Good grief - statement arrived - why would they do this?

[badgerparade]

At a meeting this week current school confirmed that they cannot meet ds's needs and due to his high levels of anxiety it was agreed that we need to find another placement as soon as possible. We have transfer to high school next year so now will have to find a school quickly with a possible move again in September. We are looking at specialist placements so that he may be able to start straight away. The SEN manager was at the meeting and amended the sm afterwards. It is a lot more detailed than the current one though still has a few woolly words and recommendations from professionals missing . It does specify that he requires teaching from a teacher with significant experience of working with children with his specific condition and the same applies to his TA.However,the school named in Part 4 is the one where he's currently at where there is no expertise at all . There is a space for the high school to be named there from September.
Any ideas why a school that have admitted they can't meet needs would be named?
Also, there are no hours of support specified just that his provision should be enhanced by the allocation of a full time TA. I know the wording is dodgy but is 'full time' adequate?

my statement was exactly the same - school cannot meet his needs so name the school again and up his hours to 32.5 - why do they do this? wish i knew the answer - we are off to tribunal :-)

you can ask them as there is still time for it to be changed - i would ask tehm to be a bit more specific with hours - if fulltime is 32.5 then they shouldnt have an issue amending teh wording. they may have left the school the same as at this moment in time you do not have a school you want to name. it may well be that once you find a school, they will amend the statement again at that point as well. may be worth a call to the statementing officer to discuss your concerns

I suspect that this is because they're moving so quickly. The normal process is to produce a draft statement for consultation with you that does not name any school in part 4, and to invite you to say what school you want, and the statement should be finalised within 8 weeks. Are you sure this is a final amended statement and not a draft?

"Full time" for the TA seems adequate to me - it means presumably that he will have a TA for the whole time he is in school, including breaks and lunchtime.

It's a proposed amended sm and I have 15 days to respond when they then send the final amended sm.

confusing....you can't name a school within 15 days but you can't agree and sign with the current one on it either....I'm not sure who you should speak to though...Scotland works quite differently to England...IEP's, CSP's here...naming a school is irrelevant til it goes to a provision panel for decision making...and even then you don't need to know what school you are going for...it's just the decision to provide the funding/finance for the suitable provision...you get this decision first with or without naming a school and then you go to naming a school once it is found and a place has been offered by that school iykwim.

I secured the funding for an 'outwith ms provision' and then found the school which best suits my DS...they offered the place to him so then it is between the school and the ed dept budget/finance people to do the sums and create the contracts and put it in place.

naming a school is irrelevant until they have agreed the ed dept are prepared to finance the placement for a specialist provision which meets the needs of the pupil...it seems this isn't as straightforward for you in England though...I find it very confusing....is it really so different?

You send it back with your preferred school as the amendment for part4