Amazing S&LT - they always let us down!

[appropriatelytrained]

Wow what a day for crappy services. I heard from the LGO and S&LT today. It's interesting that they all know I am about to depart to London for two weeks with DS who is at Gt Ormond St. Great timing!

Anyway, crappy S&LT! I asked them in July to provide details of a meeting they had had without our knowledge with school in which they'd all clearly stitched up DS's fake S&LT programme in preparation for Tribunal.

S&LT ignore me. PALS ignore me.

I complain to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman about S&LT and PALS. Trust agrees in Oct to relase documents and hold a meeting.

One month later, I've heard nothing so chase Ombudsman. I'm offered a meeting but no notes.

A further month goes by. I'm offered a date for a meeting but no notes. I chase the notes. What was it you wanted says PALS? Yes PALS who are being complained about are handling the complaint

23rd December late in the afternoon, I get an email with a letter from Head of Children's services saying - there are no records. Meeting was just to discuss Tribunal process. No therapeutic outcome. No records. Oh and why do you want a meeting?

I write back and say - this meeting clearly produced evidence about my son's programme. Evidence which you knew we disputed. Evidence which was so important that a principal therapist (who wasn't dealing with DS but who attended the meeting) and reported back to her head of dept.

Today - my son's records for the last part of June/July appear. They refer to the meeting and who was there and what it was about. A partial recollection given what I already know about it. But there is indeed a record of the meeting.

Bloody liars.

Interestingly. There are pages of scribbled notes, all in the same hand which looks like they've suddenly been dashed off.

Oh and, DS's last pragmatics test - just before Tribunal - with altered scores. Yes, altered scores. So that they are all increased!

I kid you not. I have written to the Chief Exec and demanded an investigation into these practices.

I won't hold my breath.

It was a male journo I was thinking of - newsreader. You must have spoken to his wife. Could be worth an approach once we have ourselves organised.

My back story, as you can imagine, is horrendous and it's lucky that I do have written evidence to back my account, otherwise it would be simply too incredible.

I could write chapters on the follwing:

Failure to identufy or support SNs
Violent assaults in school
Apathetic school and apathetic Police
Blatent and dangerous misdiagnosis by foriegn consultant Child and Adolescent psychiatrst (who turned out not to be one and fled the country)
Private dx route
Adolescent psychatric units and Hospital schools
Independant Special residential FE education and how to secure a place + funding
Council Complaints procedures
LGO Complaints procedure
Litigation for personal injury
HE Complaints procedure

Throughout all this I kept a daily diary. It started as the sort of diary we always tell people on here to keep but started to include my own feelings about it all. Reading it you can feel the hysteria rising as I simultaneously tried to cope with a child who had been assaulted to the point he experienced a breakdown and was hospitalised, tried to deal with the fuckwits in the LA who were determined to wash their hands of him the momment he reached 16, attempted to find him a suitable residential placement so he could be discharged from hospital and also get his dangerous mis-dx overturned - all in the space of 10 months.

I sometimes think about writing a book about those experiences - espcially when I see the popularity of the 'abuse books' genre at the moment. DS thinks I should.

Trouble is that I find it very painful to reflect on those times now we appear to be basking in the light at the end of the tunnel.

My God Wet, it's like a horror story. You are probably traumatised after all that and I think that's part of the problem in dealing with these experiences. There are so few people out there who can defend families and their children. The pressure on parents (and it's usually the mum) is incredible and it destroys lives.

You should do a book - bit by bit - or see if someone in the press is interested in your story because you are an inspiration. I know that sounds naff but hearing what you have been through and how you have fought gives others hope.

Have you ever had your story published in a newspaper?

It's horrific Wet just reading the bare bones, I bet you are traumatised probably suffering ptsd.

I know that the fight for ds has had a detrimental effect on my health, I've seen the GP for stress, I'm getting repeated infections, chronic insomnia, migraines etc.

It's appalling knowing that we are put through such stress whilst at the same time caring for and supporting our disabled children often without respite (we don't qualify here)

Thanks ladies.

It did make me ill and I had 2 months off work at one stage. I am now a very different person to the one I used to be.

The secret is to get very, very angry and stay angry.

You can see I'm still angry about the way others are still be treated by this discredited system.

The internet was my saviour and taught me everything. Without it DS would have remained misdiagnosed and written off totally at age 15.

Some sort of collectively compiled manual sounds good. But parts would quickly be out of date as the law changes.

Perhaps a self-help book aiming at empowering parents?

Sorry just off the current debate a bit, but, searching around the net a bit, I found this tasty bit of law:

Section 77 Freedom of Information Act: Offence of altering etc. records with intent to prevent disclosure

This section applies to the FOI Act and the DPA. It makes it an offence to alter, deface, block, erase, destroy or conceal records held by a public authority with the intention of preventing its disclosure to an applicant who has made a request for the information and is entitled to receive it. The offence applies to the public authority and anyone who is employed by, is an officer of, or is subject to the direction of, the public authority. A person found guilty of the offence is liable to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale (currently £5000).

A nice bit of ammunition.

Wet, as much as I was furious with you when you once said that you hated all teachers (including me), I can see why you feel that way (except about me!) reading all that. Shitheads. I know you said a while back that you never got a proper apology that was meant but I hope (if there's any justice) someone got a massive bollocking for what they put you through.

avoid, - who are you

Just want to 'place' you.

Am planning to change my name to AdequatelyEducated at some point btw or perhaps I'll change it to InadequatelyEducated. Haven't decided.

Wet,

I knew it was bad but turns out I didn''t know the half of it. I'm so sorry.

The thing is though, as I think some of us can verify, is that bad things happen when you start to challenge the bad things that have happened and so it goes on.....

I'm not sure that bad things really do happen when you challenge.

Of course the teachers / school / LA lie about conversations they've had with you, try to discredit you and blame the parent - that's just their usual tactics.

My own favourite is the letter I received from the Deputy Head telling me he had ignored my DS's SNs at my request !!!! WTF!! That particular letter actually made me physically vomit. (But probably helped DS's civil action enormously).

However, once they know that you can see through their crap, will not tolerate it, know the strings to pull and are prepared to involve Councillors / LGO / MPs etc, they tend to treat you with a little bit of respect.

Example: DS's application for Disabled Student Allowance still hadn't been processed 6 weeks after I submitted it. Until it was I couldn't hire his support.

I rang the LA. Staff member says they have a backlog of work as the only person who could authorise the claims had left and they were awaiting a replacement. No date for replacement to arrive. Totally bonkers - that no one else in the whole LA could authorise these claims.

So I thanked the member of staff for telling me this and told her I would now be contacting my Local Councillor - (who also happens to be the current Leader of the LA) to ask him when the vacancy would be filled. Which I did.

DS received his Disabled Students Allowance 2 days later.

(And Councillor says he is genuinely interested in receiving complaints as it's one of the ways he really gets to find out what is actually going on - and I believe him).

Time and time we see newbies on this board who are afraid to upset school, LA, GP etc etc. I was one of those once. Parents still trust schools to tell them the truth and trust that schools are doing the best they can for their child.

It takes sceptical, disillushioned, embittered old hands like us to suggest that might not actually be true.

Perhaps it isn't so much that bad things happen then but that you find out about them.

Although I'm certain that the CP investigation wouldn't have happened if I wasn't going to 1st tribunal for example, or that HT of DS's school wouldn't have been told that they must not take on board any of my suggestions or include me in IEP meetings as I was engaging in a therapy that was harming him and might try to encourage them to do the same by the back door etc.

Oh I agree about their 'grapevine' and the speed at which information about 'troubelsome parents' passes from one to another in their circle.

I've had first hand experience of that.

They also log every conversation that any of them have had with you and every action they have taken. They were kind enough to send me a copy of that particular chronology as part of their tribunal pack. Pack is actually a good work as it was a pack of lies.

But you can play them at their own game. For instancve, to save cost of independant residential school they tried to persuade local autistic base that they could accommodate DS. Austistic base had heard about DS on the grapevine and obviously felft they couldn't. LA were pushing for admission -base was stalling.

I knew Base was unsuitable but it was all LA could offer, short of funding the independant placement.

So I wrote my own helpful letter to the Head and Governors of the Base explaining DS's full difficulties (that his Statement had glossed over) and accommpanied with a Clin Pysch report detailing his severe difficulties.

Base then had the ammo to refuse to admit. LA had no option but to withdraw request to admit him there - which then left no optionavailable but for DS to receive the independant, residential placement that he needed.

Ok I played dirty - but they were playing dirty.

< ex-H was horrified that I did this. Solicitor thought it was a brill move when I told him what I'd done>

The one who wants sleep again, Star