Tribunal Advice........

[nickminiink]

Hi, as per previous posts we are going to tribunal in June over refusal to issue a statement for my 11yr old son. I am at the gathering evidence stage to submit in May. We had an idependent SALT assessment carried out in Feb 2011 which was used as part of the evidence for the SA, can we use this same report as evidence for the statement appeal or is the fact it is over a year ago it will not be considered as up todate evidence to show my son's lack of progress and learning delays. To have him reassessed will cost £170.00, money I just don't have (i know it seems a small amount but to our family it is alot of money especially at the moment with everything costing the earth). The report highlighted certain areas where my son is struggling such as Recalling spoken sentences : Age equiv 5yrs 5months 2nd percintile, word finding : age equiv 4yrs 11mths, these are the 2 worse areas he ranges from 4 yrs 11 mths - 9 years.
Just wondered what your thoughts and advise are on this matter and if any one who has gone through this process has used older evidence.

Thanks
Nick

Sorry, you might get away with it but you'll be seriously disadvantaged without an updated report.

Leoniedelt, your post had confused me are you talking about yourself, to have my son reassessed by the independant salt we used last year will cost us £170 which is an hour assessment, if I could afford £1000 I would but unfortunately I can't. The report was Feb 2011, tribunal is June 2012 so more than a year.
Thanks for your advise ?

I suspect Leonie is talking about a tribunal savvy SALT who knows how to word the report for a legal audience and knows the system. They are expensive.

I don't know you're financial circumstances but we though we couldn't afford all kinds of things that we have since found we could. Our reasoning was that a few thousand now to get Ds the right provision would save us tens of thousands later. That then became our priority over pretty much everything including hopes of home ownership, gym membership and improved lifestyle. I guess we were lucky though that we had those choices.