Help - I am starting the ball rolling for SA!!

[SallyBear]

My DS1 (12) was Dx at 8 with Aspergers. We have been at SA+ for what seems forever, and since moving to Secondary School this year, I fear he is struggling now more than ever. We have asked for a referral back to see the original Paed who Dx him, and we are having a mtg with the Deputy Head and Deputy SENCO (main one is on mat leave). They had someone from SENDIS assess his recording ability and agreed that it was fairly shocking. His ability to soak up and retain information is brilliant, but ask him to write something and he is reluctant and extremely poor at writing. He is hiding his homework now, or telling me that he's done it etc. Very trying, as I can see him struggling with it all. He was a late free reader at 9, and is left handed which of course makes life difficult anyway when you are not always great at fine motor skills.

My LA SN team are really good, and I spoke with them this morning about DS. They told me that from April all schools in my area will be getting an increase from 10 hours to 20hours of funding a week to help assist children in schools to basically minimise the amount of children who are Statemented under 20 hours. The SN officer also told me to request an EP referral for SpLD/Dyslexia and to get the SENDIS ICT Teacher back out to reassess him. He also said that I should let the school know that ice had a chat with the LA about DS's issues and that I would prefer that SA came from the school but did know that I could make a Parental Referral.

What experiences have any of you had regarding moving from SA+ to a Statementing? My other two Statemented DC were given full-time support straight away, we didn't need to do the leg work, so I am in the dark as to what evidence I need to collect.
Thanks.

Sorry, DS2 got his statement at 5, nearly 6, so not relevant. I'd beware of the funding of 20 hours bit the LA have quoted. It's not ring fenced. Schools are given a certain amount of funding for SEN and are expected to fund the first 20 hours support (for example) out of their own budget.

What this means in practice is that it's much harder to ensure that one child gets up to 20 hours support without a statement as the funding is not ring fenced and can be used as the school choose. This may be more TAs but how they are timetabled can be quite politically motivated, helping those DC who may get a C grade at GCSE with support rather than helping those who may never get a C grade, but need support to reach their potential, or simply be able to function at school. A statement is the only way your DC is guaranteed support, and moving up from 10 hours to 20 out of the schools own budget is going to make it less likely that your DS will get SA.

Why would you prefer the school to make the request? IME it is better for the parent to make the request with the school's backing rather than the other way around, as parents have more rights to appeal if turned down. The school can't re-apply for 6 months, but parents can appeal immediately. Also you are in control and can be sure that it's actually been done.

I may be paranoid, but your LA seem to be feeding you a bit of poor information. It's hard when things have gone through quite smoothly for your other DC to believe that they can be obstructive.

I was able to appeal immediately against the decision not to assess DD when the school were the ones who put in the application. It was sucessful too.

In retrospect though I think the only reason I would not want the school to put in the request is that in our case the school took nearly 2 months to get around to doing it having agreed to, and then only because I started badgering them about a month in to make sure it was done. If you apply yourself you can send evidence in from the start and they should contact the school anyway for their input before making a decision. When this happens however it will have a time limit put on it for responses and means the school will have to act.

I agree with the above post - I think you need to have a statement to ensure that your DS gets the hours guaranteed. How the funding is distributed is not your concern, what is important is that putting it in legal document means it is a lot harder for the school to wriggle out of making sure it happens. If they simply tell you there is no need for a statement as he can easily access the 20hrs then they should have no qualms about putting it in writing in a statement really!

Totally agree with everything that you have both said. It's sad to be cynical about it all really, but then I am not dealing with budget constraints! I just want the best education for my son. Not a big ask in the general scheme of things really.

What professional reports do you have that are fairly recent?
What others can you get in next few months?
You will need to send evidence of "barriers remaining" to his education.
So you have a Dx report.
Do you have Ed Psych, SALT, OT, any other reports? All school IEP's?
You need to go through the IEPs and look to see what they have tried and if the targets are constantly remaining the same - ie need more resources.
The first letter though is to ask for SA, then they write back and ask why and this is when you need all the detailed information.

We are just starting to gather evidence, Alison. I went from thinking "yay we're doing something!" this morning to feeling very gloomy about it all. It's probably not helping reading other threads with people who have been turned down.

Anyway. Must be positive about this!
The Dx report is from 2008. So any professional reports are all from around this time, so hopelessly out of date. So we are making appointments to get referrals in place with Paed and EP. Hearing checked last year, No SLT difficulties, could bend your ear on all manner of subjects in an entertaining manner.

( I Am Alison - Easter name change)

BUT re SLT - does he take everything literally - and can he make inferences, understand idioms, put himself in another person's shoes, regulate his tone of voice and volume? If not then despite, like my DS who cantalk the hind leg off a donkey, he has some problems you could use in your representations.Oh and can he properly turn take in conversation and does he change the subject inappropriately?

Does he attend any outside school clubs. Would they be willing to write something for you?

already... I presume that the s&l issues you describe need to be evidenced in professional reports rather than in parent comments?

Don't worry about most of professional reports being out of date as if they agree to assess these will be repeated atomatically anyway. The key issue you have highlighted is the inability/unwillingness to record information which has been recently tested but no support for this yet in place. Can school supply appropriate support for this within their own resources? If no definite yes to this,then a statutory assessment needs to be carried out.