Child protection SS for those following my story

[claw4]

Social worker has requested a meeting with school, myself and any other professionals involved in ds's care, after school made a referral to social services on the basis of child protection issues to 'get my family some help'

Social worker has made no contact with me at all.

No doubt school are planning on getting everyone in the room to agree with them.

But this is a good sign, right?

Received decision, refused, theres a surprise!

The evidence from school is copies of IEP's. One evaluated one from 9 months ago and a new one which i have never even seen dated 6 months ago, which should have been reviewed this month.

Evaluated one success criteria to be able to explain how words in a sentence are linked 5 times. Achieved he can now write a page of writing!

To write at least 2 paragraphs during extended writing independently within 30 minutes once a week. Achieved most of the time, only if he isnt in the mood it wont be achieved!

Shock, bloody horror at new targets in the IEP i havent even seen.

To be able to admit when he is in the wrong WTF!

They also write anxiety issues are not apparent in school and many of his issues around anxiety were home based

Ah sorry Claw. It was as expected no doubt but it would have been nice to have had a leg up at this stage.

Those reasons are appealable IMO. Not sure wins alone. You need to get your evidence, but still appealable.

Them agreeing would have just saved a bit of time at this stage, thats all.

Apparently they asked ds and he replied that he has hardly anything to worry about! As if he is going to be able to put into words that he has difficulties understanding interactions and is often confused. Now apparently his target is to admit when he is in the wrong! what kind of bloody target is that.

The resources for him to achieve this is ds to discuss this with a teacher as the situations arise. So he is suppose to recognise that he is wrong and approach a teacher and tell her he is wrong.

I despair, dr's this afternoon, he is not going back.

Myglad, it is abusive, to ask a child who already suffers with high anxiety and self harms, with extremely low self esteem to identify what he is dong wrong!

Way to go with building a child's self esteem, lets tell him what he is doing wrong, rather than dealing with his difficulties.

Ive removed him from school, as of now.

Good claw. Hope you have a lovely summer together buillding his self esteem. No doubt you have been keeping a record/tally chart of anxiety and destructive behaviours between 3:30 and bedtime every night for the past 6 weeks at school and will continue these tallies now he is out of school!?

Star, he was off school for last 2 days, due to his breathing being bad, already his sores are not so raw or inflamed.

He is currently quite fidgety and getting quite panicky about this change, he is writing lists and doing timetables and becoming quite pedantic.

I am letting him organise his timetable of what he will do when he doesnt go to school and letting him double check and double check before we laminate it and stick it on the cupboard.

He will calm down, once he has it organised, he is writing exactly how many minutes he will spend doing each activity and then adding it all up.

Oh bless him. He sounds so delightful. And it is a good thing that he is trying to take ownership of his day/learning.

Star even though he is fidgety and obvious quite anxious about the change, he is grinning from ear to ear, jumping about and quite excited about it too. Its the happiest i have seen him for a while

have been lurking on here as no useful expertise but am aghast at that hideous target - so vague and judgmental all at the same time, whilst being downright impossible.

How could that even be a measurable target without being cruel and pointing out everything a child has done wrong to see if he admits it. :( For a child with anxiety that is abusively cruel to me.

You did write in taking him out. I know my DS is the happiest he has ever been since he has been removed from his awful school with far less tummy aches and head aches.

Coff, it is bloody cruel and i only got a copy of it today, its dated January, his self injurious behaviour started to really flare up again in February.

NHS SALT report dated December also states that "over the course of the activities he appeared to become pre-occupied about 'getting something wrong' even when given plenty of reassurance, he repetitively asked if he had got things right and was distressed and anxious when he wasnt able to answer questions. School staff reported that this can occur in the classroom"

So the very next month the all wise SENCO decides to set him a target of "to be able to admit when he is in the wrong" Bloody genius.

She has also become an expert at dxing the root of his anxiety.....home!

Blimey. I thought ds's IEP was bad. That one takes the biscuit!
You may want a paper trail of just how dreadful it is and the fact no-one told you the contents... can you copy it to Camhs in a few weeks with your diary of self harm etc, and a little note explaining how you took him out as soon as you realised that schools interventions were exacerbating things, plus how much better he is since withdrawal.

It's not just covering your a* I think they also genuinely need to know. From what you've said abt your Camhs, they will be interested.

What Maria said!

Thanks Maria, will do. Since ds was discharged from CAMHS things have gone from bad to worse with school. Its like they were almost waiting and setting me up.

Replied to your other thread.
sorry about the refusal although was expected given past form
You should probable prepare yourself for social services to get in touch now you have pulled him out of school if only to cover themselves - great you have GP backing
So they have fabricated IEPs - no surprise there then

What I don't understand about these fabricated IEPs is that they didn't even do good ones. If you're going to lie, at least make yourself look competent!

in conjunction with the SALT report that IEP is downright wicked , I think you might want to start thinking about a personal injury/negligence claim later down the line.

claw what are the strategies that the school has listed on the IEP as means of reaching the target? Unfortunately fear of failure is quite common (eg there are pro-forma social stories about how it is OK to make mistakes). My DS does not ask for help and it used to enrage me that the target would be 'asking for help' but once they knew this was a problem they could try different ways of asking for help like a traffic light system or a 'sign' to the CT or TA. The thing is that DS will make mistakes and/or will get stuck sometimes so however good the school provision is you need to find practical ways to help him cope.

Even if your primary concern is not academic there is no reason why standardised test results are not included on the IEP as a matter of course. ime whilst I focused on behavioural issues that prevented ability to work and therefore got embroiled in debates about the cause of anxiety, whether it was primary or secondary, SS emergency referral and all the stress involved there was actually no need because there was clear evidence of inadequate progress. Its just that IEPs are notoriously subjective and the DC always makes adequate progress because schools decide they have. There is an objectively set adequate and inadequate level of progress that cannot be debated BUT the school/LEA will not calculate or inform you of rate of progress. If you are arguing lack of progress you need to use objective measures of progress - this includes IEPs that have SMART targets but also includes SATs and standardised tests.

Keepingon,

Target to be able to admit he is in the wrong

Resources
ds to discuss situations with a teacher as they arise
ds to be given time to own up to problems that he has caused
ds to be taught what is the right way and the wrong way

provision
discussion with a teacher

success criteria
To be able to admit or own up when has been in the wrong 5 times

We are talking about an extremely passive kid. Who CAMHS have identified as internalising his anxiety and uses his body to channel his feelings. He has a strong sense of an 'ideal self' and he strongly desires the approval of others. He uses his observational skills to determine what others might want from him and he provides that. this is why adults around him need to be alert to his compliance.

Been following this thread. Sorry but can't add to the expert advice already given but wanted to express my support.

At least you were expecting that decision and can now concentrate on the next steps of SA and building your ds's confidence and self-esteem.

Will you be looking for a new school later?

Good luck with the SA.

The target is badly worded - should be to reduce anxiety around making mistakes in school work - the resources mostly come from him - his responsibility to 'discuss' and 'own up' - punitive - doesn't need a lecture on right and wrong - so the resources will not enable him to meet the target but it will appear that he is making progress because the target has been made 'objective' - ie 5 times. ime if you rely on IEPs to attempt to prove inadequate progress you will fail because they always make it appear that adequate progress is occuring even in a context of obvious regression and where the intervention is causing greater anxiety. Eg the target your DS had wrt literacy - it is possible to make adequate progress on IEP targets but make inadequate progress in terms of the ratio gain on standardised tests or in SATs progression.

DS was turned down for assessment twice but accordingly to the SEN policy of the LEA they have to assess DC who have not made adequate progress (despite what the IEP may suggest) according to data collected by the school. Even better if your DS performs well in assessment because then you can measure whether or not attainment is commensurate with assessed ability.

Claw, I woukd hope that a tribunal would see those targets as destructive and judgemental as we do. If you have to get independent experts make absolutely certain that they see those targets and comment on them. If you have any friends who are teachers/clinical psychologists etc. they can write a witness statement explaining in detail just what is wrong with them to add to your evidence (not to attend any tribunals). In fact witness statements are a good idea in your case I think anyway.

Think keepon has a point

These IEPs are not worth bothering with - IEPS are supposed to be set with the parent and the emphasis should be on what the parent feels is important for the child - it is your outcomes for your DS which should be the focus

Go back to the objectives in the NIL - what were they? What are they in the new one? Has he made progress in these? Are the objectives exactly the same (so no progress).

If the NIL has no proper objectives go back to the reports the assessment was based on - theirs and yours - what progress has been made in those areas.

If there is anything they say your DS can now do, which he can't - then you could give your DS it as a task and video him doing it e.g. the page of writing; or ask him to sort some written scenarios into right and wrong

You don't have to rely on their evidence you can collect or engineer your own.

If you do get a home tutor you could 'set up' some of the activities from these objectives then you will have evidence that disagrees with school

I think if you say school have made the evidence up etc while true, they will try and make you look like a loon (know this from bitter experience). Far better is to have evidence that shows he cannot do something. We did this with DS - nursery and SALT said he understands on, in under - we videoed him and he didn't have a clue - he had just learnt the answers as they always set it up the same each time! We submitted evidence that when presented with instructions to put something on, in, under he scored 0% after 9 months working on the target. Nowhere for LA to go they had no evidence proving he could do it.