Help with stat assess please

[dietstartstmoz]

Hi,
I have had a few threads on here, and feel I have had better support and advice from MN, than any professional we have dealt with so far, so I'm again asking for some advice.
DS2 was dx with ASD nearly 3 weeks ago now. having good NHS SALT, getting 'support' from specialist early years service (SEYS) in my area. DS is on their lowest level of support-monitoring-as they don't have the resources to offer more. The pead felt DS would be HFA but as he is only 3.7 now, we will see how he develops. SEYS have done an IEP for private nursery to follow, although nursery good and supportive they are not specialists in SN at all, and his IEP was reviewed by SEYS this week (3 5 min targets) and he has not met these. He will start school in sept. We also had a meeting with the school this week, headteacer, SENCO, SEYS and myself. School want DS to have statement (obv want the funding but they feel he will need some 1-2-1 support, as do me and DH), they asked SEYS to start the process, she reluctantly agreed. The next day SEYS tell us that they are going into private nursery this week and nxt wk to do 1 hr 1-2-1 with DS, and will then review if they will start Stat assess. We feel they will say no as their current stance in 'wait and see'. We have concerns about this, and spoke to headteacher again yest who agrees with our concerns. Their 1-2-1- work with DS will be on 6th april. Term finished on 8th april. SEYS only work term time only. Have spoken to parent partnership who have advised us to request stat assess ourselves, if SEYS won't as we have nothing to lose if it is refused.

The general consensus from all professionals is that parental requests for stat assess are generally refused in our borough, despite supporting evidence. Our referral will go back to SEYS to complete the paperwork, and if they won't start the process themselves they are very unlikely to offer supporting evidence.
I'm sure that SEYS reluctance is down to politics, money, time, workloads etc. If they say they won't start the stat assess process on April 6th then we will definately put in a parental request and DH and I will draft our letter during the next week so it is ready to go in, dated 6/7th April. School are offering support with this, and I will use parent partnership and IPSEA, but can anyone offer any advice?

DS has dx of ASD, delayed development, delayed speeech, some behaviour issues, not toilet trained yet, lack of understanding with receptive language, does not interact with other children, how can they say he does not need extra support?
Any advice what we should include and how to get around lack of support from SEYS? Anyone been in a similar position?
Sorry, long winded-thanks for reading if you get this far!

Hi Diet. Glad to hear from you again, and you are still fighting! Sorry you have to. Really hoping you get the right action from the EY people. Yes, apply yourself if they don't support you and get as much info from other profs as possible. Could you afford a private behavioural report? Don't despair if it takes until he's at school. My DS2 spent reception without a statement but the school have to support them as best they can. By the time he's at school, your school will have lots of evidence he needs support and the EY people won't apply. Keep going, it's worth it!

Thanks, The headteacher at the school said they may get their Ed Psyche involved, as they have already allocated money in their budget for Ed Psyche so the school may fund this. Thanks, if he doesn't get the statement I know school will apply for it, and i'm sure he will get it then, but it's so bloody annoying-they're meant to be helping him.

I personally feel that Y1 is the bigger transition. Reception is nursery at school, Y1 is school. Obviously better to get support sooner than later, though.

Hi Diet - we had an ASD diagnosis last Nov for DS who is now 3. I started the SA process myself in Dec and am now waiting to hear whether a Statement will be issued. In the meantime I drive DS to a special school down in Surrey which we are paying for whilst we wait for provision to hopefully be given and funded. I have to stay down there and wait for him as it is only morning sessions so no time to come back home which has meant I have spent a lot of time hanging out with lots of other mothers in the same position, most of whose children start reception in September.

Their advice has been invaluable - they have all had very very different experiences, some have fought and some have come up trumps with very little effort. Some had their Requests kicked back on the basis of the child being too young and are now reapplying. We found this last account a surprise as generally children with a formal dx of ASD are assessed.
I would say standing back and looking at their collective experience the best way to get the support you need is to take charge yourself and make yourself an expert as quickly as possible.

I posted back in Dec about how 'big' my Request letter should be - the draft letters on IPSEA and other help sites seemed so skimpy. Many advised that was all I needed and some even said don't write too much as the Borough will just not read it. I did a really thorough request letter using some great resources (see Dec post as I think I linked them in) and basically listed my son's needs, how they were not being met in his MS nursery and how I thought they should be met. Then I added 12 appendices (Diagnosis, 4 SALT reports, a timeline of all the appointments we'd had, 3 x IEPs, SENCO observation notes x 2 etc) and cross referenced my request letter to these as 'evidence'. Then I added a contents page so it was clear what I had sent rather than the case worker being faced with a wodge of unfamiliar documents.

I relied heavily on Barnet's Parent Partnership 'Information on Statutory Assessments' Pack. This came up on a random google search (Barnet is not my borough) and has been brilliant. It clearly lays out all the criteria for how SA requests are evaluated in that Borough and I kept all 17 points in mind when drafting my letter. I am certain this would apply across most Authorities. I'd really advise looking at this

The Case worker phoned me up to tell me Panel had considered my Request and 'were very impressed' with how thorough it was. The Ed Psych who I met a few weeks later had sat in on that Panel and also reported this to me. Sounds like I am blowing my own trumpet but I was so happy to hear this - I'd made sure that my Request could not be turned down on any grounds. It was a lot of work as each stage since has been but was worth it to get that letter agreeing to assess.

The MOST useful thing in the process so far was seeing a very very kind mother's Proposed Statement (rubbish), a second (rubbish) amended version and the excellent final version which she got through obtaining independent SALT and OT reports and a using a lawyer. Expensive but you could do it using places like IPSEA for advice. She had to appeal to Tribunal and the LA pulled out just before Tribunal and she got the provision her son deserved.
It was incredibly useful to see what a poor statement and a strong statement looks like - just to see a statement full stop. Otherwise you are kicking off a process without knowing what your end aim looks like which means you are slightly stumbling around in the dark. Do you know anyone else with a statement you might be able to look at. I have often wished there were some good model statements online to look at. Maybe if I ever get one I will pull out all identifying information and share it on Mumsnet !

Oh one final thing - everyone on here always advises reading the Code of Practise. I got DH to print it out at work as it is an inch thick but you only need to read the relevant bits and you will feel very empowered. It is easy to read (if slightly dull) and tells you everything you need to know

Do you feel able to state which Borough you live in ? If it is one that one of the other mothers at DS's SS lives in I might be able to get some helpful advice from them on Monday

PS I trumped you on length pf post

That's brilliant, thanks. We have some of that evidence already, so I will spend the next week or so compiling a similar style document to yours. We live in the west midlands, so no where near you. DS will attend a mainstream school. In my borough there are some special schools and 1 specialist nursery but no ASD focussed provision or bases in mainstream at all. Our only option is mainstream with support from Autism outreach. Thanks, I'll try and get copies of statements and I have the SEN code of practice so will go through that also.

Me again - was thinking more about your situation. Our SEYS was quite perturbed when our mainstream nursery told her I was going to apply myself and then wanted to check everything through but was not around the week before Christmas. If I'd done this we would have lost a month over the Christmas holidays as it would not have been the first thing she looked at on her return. You too stand to lose many weeks with the Easter break coming up. If you do your own Request it is really worth trying to get it to the LEA offices before the holidays so it at least has a chance to go through internal mail and land on someone's desk to be date stamped. You could courier it, deliver it is person or send it Special Delivery the day before so you get a proof of delivery (you can look at the signature online) for your records

Like yours our PP also told me that a Request through the Nursery (with SEYS) would be more likely to be accepted than from me. Therefore my Request would need to be better and more thorough than anything Nursery could draft with SEYS help

I've cut and paste that Barnet info I mentioned on their criteria for agreeing to carry out a SA. You could try to address each aspect in your Request then you'd have a really really good case.

.......The main criterion for statutory assessment is that a child should be experiencing lifelong, complex and significant difficulties in learning, which are of such a nature and severity that a mainstream school would not ordinarily have the resources to meet her/his needs.

Requests are evaluated against the following range of criteria:
? Are the child?s needs lifelong, severe, and complex such that a statutory assessment is called for?
? Has there been any previous multi-disciplinary assessment that has informed and guided planning in meeting the child?s needs? What has changed since that assessment was done?
? Is there evidence of purposeful, systematic and structured teaching and intervention over a period of time? If so, what progress has the child made?
? What do the Individual Education Plans (IEPs) tell us? Have there been IEP reviews, and has each of these led to a re-evaluation and re-appraisal of what is needed to make a difference?
? Are the resources that have been put in place of sufficient quality and quantity for the child?s SEN to be met?
? Is there evidence of consultations with parents, psychologists, teacher advisors and other agencies ? as required at School Action Plus? If so, how far has advice been implemented and has this been given a sufficient chance to work? What is outstanding?
? Has the child been consulted? What are his/her views as far as can be ascertained?
? Has the school made effective use of all the services available, e.g. Outreach? Is evidence available to show that they have made a difference in the child?s learning and other circumstances, e.g. behaviour?
? What other services could be provided quickly to schools, and without waiting for statutory assessment to enable them to increase the level and impact of their intervention?
? What do the records and reports tell us about the quality and efficacy of the intervention? If there are gaps, what are these, and how can they be remediated?
? Have schools demonstrated that all the pre-statutory options have been exhausted? What difference has their intervention made?
? What will be the purpose and benefits of statutory assessment? Will these make a difference to the child?
? Is there evidence that there have been some returns from SEN investments? In proportion to the funds allocated, what evidence is there to show that children are making progress? What else can be done to reinforce and reward successful practice?
? What are the perspectives, aims and wishes of key stakeholders? How can their involvement be used to promote the child?s best interests?
? Does the statutory assessment request include all the required, relevant and up to date documentation and evidence? How does it fit in with the child?s immediate, short and medium term requirements?
? How does the evidence presented by the school match up to the criteria detailed in the DfES Code of Practice and other relevant guidance?
? In what way has such guidance informed decision making at school or early years setting?

There are 2 stages to the Statutory Assessment, diet. Initially there's a request to the LA to do the SA, for which they generally only get briefer evidence, then there's the SA itself, which is when the big guns are brought out.

I did a 9 page parental contribution for this and included pictures of my DS so they would realise it was a real person they were dealing with. This was when I put my point of view across, told them that they would ultimately be saving money if they put the early intervention in place, as my DS would potentially succeed in life. I told them what support I wanted, how much and why.

Luckily all the 'advice' they obtained from the LA doctor, the EP, the paed, the communication and interaction advisory service, the SALT and his school SENCO all tended to back me up.

The EP and the paed sent each other some snotty letters, which they copied me on! The EP saying that my DS had no toileting issues that had ever occurred at school and that 'mum' wasn't concerned, and the paed asking why 'mum' had asked for him to be referred to the continence department in that case? My parental bit described the 'poo' situation quite graphically! (He is now 11 and still skiddy!)

In the end it was the advisory teaching service (called outreach in some areas, or autism advice, or inclusion service etc etc.) report that seemed to hold the most sway. His proposed Statement was almost word for word taken from her report. After some 'adjustment', for which I found ACE
website here very useful, I finally got a statement in place for the start of Y1.

I'd be happy to send you a copy of my parental contribution as it's somewhere still on an old hard-drive, even though it's 6 years old. I have lent it to about 10 parents going through the same thing here, locally. PM me if you think it would be useful.

Remember, this was for the SA itself, once they had agreed to it. I was lucky that I didn't need to attach any of the above contributions myself as they were all requested by the LA. During the request for SA stage I included the names and contact details of all parties that I wanted to contribute and the LA chased them. None were private, though, so that may make a difference.

Toppy has given you some great advice and she is coming from much nearer in time, so she may be more accurately up to date.

Crossed with toppy! More good advice from her! I was told in my LA that they take parental requests more seriously than school ones, but your EYS is the equivalent of my communication and interaction service which is for school age rather than Early Years, so I can see from my experience how their input will be viewed by the LA. The EP is often the 'god' of the SA process, also.

Thanks, you're all so helpful. That's brilliant, we will start to compile our request letter, and I will use some of the points above. I can definitely hand it in in person before April 8th, and I will phone the SEN dept and check they will be there after this date., SEYS is term time only but there should be someone from the LA there over the easter hols. The school to be, have offered their support so hopefully they can offer some pointers. I will try and speak to the SENCO this week.