LEA to assess!!!

[KOKOagainandagain]

LEA just phoned me to tell me that the Panel have agreed to start assessment - Yea!! I asked how the summer hols would impact and she said that as we had already sent in a lot of information that the case would be heard again on Thursday to decide whether to issue statement or NIL. She said that they rarely issued a NIL. I said that the application was based on what was known and that as his appt at GOSH APD clinic was not til August and that he was in the early stages of assessment for ASD any statement would be incomplete. She said they would issue the statement on the basis of what they have now and then have an early review following assessment.

Pinch me - am I dreaming or delusionally hopeful? This is all moving too fast after four+ years of banging my head against a brick wall.

fingers crossed for you!

This sounds really positive. Keeping my fingers crossed.....

Sounds really good :)

They sound very on the ball at your LEA! Well done :)

LEA's do tend to work during the summer holidays; SENDIST (the tribunal people) do not work during August.

Hopefully you will eventually receive a decent statement. Do seek independent advice from IPSEA and or SOSSEN as well as asking on here if you are not sure of anything. Parts 2 and 3 of this document are the most important parts of the statement doc so they need to be right.

Never ever accept a Note In Lieu; they are not worth the paper they are written on.

xclnt

attila what do you think about issuing statement before the assessments are carried out - is it worth delaying to get it right in the first place? Complicated because DS refusing to go to any local mainstream school and I want to name an ISS (out of county - no provision within). He is staring secondary in Sept - would be be better to be a local refuser with an agreed interim statement or a local refuser with no agreed statement. I assume that I will have to go to tribunal anyway but I am not sure what to do for the best.

Off to gloat at the school - I can't wait to ask the bastard Senco/HT who tried to scupper us whether he had heard the good news!

If you're going to tribunal anyway, just get yourself a document to appeal ASAP.

ISS not able to do an evaluation until Sept and so I can't name them at this stage. I thought that we would have plenty of time and did not want to raise DS's hopes when we couldn't even get the LEA to agree to assess. I also thought we could do this in the 3 months following agreement to assess - I did not think for a minute that DS's case would be rushed through on this timescale. Should I press them for an earlier evaluation so that I can name them?

Don't delay the issuing of the Statement. The Proposed Statement will probably need to be amended anyway and you can drag that out for a few months.

Bird in the hand and all that....

Wot Wet said. You'll still be going in Sept if an ISS is what you need and probably even if it isn't.

Is this with or without tribunal? LEA can only be working with this deadline if concerned about potentail refusal in Sept- ie given the bizarre timecsale so far (2nd application - 6 weeks - refusal - back to panel in three working days - agreement to assess - back to panel in 3 days rather than 3 months - hinted that agreement to statement on Thursday WTF? ) This is not usual. (I'm experiencing strange feelings of warmth towards the LEA although this could be more hostage/captor syndrome ). What if, they (LEA) do wanted done and dusted by Sept?. The dragging out includes transition from primary to secondary (ie I have to act) and I never thought it would come to this and quite frankly I do not know what to do for the best. What if we have to name a school before evaluation has been carried out?

Keep

The timescales you quoted seem very wrong to me.

You posted on 18 April 12 asking for tips for a succesful 2nd application for SA (having been turned down the first time).

There simply has not been sufficient time for the LA to undertake the full assessment process i.e. Ed Pysch report, Community Paed report, Parental Advice etc that is needed before the Panel can decide whether or not to issue a Statement / NIL.

Forgive if I'm wrong and your LA is indeed the speediest at issuing Statemnets that I've ever come across but are you sure that they will be considering Statement/NIl decision?

Have you misunderstood the process? There are actually 2 assessments: the first is the LA deciding that sufficient evident exists for the SA assessment process to start. the outcome of that first assessment is the commencement of the SA process itself. The outcome of the 2nd assessment i.e. the SA process, is the decision to issue Statement/NIL.

So have you seen the Ed Pysch, Comm Paed etc since you made your April 12 application for SA, or even been asked to submit Parental Advice?

If so, then you are in the 2nd assessment phase that will end with Statement/NIL. If not then you'll be lucky if the SA process completes in less than 2 months.

You name the school that you think can meet your DS's needs (as identified during the SA process). I doubt very much the LA will voluntraily offer an Independent school, so you'll spend a further 4/5 months waiting for a SENDIST hearing.

As I said - I could be wrong, and if so i apologise, but the timescales don't seem right to me.

wet I know the timescales look wrong but they are true - I am kosher, you can read my posts - I am not an LEA plant.

The process has been going on unresolved for so long that there was a current EP report (2 actually) plus comm paed report etc - last couple of times that we have seen the comm paed she has already conducted what would be required for SA to save time. As regards parental advice - my application was about 30 pages long and included bell charts to demonstrate standard deviations from the mean (I knew that MA in research methods would come in handy one day).

My LEA has one of the most stringent criteria for assessment - if you get through that stage you can go all the way. DS is in year 6 and is refusing. This makes a big difference. The LEA had placed great stock on the reliability of the school's data - but what with the 'rumour' of maladministration in KS2 SATS which just happened to be officially reported and mentioned to the BOG perhaps they decided to assess and - unheard of - compress 3 months into 3 days before going back to panel.

DS's needs have not changed (although it appears that my thesis had not been read) since we had the refusal to assess but something has led to an about-face.

Good then to hear that it's the 'real deal'.

Just a word of advice - don't use the term 'school refuser'. I expect it's a tem that you first heard used by school / LA or another professional.

That phrase just plays into their hands and places the blame for not going to school firmly on your DS's shoulders, the implications being that he is choosing not to go to school so could also choose to go if he wanted to.

The reality is that your DS is making a sensible decision not to spend time in an institution that has failed to support his needs - would you want to be there if you were him?

If he was attending a school that did understand and support his difficulties I doubt that he would 'refuse' to go to it.

You're assisting the LA by using this term. You should be saying that DS is unable to attend school due to insuffient support.

Lecture over

Thanks wet - attending school is a big issue with DH - he is concerned we will be prosecuted, GP won't sign him off etc, etc. He thinks (fears) it will be suspected that I am orchestrating inabilty to attend as a tactic.

Making any absence 'medical' rather than unexplained seems to be key - do GPs co-operate - are they looking for particular behaviours?

Also concerned about 'plan' for transition that the LEA want to draw up with DS - he is very sensitive and unable to deal with pressure - but it seems the LEA are going all out to get him to attend a mainstream school come Sept.

is there a different GP you can go to or do you have just the one at your practice?
don't agree to anything with the LEA with regards to his return to school. They are only concerned about £££ and not about your ds - decide what you want for your ds and then build your case. Do you have a school in mind?

GPs can be a bit funny about 'signing children off' ie extra paperwork issuing private sick notes for schools who caused the illness in the first place.

I would personally also worry about being bracketed together with the woman we saw last time we were at the surgery. She had been telling me all about her very minor ailments, her holidays and busy social life and then she stormed out complaining about the "useless Indian doctor" who wouldnt agree her (presumably dodgy?) sick line.

Heads have been told not to ask for these notes but an EWO may

But normal NHS stuff ie seeing a child who feels unwell, dealing with anxiety symptoms, advising you not to send a sick kid to school, recording details of the problems in the notes, sending extra information or referrals to camhs etc... all that should be enough to cover your back.

Many thanks. I am getting that I should create a paper-trail that makes it clear that this is not down to choice on the part of DS but ability of a school to meet his needs. It looks as though it is choice because DS attends his primary (albeit late (to avoid meltdown) and wearing trainers (tactile sensitivity) but when it comes to secondary he tells teachers he does not know where he is going because as far as he is concerned this is true as he does not see attending the school at which he is registred as even an option - literal answer - he may be 'registered' but he is not 'going' and he does not want to lie to teachers.

LEA and EP have asked where he wants to go - WTF - he is not choosing between universities! He knows what he doesn't want (he has had plenty of experiences of not having his needs met over the last 6 years) but that does not mean that he knows what he wants or where can provide it. Basically DS wants to be safe - a small school with small classes where he can 'know' who people are, where the other DC are like him and where he won't get bullied, that values art rather than english/maths. LEA/EP think size does not matter but it does if you have APD/ASD. I want a whole school approach, qualified specialist teachers, SALT, OT etc.

Difficult to do - no diagnosis as yet but poss APD and/or ASD, has above average ability but also has dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia etc. Have tried to search schools for ASD and SpLD (no mainstream provision in these parts) and can only find ISS that meet the smallness criteria that are out of county. Even if we fought to win him a place I have a doubt that this is the right thing to do as he hides his behaviour in school. If there is no release on a daily basis I fear he will 'pop'. What's more important? Would he start having meltdowns at school? Would he stop having meltdowns? Would he save it all up for the weekend? Or is there no way I should even consider DS boarding?

Sorry for all the questions