Question re statement

[Triggles]

We just got DS's statement back, and I have a rather puzzling question. It said they were providing £X amount of additional funding, which would provide for 20 hours of TA and 5 hours of midday TA... so 25 hours. Is the amount the school provides separate, as I know they are supposed to cover the first 10 hours. We asked for 30 hours total, but sounds like only 25 provided? Just double checking. I was thrown by the word "additional" funding.

Dd2 gets 30 hrs on her statement and the school funds the rest (5 hours, i think), if the school feels he needs 30hrs then they can apply for the funding.

The hours that are in the statement are the hours your child is entitled to. The division of funding between the school and the LA differs from area to area (e.g. some pay the first 5 hours, some the first 15) but the total figure is the one in the statement.

You don't want any funding written in the statement. It's all a red herring.

You don't want the word 'provide' anywhere either as that is not the same as 'receive'.

You want a simple sentence:

'DS will receive 25 hours of TA support per week, exclusively for him' and that is all that you need written on the matter.

You might like to go on to say that the TA will have had 3 years experience working with children with social communication difficulties and of implementing speech and language programmes.

You might also want to stated that 5 of these 25 hours of support will be used to support your ds during the lunch break, to implement a programme of support with social skills etc. etc.

You don't need any information about what the LA/School are doing, what money, what meetings etc. Only what your ds will RECEIVE.

And change 25 to 30 obviously.

Triggles, knowing our LA if it says 20 plus 5 that's all it is. My DS gets 15 plus 5 and it used to quote the funding provided by the LA for the 'additional' 5 hours TA and 5 hours lunchtime supervision, ie the time over the first 10 hours and it was approx £5k. Sounds like you don't have your full time support of 25 plus 5.

Plus what starlight said!

How the support is to be used is specified in part 3. You need to query these hours.

DS's statement says under part 3 b

'The authority will provide a place in a MS school which is able to meet the needs specified in part 2. The school will be provided with additional funding of approx £5k per annum. This sum will provide:-

. 15 hours support each week from a qualified TA plus
. 5 hours mid-day supervision each week
or support provided at an equivalent funding level

Blah blah, inflation blah blah flexibly in and out of the classroom, blah blah EP and advisory teaching service blah blah.

Then lists of how under educational, communication, PSE, Physical sensory and medical.

Then on to c, monitoring arrangements.

HTH

Yes, it says it like that EllenJane... but :

"with additional funding of approximately £14k per annum. This sum will provide

• 20 hours per week from qualified TA plus
• 5 hours mid-day supervision each week

or support provided at an equivalent funding level."

So I'll need to go back and insist on 30 total hours.... sigh....

Hmmm, I'd be running both Parts 2 and 3 verbatim past IPSEA or one of the charities who specialise in Statements (ACE, SOSSEN). Personally I would not be happy with the provision stated; too much use of the word provide rather than receive.

Support needs to be both specified and quantified: I would argue that this is not properly specified not quantified properly. They're basically saying to the school here's 5K, this is now your problem to sort out.

This whole issue of devolved funding by LEAs is bad news full stop.

Guess I'll have to call them on Monday. Argh.

The money bit is interesting, though, Triggles. Yours is almost 3 x mine, but mine is a few years out of date. If the authority fund after the first 10 hours mine is (10) + 5 + 5, yours (10) + 10 + 5. Hmm, maybe with inflation mine would have gone up to nearer £6k? The lunchtime bit is at a lower rate. It does look like the funding is for more than the hours they have stated. You need to have it clarified, it may even be a typo (hopeful.)

Anyhoo, you need the 25 + 5 to keep him safe if nothing else.

Atilla, that was just the quantified bit. There is loads more specified in the rest of part 3. But the number of hours is the bit that costs the LA the most money and is in reality, the bit that is the hardest to get them to change. A lot of semantics they will happily change, in my experience with this LA, but it will be a battle to get them to increase the hours to an appropriate level.

Yes, I'm sure it will be a bit of a battle. But the paed, all the other that had input, as well as the school were very supportive and insistent that he MUST have 25+5, so at least I know they will be behind us on it. I am NOT having him unsupervised during the day - and the school were so insistent on it that they paid for the extra hours themselves and then got extra funding as well from another source to make sure it was there for him. So obviously it's needed.

Ah, well. I should've known we'd have to fight some. I will be speaking to the school right away on Monday morning with the senco. But also with some others. Not keen on another battle when I'm already stretched to the limit, but we do what we must, right?

Is it worth it to ring them and verify that the 20+5 hours isn't a typo and it should really be 25+5?

Good luck with it Triggles. Check it's not a mistake.

Cross posted, but, yes, worth checking.

Triggles, they made a mistake on DS's when it was amended, put 20 hours instead of 15 plus 5, then tried to say it should be 10! It was a not very bright clerk. They do lots of cut and pasting from one statement to another, as you can imagine.

Okay. I will check and make sure. I wondered, due to the amount, but who knows, eh?

Cross fingers it's just a typo.

Not a typo. Also spoke to headteacher today and she stated that they will not withdraw support from DS2 anyway. So apparently they will still be covering it, regardless. I told her that we planned on asking for the full 30 hours, but she doesn't think they'll budge (apparently they wanted to give less and the school pushed to keep it at minimum of 25). But she's fine with us asking for 30 hours, otherwise we'll feel that we haven't done everything we could.

On a side note, we spoke to the OT about the Maclaren on the phone today, when confirmed his appointment next week, and she said she'd do some checking and let us know as soon as she can find out more info about whether or not it would be allowed for his difficulties.

Better than an outright "no" so we're happy with that for now.

oops... have a meeting with the senco tomorrow to discuss it in more detail, including the other stuff listed.

Shit. At least the school will cover it anyway. It's not good enough, though. In your letter use the SOS SEN guide how to check a statement and state that the school do not think he is safe to have less than FT 1:1 and will not contemplate having him at school unless he has a 1:1. You also need to look at the rest of the wording of the statement and make sure they aren't using weasel words, like, will has access to, etc. When, for how long, how often. It all needs to be as specific as possible. (Especially if you need to change schools at some point, the next school may not be so flexible and supportive) But also, in time he may not need the ft 1:1 as he progresses and develops. Not something to be discussing with anyone, of course!

You'll need to get the highlighters out, check that part 2 has every need specified, looking through all the reports, then check that part 3 has specific and quantified provision for every need. The guide goes through this. You can ask for a meeting to discuss your issues and they must hold one and cannot finalise the statement before they do.

The trouble you might get is that it is quite unusual to have a 30 hour statement in this LA in MS. They may start suggesting SS. Don't know what your feelings are about SS, but there are some nice ones around. I'll PM you.

EllenJane - thanks. I know it needs to be more specific regarding his fizzy programme, as it states "access to"... I will definitely be going over it tonight and tomorrow morning, then speaking to the senco tomorrow afternoon, and getting back with them after that. I admit the headteacher is saying that 25 hours is very good in the current climate (which I understand). A few little wobbles in our discussion this morning, but we'll see.

Ok, bit of an odd question but here goes. DS2 was diagnosed with asthma and put on inhalers AFTER the statement was already pending (all paperwork turned in, but waiting on decision). So now, of course, it states no concerns report for his general & physical health... however...

he doesn't have a clue what the asthma is, what symptoms of problems are, when he needs to take his medicine, when it's a serious "emergency" type of situation, or anything like that. We're still just trying to get him to remember which inhaler (by colour) to take in the evening vs for flareups. And obviously we have to help him take his inhaler with the spacer.

So.... where and how is the best place to have this put into the statement?... when he first got the inhaler (and diagnosis), one of his teachers insisted that they let the children tell them when they need the inhaler, they can't "suggest" the children take it... okay, but since DS2 simply doesn't understand, it's kind of their responsibility to keep an eye on him and offer his inhaler when he appears to need it. I've been very clear that if they are uncertain, they are welcome to ring me any time and I will make the decision, if it's that big a deal that they don't "make the decision themselves." personally I feel it's a duty of care issue - they know he has a medical condition that he does not recognise or comprehend, therefore they need to assist him and possibly make judgement calls (again which I'm happy for them to ring me if any questions).

Also, do TAs get new students each year? or do they often stay with the same student for a few years if they have a good rapport? DS2 and his main TA work together very well - she has stated she would like to continue working with him - and we would like her to as well. The change from reception to year one is going to be massive (even the teachers stress this!), and so we would like his main TA to stay with him next year. The head really waffled on this, stating that they had some good TAs whose students are moving out of the school (onto jr school) this year who will be free next year and he may have them instead. We have no problem if one of them is the other part-time TA with him, however, we really prefer his main TA stay the same (since both she and ourselves are happy to have that happen). Do we wait to see what happens with this, or perhaps put this request in writing and pointing out that as DS2 has great difficulty dealing with change that it would be in his best interest to remain with this TA (provided she is still willing obviously) in year 1 as well to make it easier for him to cope?

DS had a few TAs in reception before his statement. He's had the same one now for the last 6 years, she's specifically employed for him. I am specifically employed on a temporary contract for the DC I support. If hecleaves the school, my job is ended, it's based on him being at that school. The school are my employers. For a 25 hour statement the school will probably advertise 2 posts, as 25 hours with one child isn't healthy for child or TA! And you must have a break for lunch. Your current TA could apply, they may fill the vacancy internally without advertising, depends on the availability of their current staff. On the change to junior school, the new school 'may' continue with the same TA, but it's up to the new school. If they have a known TA on their own staff just finished with a y6 child, they may prefer to use them than the infants TA.

Chat informally to your current TA, see if she's up for it, then tell the SENCo that your DS needs the consistency of a familiar TA to help him with the big transition to key stage 1. My DS's TA is nice but not as nice as the one who didn't get the job.

Well, the senco agreed that keeping the same main TA for him through year 1 was definitely something she wanted, and the TA has expressed that she wants to continue working with him, so hopefully that will be that. They swapped his other part time TA a few weeks ago (she had to switch hours due to personal reasons) and he's doing quite well with the new TA. So now it's just a matter of putting together the info they need for the statement (the additional info). That'll be such a load off to get it all done!

Sounds great, Triggles, you do seem to have a very proactive and supportive school, there.