Is a Portage report included in statutory assessmen?t

[Crawling]

You know during a statutory assessment the LA gathers reports do they get one from Portage? Who do they gather reports from?

You can ask them for a list. My LA gave me a list of who they were requesting information for DS1's SA. When DS4 had his SA, Portage provided a report.

Here, for a DC under preschool age, the Portage assessment forms the basis of the statement assessment...

But that's a new thing here, and I don't know if that's the same everywhere, and I don't think it's even the same here once DC's get to Preschool / Nursery age.

Yes, DD1 had 'Portage Outreach' and the Portage worker gave a report which became part of the appendices to the Statement.

Sorry to hijack again crawling you must be fed up of me .im in a similar situation I hope portage workers views aren't taken into consideration as she is the only person who thinks dd should attend a unit not ss.

Don't forget that YOUR views are equally as important.
When DS4 was a pre-schooler there was never any mention of a SS. We got a MS place. By the first half term he was already stressed by the Christmas term it was horrendous. Then we had a SALT come in, one that visited schools as opposed to the Early Years one we had previously. She observed DS for an hour, spoke with his 1-1 TA and CT. then wrote her report which she sent to me. I sat down and cried when I read it. She said that DS4 had a "communication age of a 0-5 MONTH old with 5-8 months emerging". I'd never heard of such a thing. I put a call into her and asked straight out "should DS4 be at that school". Her reply "what do you think?" I said that in my heart of hearts - no, but where should he go. The local ASD school wouldn't fit for him as he has complex difficulties including his deafness. She listed the alternatives, including his SS (about three times).
The upshot is that he got into that school after we looked at it. She had phrased the letter in such a way that it would be obvious that SS was the way to go, and it was a two minute decision at SS Panel to accept him.
So depending on how things are phrased depends on how they're interpreted. You also have an opinion and with that mind your parent views are equally important in my experience. (I have 2dc with statements and a 3rd doing SA atm).

Thanks all Autumnsmum im not fed up of you I know you are having just as hard a time with your Portage worker as I am. I too was hoping her report would not be included.

Portage workers seem a law unto themselves my one is insisting I go and have another look at a unit I've seen already .

You can't be forced to do something, autumnsmum. Say no, if you want to. She's a portage worker, not a statementing officer!

Absolutely! We looked at various SS, and followed DS4's lead. It was the only one that he seemed excited by and engaged with. The other two made him fretful.

Thanks everyone crawling how's it going with your dd.

Autumns its going great thanks Im in the process of filling out the appendix a form for statutory assessment, ed pych is recommending ms with full 1:1 so im hopeful that at worst ill get that which while ill be upset it wont be the biggest issue.

How far are you in the process of diagnosis and statements?

Thanks for asking dd got diagnosed with autism last summer aged two .the statementing process has been started and we've now got to decide where she's going to school.the ed psych and speech therapist say special school and portage worker says unit

It was for DS2, since they were involved with him, at the time.

I hope the Portage worker doesnt stuff things up for you. My advice is start logging anything that happens in sessions the reason I say this is my Portage worker told a downright lie to the ed pych in front of me. I dont know if there were others but she said my dd shows no evidence of repetitve play and I said what about the jigsaws she chooses every puzzle piece in the same order and she always chooses the fruit in the same order and she said yes but she doesnt do it with anything else. WTF.

Im not trying to scare you but even if your Portage worker tells the truth it will be useful to have a log of any problem behaviours experienced by Portage in order to get your point across if Portage worker tries to talk ed pych round to a special unit.

Thank you so much for the advice .I really appreciate it one of the things that got me was she observed dd at nursery and said she seemed like a typical classically autistic child.she then said she needs a unit for peer role models .She also said I'm being rigid about ss

Funnily thats exactly what my Portage worker said only that dd needed ms for peer role models and that I was too set on a special unit and wasnt seeing the big picture.

Do you think it's a standard line that portage workers are taught during training?is there any chance your dd will get the unit you want?

There is hope ed pych thinks dd too intelligent for a unit but I am going for the angle that it doesnt matter how intelligent dd is if her sensory issues stop her from being able to concentrate in a busy class of 30 then it wont matter how intelligent she is.

Im hoping that as OT say she has severe sensory issues that might swing it in my favour. Hears hoping.

I think my standard HV has been taught that line too - she is the ONLY person recommending MS Nursery/Preschool for DS3. The Portage assessor? SN Nursery class attached to the SN school. Specialist SN HV? SN Nursery class attached to the SN school. SN school HT? SN Nursery class attached to the SN school. SN preschool leader at the OTHER SN preschool in my town? Can't meet his complex needs here, SN Nursery class attached to the SN school. Ordinary HV? MS preschool with a bit of extra support as he needs 'normally developing children' as behaviour models.

Yes, because he's going to access so much of the EYF curriculum when he can't talk, can't follow instructions, is medically unsafe as all the other places 'haven't got enough staff' to clean every DC's faces and hands as they come in, to prevent causing DS3 to have an anaphylactic reaction that could KILL him...

I hate the role models line .The thing is the ss has a nursery attached at the moment I'm taking dd on two buses as local nursery said they were too busy and she wouldn't cope .i have a feeling weren't posh enough

Also meant to say staff at current nursery support ss and it was said that a failed mainstream placement for dd would possibly cause family breakdown as my son has autism and my do has mental health problems.

We sent DS4 to a gem of a nursery that was LA run. They only had 16 children per age 3plus and that meant that he could cope. MS reception suddenly seemed very overwhelming with too many children. When we chose the school there were 28 children, when it came for him to start the number had doubled to 56. He's now in a SS with 6 other children in his class and he is very happy.

Sorry to hijack again spoke to dds key worker atre school this morning and she feels dd defo needs ss . Portage worker has only met dd three times !

autumnsmum I really hope Portage doesnt mess things up for you.

D'you think it would help if portage actually saw your dd sort-of playing with a small group of SN or much younger dc? (rather than totally ignoring a large group same-age NT dc). Could you engineer such an occasion ?