Tribunal soon, advice needed on a letter just received.......

[nickminiink]

Hi all, I am hoping for some advice regarding the above. We are due to go to a tribunal on the 15th June for refusal of a statement for my 11 year old son. I have spent the last 6-8 weeks collecting evidence & compling my report which I completed and sent to the tribunal and LEA approx 3 weeks ago, way ahead of the 15th May deadline. Anyway today I recevied the following letter :
"Following receipt of your submission for the SENDist Tribunal and the recent reports that you have provided. I now intend to return xxxx case to the Local Authority's Statement Panel on 30th April 2012, asking them to look at the information again and to decide whether or not it would now be appropriate to issue a Statement of Special Educational needs for xxxxx.
Once I have their decision I will once again be in touch with you"

I do not want to be too optimistic but is this good news and the fact I have received this letter does it mean they are likely to do a U turn and issue a statement without going to tribunal. I have been fighting hard for this for over 14 months with many knock backs with everyone telling me my son will not be issued a statement and I am wasting my time or is this just another delay tactic by the LEA and a mind game.
Has anyone else received such a letter and then found out later the statement has been agreed without tribunal, I want to take this as a positive but during the last 14 months I have become very wary of the LEA so don't want to get my hopes up just yet.

Any advice would be appreciated
Thanks
Nick

I think you just wait and see. They are at least considering it.

Your appeal should stay lodged. This way the pressure remains on the LA.

Whatever happens don't cancel the appeal. But yes I would say it is good news. They will say they now have new evidence, but ffs, finding evidence was their job not yours.

Try to keep emotionally stable though, you coukd still have a long way to go.

Thank You for your replies, don't worry I have no intention of cancelling the appeal, I will leave that down to the LEA if necessary. I have come along way and I am fighting this until my son gets a statement.

StarshitTerrorise (great name)- I know it really annoys me that as a parent we are suppose to be the experts in our children's educational needs, when I know absolutely nothing about the educational system, i am a trained engineer not teacher, SALT or EP. So by spending hour after hour on the internet, finding private SALT's, paying large amounts of money to be told my son has the working memory of a 5 year old and is dyslexic when it should have been the job of the LEA SALT & EP to discover this. So yep the new evidence is down to my persistence and money and battle to get him seen, attend apointment after appointment. So fingers cross this is good news, I am aware the statement is only the start but at least I can now attend meetings with some legal clout behind me. Emotionally stable think I lost that along time ago :0)

Thanks again
Nick

Yes, sound promising. Fingers crossed for you they back down without a hearing...then just the content to worry about. Our LA backed down before a tribunal hearing against the decision not to issues a statement.

Hang on in there and keep the appeal lodged with SENDIST.

What you have done has further garnered them into action.

Keep us posted as to developments.

Thank you for your replies, it does sound promising and I am proud that the evidence that I gathered and the hour after hour of research and report writing has made them stand up and listen. Obviously my evidence has struck a cord and now they are reviewing with the statement panel so fingers crossed in deed.

What I find confusing is when i read other posts, that say having a statement isn't a guarantee the provison stated could or would be met by his school. I can take this on board and too be honest doesn't phase me, as I have attended so many meetings and appointments where I have been told my son is making progress and that he is coping very well, I of course challenge this but I am seen as a troublesome parent who just likes the drama. You leave like you have been insulted and made to look a fool, because they dismiss everything you have to say. I don't back down from anything I believe in and I can defend myself very well, however when you have no clout or backup then you are on your own and there is no point to keep arguing, with a statement to me that gives me the clout and the backup I would need, so then every meeting or appointment thereafter they have to listen and take me serious, which is a good starting point so that's good enough for me as I won't stop until we are all satisfied my son is given the support and provision he needs to have a happy and succesful education that all children deserves. Anyway thats just my opinion

Thanks again for your replies, I shall keep you posted
Nick

Yes, a statement is a good starting point but it is only as good as the setting implementing it. I'm afraid, all too often, even with a statement which, by law, should be implemented without excuse, you get delays, avoidance, pretence, and lies.

Sadly, the presence of a statement will not stop a school or an LA lying about what is happening or the outcome of their intervention.

It is a promising start though.

LeonieDelt - You are 3 days after my tribunal so fingers crossed for you as well. I am trying not to be optimistic, we received a letter on Friday from the EP asking to see my son again for an up todate report for the tribunal as her last report was completed in September, even though still valid for the hearing. So now I am not sure what to think as why would it go back to the statement panel but now I have the EP wanting to see my son to assess again for the tribunal. I asked if it was linked to the letter from the SEN appeal officer and she said no and wasn't aware our son's case had been reverted back to the statement panel (which is today). The deadline for submitting all reports is 15th may, so cutting it short, I am just wondering if this is all linked and now the EP is going to challenge my private SALT report which paints a very different picture to the LEA's SALT/EP report regarding his progress. Just want it over I hate all this waiting around, then like you said I bet I am back appealing the content, at this rate my son would have left school.

Thanks everyone for your replies
Nick

Just heard from SEN appeals officer and the statement panel has once again rejected a statement for our son as they feel my son is making adequate progress to the expected level of his special needs. I don't get this statement, they acknowledge he is behind his NT peers, they acknowledge he has complex special needs but he progressing at the expected levels for his special needs. What are these levels, how are they measured, so it is alright for him to be struggling, having anxeity attacks, homework time trebled becuase of his special needs, missing school, scoring well below his peers in his exams but in the panels eyes this is ok as he is at the expected level. So when he leaves school stressed out his head with no qualifications, his confidence dented, this is ok as this is what is expected of someone with these types of needs.
I am so pissed off right now, but it's ok as now I go to tribunal and try and convince another panel that my son's current provision and support is not helping his complex needs to professionals who live and breath this shit day in day out and what am I an engineer trying to help his son. This country is a joke, like to see these people come into my place of work and challenge my job they wouldn't stand a chance but this is what us parents are expected to do, bloody joke.
Rant over just so pissed off with it all

Sorry to hear your news, even though I suppose you kind of expected it - at least you're no worse off than you were. Now just concentrate on the tribunal.

I am so pissed off right now, but it's ok as now I go to tribunal and try and convince another panel that my son's current provision and support is not helping his complex needs to professionals who live and breath this shit day in day out and what am I an engineer trying to help his son.

You are absolutely right though. What we, as parents with no expertise, no knowledge of the SEN system, or of the complex needs of our children, and no inside help, have to go through to get what our children are entitled to is absolutely fucking outrageous.

And sadly you're also right that even a statement is no guarantee that our dc get what they need. I've got a thread going atm about our battle with school who are not providing what's in statement which we won on appeal - ha!

I wish you the very best of luck with the tribunal.

Thanks bialystockandbloom, yes I did expect it but for 2 whole days I was feeling positive as I actually thought my 14 months of hard slog, determination, sleepless nights, meetings, appointments, trips back and forth to hospitals, clincs etc was actually worth something and felt proud for one minute that I was actually helping my son get the education he deserves, but it all came crashing down and reality kicked back in that everyone involved in this decision, people who do not even know my son, who even know the difficulties and struggles he has to cope with on a daily basis, are all just a bunch of overpaid tossers who have not got a clue what these children have to go through on a daily basis to cope with the pressures of school academically and socially.
It is outrageous I spent 5 years at college gaining an engineering degree not a bloody qualification in Education, but its ok for me to work 10 hours a day, come home and research how these bloody professionals should be doing there job, I have had enough of it all. Lets hope I have calmed down by the tribunal because right now I just want to bang all their bloody heads together.

Great get a statement and start the whole battle all over again, can't wait, at least I will have some clout this time and go into meeting with some back up I guess.
Like I said this country is one big joke, what a life us parents of children with special needs have, is there any let up to all of this.

Thanks good luck to you as well.

So sorry Nick. Please don't take it personally. We are nearly all treated this way. Not trying to make you more angry just show you that you are not alone.

StarshitTerrorise - I try not to take it personally and I know I am not the only one in this situation, so thank you. I just find it bloody frustrating and feel the situation is never going to get better because of the state of our country and the educational system, despite the fact we have children who need this help when you know funding plays the big decision maker when a statement is considered. Oh well tribunal here we come despite being told that we are wasting our time, over and over again, so disheartening.

nick - Is your son in yr7?

When you talk about expected levels - what do you mean? Many LA's/school's will not acknowledge a child has an academic problem until a child falls 4 years behind his peers. Which effectively allows the school to ignore these children.

What has your son's academic progress been like? More importantly do you think he has been assessed correctly and his current levels reflect his ability?
Is it possible that his schools are inflating progress to show attainment?

Why is your DS spending triple the time on his homework than other children? What happens if he does the same amount of time his peers do?
How much input do you have with his homework?

I ask this as I discovered all of DS's homework (with some parental support) was being used for teacher assessments, throughout KS3. Not one single piece of school work was used. In all probability the teachers did this, in order to show progress as a result of inflated grades at KS1 and 2. While it helped show 'progress and attainment' for the teachers, it wasn't actually reflected in reality.

You can ask for copies of his written teacher assessed work.