I am asking for DD to be statemented. I need help with the letter.

[AtYourCervix]

I have the IPSEA template but how much detail do I need to put in it?

what do I need to say about school without swearing? Do I need to say what they have in place for her already? or keep it basic, i.e, DD has aspergers and flatly refuses to go to school?

Ideas pelase?

Hello At your.....

We have a statement for our DD so can just tell you how we went about getting ours. We wrote the letter and put in lots of detail about our DD's behaviour you can write what the behaviours are at home and what she needs help with you need to be really specific about why your DD needs one to one assistance. Then state what the behaviour is at school what the issues are and why one to one assistance is necessary.

You need to provide evidence that your DD is unable to access the curriculum without one-to one assistance and a statement so the more evidence the better.

Does your DD attend any health professionals? We also were able to send away reports supporting us from the OT and the SALT, a report from her nursery, a letter from her HT stating that the school could not alone provide the level of care necessary. We also applied for legal aid to get a report from a private EP which was really really helpful.

Have you had an EP assess your DD in school? It is helpful to have the school on side to support you but I know this is not always possible.

HTH a little bit. Good Luck.

school is shite. shall i put that in?

so detail is needed. hmmm.

Hi AtYourCervix

Firstly, I just wanted to pick up on the sentence:

"You need to provide evidence that your DD is unable to access the curriculum without one-to one assistance and a statement so the more evidence the better."

Statements of Educational Need are not just about 1:1. There are many many children who do need a Statement but for whom 1:1 (either on its own, or in conjunction with something else) is not appropriate.

There are several stages to Statutory Assessment. The initial letter is just your 'flag' to the LA that you think your DD has enough needs to warrant a Statutory Assessment.

Once your letter reaches the LA, they will respond by contacting you for your initial views, and also the school, etc. So, you will have the opportunity then to give a detailed report of your views.

So, you are well within your rights to send reports and a detailed summary of your reasons for applying. But they will still want you to give those things once they write to you.

I took the approach of writing a 'potted history' of DD, with a summary that listed current support, who was involved with her and my reasons for thinking that a school couldn't meet her needs from within their own resources. Because that is the criteria for a Statement.

However, the LA have to treat all requests the same, so you could just as well send a piece of paper with your name and address on it, with the sentence 'give my DD a statement, 'cos she needs one.' and they would still have to follow the same procedure as if you have sent in a ring-bound, professionally printed report.

(I wouldn't recommend the letter with 'give my DD a statement, 'cos she needs one.' though )

Hi yes Lougle is absolutely correct. Sorry if I mislead you we were going from the point of you that our DD needed the one to one assistance and we were fortunate enough to get that but appreciate that some children do not need a TA.

I pretty much used the template letter, and only added a couple of sentences. but then my dd's circumstances were very different.

iirc, I wrote something like "I am writing to request SA because my dd has been diagnosed with ASD. She has a severe language disorder, and is unable to participate in any activity at pre-schol without significant support"

and that was it.

In your position, I would probably outline the fact that your dd has vety high anxiety, causing her to be unable to cope even with the thought of school, and that she frequently feels unable to attend. If you have any data on how her work compares to average/NC levels etc (and if it is in your interests to highlight it) you could include this - eg 'she is currently working 2 years behind in maths, due both to her absences and an inability to follow a class lesson (insert whatever is appropriate)'

I wouldn't, at htis stage go into detail as to how the school has failed both you and her - the fact they don't chase up absences, or contact you when asked - as it just flags up the things the LA/school need to cover up.

if the school has tried interventions which have failed, though (extra skils groups, school action/action plus (do these even exist at secondary?) pastoral support etc, then list them - the point of a SA is to work out whether your dd needs a statement. she will only need a statement (and agree with lougle, it is not always about 1:1, but about working out the most suitable way to get your dd learning - in school, out of school, whatever) if it can be shown that the school is unable to help her form within an ordinary budget/structure.

"if the school has tried interventions which have failed, though (extra skils groups, school action/action plus (do these even exist at secondary?)"

Hi Silverfrog,

Yes these do exist at secondary level. The overall experience re SEN though at secondary school is very much dependent on the attitude of the school. In my experience of DS's secondary school they seem to pick up the pieces and take action that the Junior schools should have done years earlier (particularly with regards to Statements).

Hi atyour,

I would keep any letter to the LEA short and to the point at this initial stage (they wont want to read reams of reports). You will need to write to the Chief Education Officer at your LEA (the council will provide you with the name) and you will need to give them six weeks to reply (mark that date on your calendar).

thanks Attila - my dds are only young still, so I have no direct experience of secondary! (dd1 is yr 3 equivalent, and dd2 is in reception). I knew from my dsd going through secondary that skills groups etc existed, but it was the school action/action plus 'formality' that I was unclear about.

On the advice of my Parent partnership who helped me tremendously last year, my initial letter was a little longer.
It started off with the opening stuff from IPSEA then added

I think that my child may need more help than can be provided at SA+ and the name of the school he attends. It gave his DX and the length of time that he has been on SA+ ( to show that the school have been trying everything within the SA+ limits).

His needs create barriers to his accessing the whole of the national curriculum despite varying strategies tried by the school.

His social and emotional skills continue to fall ever further behind those of his peers making it difficult to integrate and be included by other children in group activities without more additional support than is currently provided.

Apparently "BARRIERS" is the key word these days and you have to show that after all the help you are currently getting what barriers remain to their education.

I know that the additional information is not strictly required but it seemed to help in our case.
What then happened was that we and the school got a whole lot of forms to complete for the LEA to then decided if they would formally asses him for a statement.

I think that if you ask for assessment then they send you back the forms to decide if there is enough grounds to formally assess your DS so hopefully we will see you back here again when you get them.

BTW my parent partnership was fantastic and helped me no end - have you spoken to yours?

waiting for parent partnership local contact to get in touch,.

no word from school yet.

atyourcervix - make sure that you include the school refusal - your dd is having difficulty attending school because school are unable to meet her needs

school have still not got in touch?! That's appalling

i've put that bit in. i'm adding stuff as it is suggested, it looked a bit basic before. if PP get in touch tomorrow i'll run it by her, if not i'll go ahead and send it anyway.

I am somewhat gobsmacked by school.

they have an absence line which is an answerphone service I have left messages on each day 'DD, yr 9, tutor group x is refusing to go to school again'. Nobody has phoned back. I emailed on wednesday and got a brief reply thursday evening. I emailed again on friday and have heard nothing back since.

I am going to keep leaving messages daily and once i have sent the statement letter I will email again, copying in everyone I can think of.

you can add in your contacting PP as something that you have done to help dd. Will be interesting to see what school claim they have d9one to help...

AYC, keep proper records of this - might be worth getting a diary specifically to record it in? - as will be useful to be able to say how many days it was before (if ever!) school got back in touch, or how many chaser emails you had to send before they did, etc.

worth it also to make notes of statementing timeline info, and keep record of when/if you contact your case officer, what was said, etc. the next few motnhs will be ones of record keeping and filing, but it pays off in the end.

when i do send this do i need to send a copy to school or just tell them it has been done?

you don't need to tell them anything. the LA will take up to 6 weeks to decide whether to assess your dd or not, and then write to inform you of the decision.

if they do decide to assess, they will send all relevant forms out - to you, to school, to other professionals etc.

I wouldn't tell school, personally. It would be galling in the extreme if they decided to pull their finger out and do something, which in turn might scupper SA

Sorry when I replied before I obviously meant your DD .

When they get your initial letter they will contact both you and the school for more information before deciding whether or not to formally assess.
we got a form to complete asking all sorts of things about our views about everything. we also had to provide copies of any reports form any other professionals involved. They write separately to the school.

Excellent advice on this thread.

Do keep a log/diary of interaction (or non-interaction) with school. Not contacting you could be construed as they don't have enough help/training/resources to cater for your dd's needs.

Also sensible to not give too much away to school. In this respect it is also to have a log of them not communicating with you despite you attempting to with them. It is your rationale for no longer telling them anything iyswim.

You need to put enough information in the letter to flag up your child, but the detail comes later so don't delay or put too much of your heart and soul into it. If it is refused, you can reapply the very next day provided you have more stuff to add or more evidence.

Statements aren't just for 1:1. Your dd may need 1:1 or may not. But what she will need to have is needs that are beyond the schools ability to meet for whatever reason. Lack of training, lack of TAs, lack of knowledge, lack of specialist equipment, inflexible timetable, lack of space etc etc.

You may be told that 'statements no longer come with funding' which is a standard daft line peddled by LA's at the moment who fail to realise that parents who are going through this for the first time have no idea what statements used to come with. Your response to this should always be 'I am not asking for funding. I am asking for an adquate education for my daughter!'

And following on from that make sure you order a copy of the SEN code of practice from the DfE, and if possible also ask your LA for their criteria for statutory assessment (you can do this at the same time as requesting on btw).

Here's what I wrote, in full:

autisticson.wordpress.com/supporting-comments/

only 'report' i have is the letter i got after dd was diagnosed. and the laughable IEP from school.

isn't the first 15 hours what qualifies as school action, etc? Obviously I am in a very different poistion, as dd1 was always going to need over and above 15 hours input (although our first draft statement specified 7 hours )

and I have also always assumed the 'school provides first 15 hours' is linked ot the whole 'statements don't come with funding' bullshit that LAs occasionally trot out... ie, wouldn't believe a word of it, and keep pushing for whatever you know your dc needs!

DD gets some TA input (I think 2 lessons a week).

The problem is not exactly what she needs in school as she's ok when she's there but the fact that getting her there is such a prolem and now she isn't going at all.

is a statement what i need?

what do you mean by 'she is ok when she gets there' - is she doing all the work she is supposed to? keeping up with the right academic level? able to navigate her way around the school for the different lessons, with all her books/pe kit/whatever she needs? can she organise her work and time? does she know what she has to do for homework, and can she organise it ok by herself? can she plan out projects, use resources (school library, school computer time) which might need to be booked? is she fulfilling her potetntial, or is she just scraping by?

if 'ok' means she gets there, is less trouble, but hardly scratches the surface of all the work stuff, then she still needs help at school.

her anxieties need addressing - they are blocking her being able to access school. this might be by way of counselling and supporting her to deal with htem, or it might be by way of adjusting things at school so that it is not so terrifying in the first place - this adjustment may well need to be set out in a statement, if only to stem the 'oh but she copes ok if we don't do it' arguments (which might leave your dd floundering and bewildered)

being babysat at school (ie being no trouble when you turn up - not violent or aggressive etc) is not getting an education. your dd deserves to be able to make the most of the opportunities offered her to get a good start in life - just like evety other child.