Awful Proposed statement, finalise and appeal?

[starfish71]

I received DS1's proposed today and it is truly awful, it starts by stating his skin problems and that he falls asleep when over anxious!

Now I may be stupid but that should not be under a special educational need should it?!

I am going to bed soon, as my head is hurting and DS2 is wanting his mummy back but apart from rewriting and sending it back to LEA on Monday if anyone wants to help me go through it I will be very grateful.

Oh yes and the PRU is going to be named by them and it seems he would have to meet a whole load of 'conditions' and 'achieve' a lot of targets before they would consider him going to another educational setting. I am appalled.

there was a thread here recently about PRU's and how they are only supposed to be short term things - was that yours? - and the stuff they have at the beginning certainly does not sound like important details about your child if that is what is first. First should be the DX and a description of his difficulties one by one that you match up to provision one by one in part 3

I would definitely re-write it for them and then appeal when they refuse your amendments.

But for now it is Friday! go and get some rest. You will need to be clear headed when trying to re-write the statement.

The statement should include all the needs from the advices which should be have a corresponding provision. You should copy all the advices, go through them with a highlighter, highlighting each need. I'm sure there's a good guide on IPSEA or ACE or SOS SEN. I'll go and have a google.

www.sossen.org.uk/reports/Statements.pdf

That's the one I was thinking of.

Or was it this one?

www.ace-ed.org.uk/Resources/ACE/advice%20booklets/GettingTheStatementRight%20Mar2011.pdf

Thanks Alison and Ellen, will look up those guides up tomorrow, think I have seen the Ace one, will need them both I think!

Yes Alison it was my thread, have had some really good info from appropriatelytrained on fighting that, just need to figure out how to do it now!

Hi Starfish. Sorry your statement is pants as well, seems to be a bit of a theme on here at the moment.

I used both of the documents Ellen recommended, but would also advise a phonecall to Ipsea, as their advice has been really helpful to me. They do get very busy, but it's worth persevering to get through or if you have a more general question, using their email service.

Go through with a highlighter the first time, two colours - one for needs and one for provision. Check every need stated in part 2 has corresponding provision in part 3. Then go through the appendices/reports with a fine tooth comb and identify any needs or provisions that have been omitted.

I found it useful to type it all into a table in word. I went through each appendix/report and retyped the needs, then lined up the recommended provision against each need to make sure I had evidence of how each need should be met, as per their own advice. This really helped with specifying and quantifying.

If after all that you feel the statement is a mess and not salvageable, personally, I would appeal at this point rather than doing what we did and trying to get them to specify and quantify when we knew they weren't likely to agree. BUT do get some advice directly from Ipsea or sossen first.

Thank you very muchmoose, know you are going through it too at the moment.

Will do that tomorrow and will get advice but it really is a mess, can't believe they pay people to put them together.

They tend to just be a hatchet job of cut and pastes from the appendices/reports to be honest. The people that compile them don't actually understand the implications of the content - hence them making absolutely no sense.

As moose says, you can put a lot of energy into negotiating changes at this point which the LA may not pay any attention to. We did this but in retrospect we would have saved time and stress by going straight to appeal. Our experience was that the LA only really tried to engage once we had lodged the appeal. But I would double-check with IPSEA or SOSSEN in case there are any disadvantages to going straight to appeal. Fingers crossed for you and moose that you end up with a decent statement.

We were issued a crap proposed statement. We went through the reports and amended/added loads making sure we used the exact words from the reports. There was also no hours either. We got the amended proposed statement on Weds and the LEA have agreed to all the changes and allocated 25 hours to it (that's all lessons). I assumed we'd have to appeal. The statement is now 2 a4 pages longer than it was. Hopefully you'll have the same experience as us.

Sazale that's brilliant, well done. It's good to hear that the system works for some people.

We did the same, but I'm told our LEA never specifies or quantifies unless taken to appeal. Our outreach team tell me they have yet to see a quantified statement for any of their caseload!

Hi pink am in contact ith SOS sen and they think it is a load of rubbish too, advising me to tell them it does not state my son's special educational needs and we will appeal.

That's great sazle! Well done :). That is what I am going to do over weekend and hope to email to lea tomorrow or Monday. I want to show I am willing to work with them but have to lodge my appeal as time is an issue, DS will be 14 in oct.

That is awful moose it shouldn't shock me but it does. How come we as parents know what a good statement should look like but they obviously don't have a clue?

Thanks Moose,
Apparently ours only do if the parent asks for it!!! How wrong is that! School said that a statement is only as good as the parent that gets it, unfortunately! Parent partnership were impressed with my re write and have asked me to consider training as a parent advisor after we've got it all sorted. I only know what I do because of helpful people on forums like this.

We had a meeting with the SEN manager and to be fair she did seem really nice (she came to the CAF meeting). She said that as long as the amendments were from the reports then she would agree to them and she did! To say we were gobsmacked is an understatement! They even agreed to put in that ? implement training, advice and guidance on supporting, understanding and responding to demand avoidance provided by the EPS and/or the Autism Communication Team (ACT).

Just the school to sort out now which is gonna be a pain so may still end up at tribunal :-( Got DS 5 to sort out now as not seen his iep yet and has apparently been in EA+ for 15 months and I've only just found out about it after I told them he should be on it as under 3 services! It never ends.

Thanks Star,

I'm anxious about time too as my dd is 14 in December and she's so not coping in MS. Her school is very supportive but she is not part of the whole school as she's unable to access classes. Good luck hun x

Yes Sazale I was just thinking I only know what a good statement should be like because of being on this forum and all the experience of the posters! so very glad I found a home here.

starfish - what a nightmare. If you recall we had chats about the PRU as my ds has been sent on a 5 week course toone. It has been awful and he really hates it there.
We had AR meeting recently and have made school aware of how wrong it was to send him there. Even the course manager from the PRU said that it was not the right environment for him nor would it ever be in the future so please don't let your ds go there. I thought they agreed to the statement to stop the appeal against the PRU so why have they named it now?

Hi desperately, it is a nightmare. Really sorry you still having a hard time too. Just had an email from SOS sen and lady I am dealing with reckons I will need private EP, OT and SALT reports to appeal. She says just to tell LA that the statement is not specific and doesn't mention all of DS's needs. BUT don't mention appealing. Now am very confused! :(

I am visiting an ASD unit on Monday, really hoping it is as good at the estyn report.

Really don't want him in the PRU.

If you havent already seen it then thisSEN toolkit might be useful in conjunction with the sencop and this guide to improving the quality of statements.

We too did lots of identifying needs and cross referencing backwards and forwards. We had the same as Moose in that we had to go to appeal before they properly engaged with us to discuss amendments. We got most of them through and a final signed statement the day before the tribunal. We found that when we requested changes they issued a final statement and then we appealed. They said it was to release monies to the school and not hold that up while we discussed amendments - which may well be true, but they didn't really get going with the changes until about a month before the tribunal.

Thank you alison for those links, very interesting and helpful. God it is hard work and I have only managed to do a bit today.