Last-minute tribunal shenanigans, or common sense?

[mariamma]

LA lady rings. Can I send them any recent assessments quickly cos DS going to be discussed at the first panel meeting of the term (Monday? But presume they'll mean the following week). Asked for it in writing: checked, expecting nil points, and to my great surprise, inbox has a more or less identical email.

I hope she's passing the truly enormous bundle to panel saying 'for goodness sake, rubberstamp my decision to SA so i dont have to read this lot'. Can't get through to IPSEA tonight. Need to decide fast. We dont have much new, tbh. Don't want to give anyone further scope to undermine our case, but on the other hand our county is well known for caving in 48 hours before tribunal....

Aargh I hate decisions like this. Couldn't they just add an evil or genuine emoticon to the emails [oop, maria now wonders where ds1 got his inability to read people's intentions from....]

Confused as to what decision you need to make - sorry! Can you explain?

So what is the tribunal for? is it to get them to assess or is it to change the proposed statement?

I am wondering what is best to do and depending on the reason for the tribunal there may be different pros and cons.

If it is for an assessment I would be tempted to send annotated reports ie a new parent submission saying he needs xyz as in parag1 page 2 of the report - picking out all the things that you want to highlight.

If it is to change the current statement I might be in two minds -depending on when the final submission date for tribunal is - ie have they got time to commission and receive more reports that may say something different to you.

Its a difficult choice. I Hope someone else will come along soon with practical experience as my LEA didn't really start talking to me properly until about a month before the tribunal and I submitted my final report and changes on the last day possible so that they couldn't refute them.

Sorry for confusion and thanks for the replies. Tribunal is 'refusal to assess' but its obvious from the evidence submitted already that he needs statement never mind just assessing (well to me anyway, but clearly panel thought differently).

Parent partnership man says the mahoosive file I originally photocopied and submitted to tribunal is more than most people send for challenging a rubbish statement or a note in lieu. LEA may thnk I have loads of extra stuff up my sleeve as well? (sadly not)

Decision was fax them our paltry extra evidence now and hope they will go back to panel and won't use it against us. Or play hardball and wait till last tribunal deadline for submission of late evidences.

What did you do?

I'd be of a mind to keep additional evidence on the basis that the original stuff was a clear enough case and should have resulted in a statement.

Having said that, I may have submitted ONE extra thing so that they aren't backd into a corner and have the way out of claiming that the one lane swimming certificate or whatever made all the difference.

Am still sat on fence. Was planning last min fax on Monday first thing. Star, like your idea, think will do the minimal extra info as suggested (havent got much more than recent Beaver badge to submit anyway but no harm to let LA keep sweating till deadline...)