became, felt the report was biased in favour of mainstream and in county. We were advised to get a private (unbiased assessment done)and this was supportive of the special school we wanted. I felt this was a true picture and he had no vested interest, in fact he felt sympathetic to our cause and didn't charge us in the end. Hope this helps.

Thank you all for the further replies.

I shall write to the SEN panel and EP with my corrections.

leonie who is SENAS? Good luck with changing your EP.

8supermum98* i was advised against getting private reports by PP and LEA themself as they said basically they think us getting our owns biased too and said they would ignore itnow im wondering if i should have ignored them, have no money though DH is disabled im his carer so pots pretty much empty we wrote and the complaint/differing view we have has "aparently" been logged goodness we may be going to trib then