Urgent advice needed on proposed statement - deadline is Thurs!

[sleepyhorse]

Hi

Having a bit of a panic re the proposed statement that has come through for my 4 yr old son who has a severe language disorder. He is hopefully going to a local mainstream school with a language ARP in September which is designed to help kids with speech and language issues.

The problem I have is that the statement is only offering 10 hours additional support per week and 10 hours per term speech therapy. I think the hours for the speech therapy is probably ok and pretty standard but I have been advised that he will need at least 25 hours per week additional support if he is to stand any chance of catching up and particating in the national curriculum. The SENCO lady at his nursery is telling me to write a nice letter asking for 25 hours and explaining the reasons why.

Meanwhile my ABA consultant is saying to me not sign the form and to just email them threatening them with legal action as this is more likely to get me what I want as just the legal threat itself should terrify them enough to give in. If follow this advice though it's going to prolong the process and my son will be starting school in Sep and probably won't even have any support if the final statement isn't in place.

Just really don't know what to do. Need to decide in next 24 hours. Can anyone with more experience than myself advise. Would be so grateful. Thanks!

Write to the LEA to say that the number of hours that they have put into the statement is insufficient and anything else important that you think that they may have left out is missing from it.
Say that you would like to meet to discuss this.
At least this gets your reply in in time and gives you time to "re-write" the statement yourself which is effectively what you will have to do.

I presume you mean the deadline is the 15 days since you received the proposed Statement?

If you are not happy with the Statement they all you have to do is respond within the 15 days stating that you'd like a meeting to discuss it. You don't actually have to provide your reasons (by Thursday).

The LA should then offer you a choice of 3 appointments to meet and discuss your concerns.

Unfortunately your threat of legal action is unlikely to make them deliver the additional support you require or increase the SALT. LAs are quite content to drag cases to Tribunal to try to avoid having to pay out for expensive. The provision. The SENCO is being rather over-optimistic that a simple letter will sway them.

But that's the type of issue you can discuss at your face-to-face meeting with the LA. You'd need evidence that additional support is actually required so have a look at the Appendices attached to the proposed Statement to see if school / EP etc reports support your demands. If not, and if you're unable to persuade the LA to provide that additional support, you'd need to appeal to Tribunal with private EP reports to bolster your case.

Before you could proceed to a Tribunal the LA would have to finalise the Statement i.e. issue a Final Statement. The provision shown in that Final Statement must be delivered as soon as the Statement is finalised so some support would be in place by Sep. LAs work throughout the summer holidays so you could remain in discusions with them throughout the summer. Having a Final Statment and lodging an appeal doesn't halt the discussion process - the Tribunal would expect you and the LA to try to reach an accommodation.

It's only when LAs know that you are serious enough to take this all the way to Tribunal by lodging an appeal, that they start taking you seriously.

Thanks so much for your advice. That's really helpful. I will call them tomorrow and tell them I need to discuss it.

Don't call - write (or at least send an email). You need a record that you did respond by the deadline.