Propsed statement saying mainstream, not special school

[Gottalovecosta]

I received the proposed statement for my son today, I'm glad he's got it but feel totally swamped by the contents!
We applied for a statment hoping for him to attend a special school. We gave this a lot of thought, visited several schools in the local area both MS and SS.

DS is 5, in reception. By mutual decision, he only does 9-12 daily, we flexi school in the afternoons. He is being assessed for ASD/ADHD and has diagnosis of dyspraxia and hyper mobility. He has no learning difficulty, but struggles with behaviour greatly. He hits/kicks a lot - teachers as well as children and a lot of other behaviours. He is taught in the library as there are 60 children in reception and he can't cope with the levels of people.
I was so expecting them to recommend a special school, the ed psych said she likes to see children in MS and that she feels 5 is too young for it. I'd written about our wish for him toattend a SS and named it but the statement says 'From the information we have gatheered during the assessment process, we fell that x's needs would be met at x mainstream school with the support described in part 3 of the statement.'
He currently gets 15 hours 1:1 with a TA, and the school have been doing all that is recommended in part 3 of the statement for many months. The statement suggest 17.5hrs of 1:1 help within the classroom environment, and afternoons by himself. It's just a joke, I don't want him in the classroom in the afternoons by himself and wouldn't allow it. When they observed him, he was flapping hands, making vocal tics, shaking, trying to jump out of the window and hitting/kicking staff and children.
By appealing the statement, could that change their choice of schools? It mentions they;d like to see him in MS until he's at least 7, which means a further 2 years of struggling for him and us.

I'm aware of parent partnership, is there any other organisations out there who could help us?

You must appeal it. They may well back down rather than seek to justify their actions at tribunal. LAs often use the lengthy appeal process as a delaying tactic to put off having to fund FT support. The level of support sounds inadequate. If they put in FT support then it would most likely cost more than the LA's own special school.
I would be interested to know whether the 17.5 hours is the magic number which schools have to fund from delegate budgets and so the statement is not actually costing the LA any more.
You should ask for evidence that being in SS until age 7 improves outcomes. I bet there is none. Rather in USA the theory is the opposite - children should get specialist support when they are young and then if them demonstrate an ability to transfer to mainstream they do so from a position of strength and usually part of a gradual transition or even dual placement.
You could ask the LA to consider a dual placement now - that may remove any argument about access to mainstream peers
Will the school back you at appeal and agree that 17.5 hours is not suitable and they cannot meet needs / keep him, teachers or peers safe without FT 1:1? You do't need their backing to appeal but it helps
There is a good argument to say children should start off in the peer group they will grow up in. Plonking children with social communication difficulties in a peer group at 7 or 8 generally does not work as well as starting off younger because peers at that age are less interested in making allowances and have established their own groups.
IPSEA, NAS Education Line, Contact a Family and SOSSEN are all free advice lines.
If you are eligible for legal aid then you can get a Solicitor to do the appeal for you.

gottalove, so sorry to here you didn't get what you watned in your statement. I have no experience of SSs but these charites are great for help with SENs SOSEN, IPSSEA,ACE.

I have feeling there are more - someone else will no doubt be along soon
Personally I coudln't get through to IPESA but got great advice from SOSSEN, and used IPSEA's website a lot.

ipsea or sos sen very good to get advice from. ipsea can be a nightmare to contact as so busy but they have an email service and they reply pretty quickly - also NAS have an education advice line

you should have the opportunity now to meet face to face with the lea and state the things that you are not happy with and why - the first offer of hours can be low to see if you accept - often they are then increased when the parent says they are not happy. if the lea do finalise the statement and name the school you dont want then the option to appeal to tribunal is an option but of course that means a lot of hard work and stress whilst it all goes on. dont stress too much - get some advice, contact the lea and get a meeting and try and negioate something that you are happier with - they may not budge but its worth a go. also make sure you get yourself a sen code of practice from hmso - they are completely free and will be your bible

Thanks so much for the advice this far - I saw the head teacher today who hasn't read the statement as it only arrived this morning but I outlined it to her and she said the school would be backing me up and supporting me as well as launching an appeal of their own. Have to say they have been brilliant and put lots in place to support both DS as well as ourselves.

Will sit down with a cuppa tonight and read through the given websites :-)

link here to the SEN code of practice document - there is a link on this page if you want to download it and also information on how to request a hard copy by post for free.

www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DfES%200581%202001

It's reassuring that your ds' current school are backing you. It might also be worth re-visiting the SS you'd like to ds to attend to see if the head there will also support your ds being a good fit at their school?

Don't worry too much that proposed statement is crap - sadly par for the course, but just keep negotiating and re-writing while you appeal, hopefully they will cave before you get to tribunal.

Just to be clear - school cannot appeal the contents of the Statement. Only the parents can do this.

Just in case you thought you'd rely on school appealing rather than lodging your own appeal

Thanks Wet August - clearly the head got her facts wrong! I'll be lodging an appeal first thing Monday morning, do I just launch an appeal or is it best to ask to meet them to discuss it first?

Ask them to finalise the Statement ASAP, outlining at the same time the reasons why you want SS rather than MS (OR why you want full time hours) and explaining you want it finalised so that you can appeal to the SEN Tribunal. You go on the Tribunal website and fill in the forms, ready for receiving the final Statement. Then you appeal to the SEN Tribunal as soon as you receive your copy of the final Statement. At this stage, they often back down quite quickly - four times here, rather than go to Tribunal; they make the decision that they should have made in the first place and save money that way as they've delayed and delayed . Good luck.

Meeting usually just adds to the delay. You can meet them once the appeal is in - it's considered good practice for them to listen then, like mediation. They take you much more seriously once an appeal is in, as they know you ain't going away .

The Head can't appeal formally, but they can still be a pita to the LA and support your case if they have the will. I woukd recommend underplaying your strength of feeling to the school so that they too work hard for the outcome you want rather than leaving it up to you.

When you meet with the LA take a copy of the Code of Practice with you, thumb through it many times so it looks well used and mark usefull pages with post it notes .I also highlighted a few important bits that I could refer to !

I had a meeting with LA when I had ds proposed statement and wasn't happy with the content - I'm sure that it helped that I at least looked like I knew what I was talking about. I challenged lots it the statement knowing that I was prepared to compromise on some things, it makes you seem more reasonable if you offer to give way on some points - it's all a game of negotiation...........

Good luck, my ds has asd with learning difficulties and started at special school full time last september when he was 3. LA tried to get me to accept mainstream which would never have worked!