Well today was the day!

[coff33pot]

DS is getting his Statement of SEN I got to put another

I have received the proposed statement in the post today and burst into tears of both upset and joy. What a confused feeling!

However on reading it I am now bemused as this is the first time I have ever looked at one of these.

It does not state anywhere about any funded 1 to 1 hours? I scoured it and its nowhere so I rang the casework officer and asked her to go through this with me and pointed out that I am lost and cant see the hours. Now her answer was......."The statements are now laid out differently. You will see we now list the objectives and provision in Part 3"

I advised her that I cannot see the hours there and she said the school will have funding and checked and advised me that they are to receive 25 hours funding and this is a very high amount. (school already had 15 hrs inclusion funding and fund the rest themselves)

I told her thank you that is good but surely it should be mentioned on the statement? I got a strange convo then about it is best to have a meeting with the school to discuss how they intend to use the funding and what proceedures they are going to put into place that ties in with this statement.

Now I am confused. Is there a new way of doing things? I thought it should be on the statement especially as he will be moving to juniors in Sept and whilst this school realise that he cant cope without 1 to 1 the next just may not see it that way?

Can anyone advise me please?

[StarlightMcKenzie]

and wtf is a 'relevant' therapist.

It should say to be devised AND DELIVERED by a SALT registered with the Health Professionals Council. The Higher Level TA supporting ds will observe all sessions and repeat them daily for 30 minutes (or whatever).

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Objectives CAN be vague. It is a annoying, but if they are too specific then if/when your ds meets them it could trigger the ceasing of the statement, so vague means open to interpretation and goes in your favour in the long run.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

coff, you can drag out the process to final statement by asking for a meeting to negotiate, and then doing it again, as each time this happens the clock is reset. This can give you time to get the OT in or an independent one.

If you end up going to tribunal then you'll have at least 5 months to play with.

[coff33pot]

Star the schools idea in their own words is..........."perhaps we should be just "containing" him They really do not have a clue. And so he is now trapped in a class of 20. When I removed him from school and forced their hand to prepare a proper structured timetable with my input it worked brilliantly and it states in one of the reports it was going to be continued into year 2. They even sent a copy to the LA. They havent continued it, removed his visuals, stuck him in whole class and their idea of quiet time is to stay in a corner with class. Class is too small its like a garage size and this is a child who was 1 to 1 only with occasional class interaction. He is so stressed he refuses to come out of the corner and does all his work on the floor. Now I cant even get him to sit at the dining table to do a little reading or drawing because he says it doesnt feel right and goes and finds a corner to draw in. They are going backwards really. There is a lot in the statement they say they are doing but they are doing it the wrong way. And they wonder why he wont come back in after play time

I am working out an email like you said in an earlier post to the officer. Then I think I will leave it 7 days before I request a meeting to delay things a bit. School are not going to be happy as I think they are just pleased with the funding but thats tough.

[coff33pot]

I have text the SALT too to give me a ring so hopefully she will get back to me today for an update and if she spoke to OT. If not then I will chase up an independent one IF you can find one in Cornwall!!!

[coff33pot]

Well I sent this email as suggested to make sure the convo is logged.

Dear xxxx

As discussed on the telephone with you yesterday. I have received DS proposed statement of SEN.

I queried the fact that there was no specified or quantified hours on this statement and I was told this was a new layout of statement and that the school will be funded 25 hours 1 to 1 support.

I realise I have 15 days to read through this statement and let you know if I am happy with it contents. However as this is all new to me I wish to seek advice from a more experienced person that myself.

I would be very grateful if you could email me an attachment of this statement. which I can use for amending or scribbling on!

Many thanks and kind regards


Auto one back and she is away till 31st!! basically she is not available for 12 days of my 15 deadline anyway The other contact is out till 25th and that would have used up 7 days of deadline so I think they are dragging this out for me

[schmollandresident]

My son's Statement reads "32 hours of 1:1 support from a behaviour support assistant with at least 2 years' experience of working with children with ASD and ADHD".

[WetAugust]

Coff

Keep a diary of allyour contact with the LA. As she's off until 31st presumably no one will pick up that email and they could say they have not been informed within the 15 days. So i would print out your email and the auto response - pop it in an envelop and sent it to them by good old fashioned snail mail - recorded delivery of course!

These peope are devious bastards who will use any excuse to deny you and you child adequate support

[coff33pot]

Thanks for that tip WetAugust I will print and post now.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Blimey Coff that was a messy statement. Have they actually done one before?

The good news is, that it is so awful you might actually get somewhere by challenging it. i.e. they don't appear to have particularly used clever weasel wording, just vague wording. It appears, to me, that they aren't used to being clever against parents.

I don't think they can make up their minds whether it is a statement or an IEP and I had to LOL at teacher will meet with parents termly to discuss progress being there (aka parents evening), and school will provide ds with pencils, crayons and paints - er hello, it's a school!

Won't put anything else that might break confidentiality/anon that you need but thought these things would be okay

[coff33pot]

I did tell you I had a feeling it was crap LOL

Trouble was when I opened it I was apprehensive and then thought of you lot here and the horror stories I read and said to myself "well you know how it goes so get reading". I read it .....then read it again and thought ?????? THIS is to me is an exact replica of the EP recommendations crossed with a parents evening interview and how was that supposed to help DS for his future?

And yes I laughed at the provision of pencils/crayons LOL

[coff33pot]

Sorry for the quick exit DS has a cold and I forgot to put smellies on his pillow

I really appreciate your help star as I really had no idea where to start. Everything was so flat to start with. Well the officer is away so I guess I will ring for a meeting for when she is back. Can you tell me when I amend it do I actually redo the whole thing? or strike out and then put bits on the bottom. How did you all alter your existing statements when they were proposed?

Leonie......Its Cornwall I am in. I am glad you got it sorted finally :) to be honest if it takes to an appeal stage to get it sorted then so be it as what was on it wasnt worth the paper it was written on and at least that would allow time for salt/ot reports to reinforce things.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Sorry Coff but I didn't even really recognise it as a statement.

But you know what. I have seen many now and most make me really angry. Yours didn't. It made me feel a bit 'meh'. It was worthless, but not devious iyswim. I think there is hope in that.

[coff33pot]

Well I got a reply to my email this morning confirming my convo with the officer.

As xxxx explained the document does not state the level of funding allocated to the school as our new Statement concentrates on the child's needs and the provision that the school is required to provide to meet those needs.

The LA delegates funding which equates to an aprox allocation of 25 hours teaching assistant support, to meet the objectives in the statement.

So they do have a new statement layout and the allocation is approx?? how can you have approx hours. I have emailed them the standard letter from IPSEA requesting a meeting. I wonder if this "new" statement stuff is to do with the piloting thing on green paper......

[schmollandresident]

They don't have to put funding. That's up to them and the school BUT they DO have to be specific about the number of hours that your child will receive.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

No. It's pretty much what my LA were saying long before the Green paper stuff.
It's all bollox.

Write back to them saying that funding is not provision and as such you do not expect it to be specified in the statement, however, number of hours of 1:1 support IS provision and you required it to be specified and quanitified in terms of hours and qualifications of the people who will deliver this, as is legally required.

If you like you can quote this:

Following from the definition of SEP in EA s312 and the Schedule to the SEN regulations (which prescribe the format for a Statement) Part 3 must describe all aspects of the provision which differs from the provision normally made in mainstream schools in the area. Thus:

? Different class sizes: H ?v- Leicestershire[2000] ELR 471
? Staff qualifications/experience: R ?v- Wandsworth ex parte M [1998] ELR 424
? Where small group work is involved, the size of the group, the length and frequency of the sessions: L ?v- Clarke and Somerset[1998] ELR 129
? The need for and amount of 1:1 work: L ?v- Clarke and Somerset [1998] ELR 129
? Input from other professionals, such as sessions of speech therapy: R ?v- Harrow ex parte M [1997] FCR 761

But I'm telling you now, whilst you might be impressed, it is unlikely to make any difference to their attitude, but it could be worth a try.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Hey Shmolland - nice name.

I prefer beruit myself but there you go

[coff33pot]

No I am not so bothered about the funding it is the actual hours not showing that is the main issue.

Star They did finally email me the statement so I have had an afternoon revamping!

Got an email back acknowledging that I want a meeting and asking for a phone number to contact me to make an appointment next week when the officer is back. Shitting myself now I wish I had someone holding my hand LOL

[schmollandresident]

I prefer Beiruit too but wasn't sure people would get the reference and might really think I lived there ;)

[coff33pot]

I get the reference, my front room is ressembling it now