Transferring a Statement

[Tiggywunkle]

I am a bit of a novice so bear with me!

We have just - minutes ago - been told that the SEN panel met today and they have granted our son a level M statement - I have been told thats the maximum support but Googling isn't helping to confirm this. Is that correct?

Secondly, we have been living on a knife edge because we knew we were going to panel any week now, but we move house in a weeks time, so thank goodness my son was on the list for today and its been granted.

Our informant told us that the statement is transferable which sounds like great news. Is it that simple? We were told by the new LEA that they may well have to start again if their LEA chose not to adopt it (believe me my first phone call tomorrow will be to them), but is this likely given its a brand new statement grant? I dont mind if we need to start again but its going to take ages to get all the professionals back on board, its more reports etc etc. I know we cant get Portage now until after Christmas for example.

BTW my son is 26 months - this is for nursery in September 2013.

I wouldn't worry then. It's a year away, and as long as you get the statement to them once it's completed, then they can decide whether they need to reassess before he starts. Plenty of time.

As a matter of interest, why in heck have they statemented a whole year in advance of the start date? His needs could have changed enormously in the intervening 12 months, are they going to have an annual review before he even takes up his placement?... How on earth is that going to work? Kids change so much at this age...

The LEA advised that it could take until Christmas to get this far - this has been much quicker, and then a few months in case we needed to appeal taking us to Easter to then start to employ someone - and get people like OT into the school early and assess after Easter. Apparently the timing was right. But yes, he will have changed massively in a year!!

Just to add our new catchment school nursery only takes September and part of Easter intakes so would effectively wouldnt have had a place for DS anyway as he's an end of summer baby. At least he hopefully will have a place held open for him now?

Which school? Sorry, bit dim. He isn't in a setting until sept 13 but they are going to employ someone before that?

Dd2's statement was started in the September for entry the following year. D you mean OT for accessibility visit? So that funding for adaptations can be arranged and adaptations made before start?

Statemented kids don't need places held open for them. They are top of priority list as long as named school.

There's no problem anyway. You have plenty of time, even if they reassess. Most LEAs will recognize/honour an existing statement until they have reassessed anyway, so even if you moved in June, there would usually have been no problem.

I usually only give an LEA a three month lead-in to arrival, and they have always coped. (Dd2 has cerebral palsy and we were an army family, so moved every year or two. We would never know where we were going until that point anyway, and so most of the health and Ed stuff was sorted in a couple of months. You have eleven, so there really won't be any bother). Have you got your existing med team to do all of the referrals to local professionals? Got the details of new therapy team etc? Our consultants were usually pretty good at doing letters of introduction and referral. Everything works slightly differently in different areas, so it can take a few tries to work out how OT and physio/slt work in a different area as well.

Thanks. No we haven't got anyone new set up - I have tried Portage but we can't get a place until January. I have spoken to SALT but no one has phoned me back (one to chase) and until we get new doctors etc I am guessing we can't get the other medical side of things sorted out. I know our HV is going to hand everything over when we go and she's very on the ball.

Its good to know that its been relatively easy for you to sort everything out each time you have moved. I hope we have a good transfer. It all feels a little scary right now with no professionals to move onto.

At what point do we name a school? If the nursery year group that DS is in, will be full by Easter....and he's due in September...will he just get a place anyway. The school are aware he is coming.

Our current LEA asked for the time to do OT adaptations, do some trial visits etc before DS started in September. I know vision and hearing teams were involved now for nursery too although I never quite understood why so soon.

It's all to do with funding for adaptations, so if anything needs to be done for Vi (ie painting specific colour lines on stair edges/ trip hazards etc) or hearing loops etc, then the funding can be arranged, and the adaptations implemented before start date.

Get your paed consultant to refer directly to the new paed consultant and ask the new one to refer to (list of required therapists). Then it should all happen for you. I usually just pick a gp clinic near the new house and call them and ask who the community paed is. Then call the paed's secretary to get full name, and address, and give that to the current paed.

I'm guessing you are already in discussion with early years area inco at new LEA, so do they already have a school in mind? The school will be named when the statement is finalized - and in order to have all the OT accessibility assessments done, they have to actually visit the named school (or the school that is likely to be named) - setting in the case of nursery. They actually assess the building in terms of personal requirement, so you would usually go with and they would note what needs to be done. And that would obv be in advance. Hand rail heights etc are quite personal at that age. Same for toileting.

Thank you. We dont really have a paed here :( Not one I know named to call. We see a random one once a year.

We dont have a choice of school if we want transport - which we do - so our DS has to go to his catchment school.

I have spoken to the new LEA today who have told us to ask our current LEA to pass the file across to them asap ready for their next panel meeting.
So that sounds fairly easy - certainly easier than us trying to access health services!! I am hoping our new GP can help set all those up. Asking who the community Paed is, is a good idea though - at least I could maybe then call them?

Definitely. Find out who the community paed is from the local gp and call their secretary to get address details etc.

Do you still see whichever paed is on duty at the hosp for annual check then? Not been transferred to comm paed? (They do it around two, ish, usually, I think dd2 was nearly three but we moved). I would contact the clinic secretary that you go to annually and ask who should do a referral on your behalf. Every area is a little different. Dd2 kept the consultant from scbu for two years...

It's pretty normal that the paed doesn't do much - but they are über useful for referrals etc. If you are lucky, the 'new' paed will want to do a thorough re-assessment. Moving to a new area is a really good way of making sure care does not stagnate... As long as you get the referrals in and don't sit on waiting lists!