Tribunal - what are the LA up to?

[inappropriatelyemployed]

OK, LA supposed to file their response to our appeal today and we have heard nothing.

This was an appeal from an AR in March which the LA did not make a decision on until July so we have already lost time.

Our head got a call to ask him for his views and he made it clear he agrees with the increase in hours we are asking for.

The LA said they want to send the EP in as they will need to get more evidence as it will have to go back to 'panel'.

He also asked about having the next AR in January (we were going to list it for March as that is when the last one was but the statement was issued in January).

What happens if they don't file a response by today or if they ask for more time? I am assuming they are going to try and use the next AR as a way of delaying things further.

An added complication is that our head leaves in April.

I meant to add that the response also says they'll be sending someone to get DS's views. This would terrify him.

I saw a pot on this last week. It's obviously part of he LA repertoire of scare tactics now.

How on earth can DS say how many hours of support he needs?

But then he does say he'd rather go to a big school where all the children have Asperger's so perhaps they'd like to hear about that. Of course not. They're only interested in gathering evidence against us.

They get more and more despicable.

On a post not pot obv!

my sons views were taken last week after a very big saga as ever person the LA wanted to do it was wholly inappropriate and the tribunal agreed with me. We had plenty of game playing and phone calls giving us 10 mins to decide to waive not being there as parents. we stood our ground and my friend was present - the questions were very basic and it took the woman doing it 2 whole hours to get his views. he concluded that he dodnt like scholl, wished playtime were 10 mins long and that he wanted to go to our school choice.

the other night i was on facebook and discovered that the person who took his views is also employed by the LA and is friends with everyone on the inclusion team plus the chief executive.

How ridiculous! I remember your post.

This is a typical example of poor LA practice which is about money and not about the child's needs. Exactly the sort of thing Edward Timpson was not interested in engaging with in our chat last week.

my son is only in school part time due to his anxiety - he was vomiting every day at school and at home so in june after seeing the GP he was signed off and now has a sick note for the afternoons. going part time has worked and the vomiting has subsided thankfully. however after the stress of school last monday and then having to go to a strange place and have his views taken for 2 hours, that evening the vomiting reappeared with a vengenance so much so that we had to keep him off school on tuesday - the autism outreach woman wanted to see him on tuesday to beef the LA case no doubt so she was very off with the school about him not being at school and commented that i had deliverately kept him off to prevent her from seeing him! this is the woman who says there is nothing wrong with him and cannot suggest a single thing to help him and yet when the head was in the same lesson he had his hands over his ears and was rocking backwards and forwards but somehow she forgot to mention this. just waiting now for their ed psych to decide to see him as we have now named our witnesses so they know we have a private ed psych - also have one of the principals of the academy attending so this will be a fun tribunal as their own OT against them, we have the school attending for us which leaves them their ed psych whose last report they refused to accept his recommendations! the joy of tribunal

The Tribunal info does say the LA must get the child's views if possible. I think this is a requirement. But I agree the way it is done is often inappropriate and I would always insist on observing.

yes it is important the child views are taken and the rules clearly state it must be done. its just how they sometimes go about doing it that is the problem. mine was a saga as they phoned up giving me 5 mins to make an on the spot decision which i then regretted. will not do that again but ask for time to consider things as the pressure was on them not us. the questions that were asked are very basic and im sure it is something that a teacher of a friend or even a parent could do easily.

It is the way they do it that is the problem as you say Agnes!

Dont know if this is any good, i had it bookmarked

"If the local authority does not send a response by the end of the time in which they have to reply, we can do a number of things, including barring them from taking further part in the appeal. Before deciding what to do, we will write to the local authority asking for an explanation of why they have not responded, or not responded in time. A tribunal judge will consider any reply the local authority gives and will decide what should happen. If the local authority is barred from further involvement, we will decide whether your case can be dealt with on the papers or whether there should still be a hearing, but without the local authority"

Sorry, only read the OP, just realised that Agnes had already said it.

The LA have to get your child's views. They don't have to send someone to get them.

I submitted a list of dated diary entries I had make of Ds' comments about school and about alternatives (I.e we visited a local school to hand in dd's nursery application. Ds saw the kids in the playground and threw a tantrum refusing to enter so I documented this as his views on big ms schools iyswim).

That was accepted as Ds' views by both the tribunal and the LA.

Thanks I will start recording these things and ask for a more child appropriate method of gathering these views if they press ahead with it. The EP is actually really nice and quite AS savvy but she is employed by the LA.

Thanks Claw. They have filed a response. It's just a crap one, listing the head as one of their witnesses when he thoroughly disagrees with everything they say.

Really! What does the Head think about that?

One thing i will say about childs views is that whenever ds was 'questioned' on the school premises (without my knowledge or consent 5 times) he would say that he liked school and was happy.

3 times the SENCO calling him to her office.

SW who was there to 'observe' ds, didnt observe at all, but took him to room and questioned him.

The LA even used their visual impairment team to question ds about his views on school. She was there to assess his vision!

He has told them - he is asking for the hours he provides to be represented in DS's statement and will give this evidence to Tribunal.

They know they haven't a leg to stand on so are completely unreasonable - trying to drag it out in the hope something changes.

That's what I love about this board - by sharing our experiences we can prepare others as they go through this. I wish last week I had been more on the ball as if I knew now what I didn't know then I would have handled things differently. I am sure I read that ideally the views of the child should be taken before the LA put in their response as the views should form part of the response. My LA left it to 48 hours before to make contact with a totally unsuitable person. I contacted ipsea and they advised me to say no and t copy in the tribunal in the email. The tribunal then issued an order which I wasn't expecting! The pressure then on LA hence why I then came under pressure. The child views form is very very basic so anyone could do it - doesn't need to be an LA bod at all. Still can't believe it took them 2 blinking hours to do it.

Nothing to say, but how stupid!

This is precisely what happens when there are no sanctions on LAs or at least they think there are not. We shall see.

Exactly the sort of thing Edward Timpson was not interested in engaging with in our chat last week.

Not sure if MNHQ will allow it, but I was thinking of putting a post before the next chat session if there is any and linking a separate thread where we could all discuss what we all want to ask and only post the agreed questions, so they can't pick and choose which questions they answer.

That would be a good idea limited of course to those who want to join in as others might rather do their own thing!