Just received proposed statement

[KarenWaterfield]

I've been waiting for it for about 2 weeks and now its arrived and I dont know what to do first. Most of part 3 doesnt make sense to me so does that mean its no good? Its got 12 hours support in it but school are already giving 20 per week so I want at least 20. Salt is in both parts 3 and 6. Got to get hubby to sit down with me and go through it but he wants to wait for the weekend when he's got more time/energy.

Karen

Hi

Look at Part 2 first.

Does it adequately describe all the difficulties? If not get all included.

For each difficulty in Part 2 look for a corresponding quantified statement of support in Part 3. By quantified I mean - who will provide, for what purpose, for how long each day / week etc.

Make sure you get IEP reviews at stated intervals.

Then ensure you have SALT in Part 3 which you do and also Transport.

That's a start.

Re-read all the professionals' and school (and any others) reports that were included in the SA. All the recommendations that are made in those reports should be included in Part 3.

They should also have taken your report into consideration.

Read Part 2 carefully - does this describe ds accurately?

Move all SALT from part 6 to part 3 - this is very sneaky of them to put it in part 6, they're trying to get away with saying it's a NHS thing so they won't have to provide it. You need to read the SALT report very carefully, and every recommendation and specific provision set out in her report needs to be in Part 3.

Part 3 needs to be specified and quantified. They can't put stuff like "will benefit from", "should have access to" etc. If it doesn't make sense to you that's probably because they've made it deliberately vague, so that they (and school) can get away with providing virtually nothing!

Look at ACE guide for statements.

Send back the Agree/Disagree form saying you Disagree. Set out clearly your reasons why you Disagree. Highlight the recommendations in the SALT/EP reports etc that they have ignored. Make the changes you want (if you have an electronic version, go through it using Track Changes), cross-referencing to the professionals report (ie you make the change, then put a footnote in, referencing to the relevant section in the SALT report). If the professionals and/or school recommend 20 hours 1-1 support, change the number of hours and refer to the reports that recommend this.

Throw in references in your response to the SENCOP (look on Dep of Ed website), eg "as it states in the SENCOP, Statements must be clearly specified and quantified" etc. That'll show them that you know what you're talking about a bit!

You can ask for a meeting to go through this, but send your response back first (within 15 days). See what they say, then ask for meeting if you think there's any point. If they dig their heels in and don't make the changes you want, you can then ask them to finalise it and then appeal.

Are the school backing you up on this?

Parent Partnership might be useful to talk to, but bear in mind that they're not always as impartial as they say (they are funded by the LA after all!).

If it doesn't make sense to you then it is no good. The whole point is that there should be no margin for interpretation.

Ignore the number 12. What is actually said about the hours? Often people are caught out when a statement says something like 'funding will be provided to give access to 20 hours'

What this means is the LA expect the school to use funding already delegated to cover 20 hours of TA time that your Ds may never spend any time with at all because she is working with another child in another class but that, should his class teacher deem it necessary then she will be accessible for your Ds'.

Yes what starlight said is so true. Our first statement for ds said "will have access to adult support for 15 hours per week". Meaningless! Every child in the class has "access to adult support" fgs!

After a long appeal process we now have "ds will have 25 hours per week support from an appropriately trained and experienced TA."

Be very careful about wording such as "access to".