So,I can't request 1:1 in part 3 because there are no reports to back this?

[zen1]

Is this right? Still trying to re-draft proposed statement, which Parent Partnership agreed was a load of shite. I want DS educated in mainstream with 1:1 support. PP have basically told me I've been stitched up by the ED Psych who wrote their report last Oct (based on the opinions of DS's specialist pre-school teacher who had only know DS a few weeks). In the report they recommended a unit placement and wrote the whole report from the perspective of DS going to a unit. They took this for granted, despite me and DP emphatically telling them we did not believe his needs would be met there.

The LA have ignored all other reports (ie Parental report and MS pre-school reports) which evidence the progress DS has made in MS (especially social progress), and only gone with the advice given by the (LA emplyed) EP. PP have told me that any changes I make to part 3 have to be backed by evidence from official documents. In other words, because no one has specifically documented that DS would benefit from 1:1 in MS, then if I write this, it would be inadmissible. But the EP report doesn't address the issue of support at all in MS because he has assumed that DS will be educated in a unit.

Could you go back to the LA Case Officer and ask that they redraft the proposed statement with a mainstream setting in mind. Then you could redraft that.

As I said on another thread, when I asked the SEN Case Officer what support DD would get in MS, the Case Officer said she'd have to completely rewrite the proposed Statement because she'd written it tailored to a SS.

Units are highly resourced. If a unit was accepted, then that shows that standard MS without support won't be adequate.

Gosh that is so obvious Lougle, but it hadn't even occured me to ask them to re-write it with MS in mind. Can they refuse?

I'm not sure, but you have a right to a Mainstream placement unless they can show that it is inefficient to the education of other children to do so.

Yes they can refuse, but tbh I think that a unit statement in itself is evidence of the requirement for 1:1 should you invoke your parental right and insist that a MS placement is named.

legal info on right to mainstream here

In effect you have a legal right to mainstream and the LA must put in the resources necessary for your child to be able to attend.

The tribunal cannot refuse except in the very rare situation where it is impossible to make it compatible with the education of other children for your child to attend.

So I would make it clear to the LA you will be appealing for mainstream and suggest the LA go back to the EP for advice on the steps which are necessary for your child to attend mainstream.

You can be forceful, the sort of children that cannot attend mainstream are not children who could be in a unit, they would be children with very high level needs.

Thanks once again for the advice (and the legal link, Agnes). I am usually a calm(ish!) person who can see my way through the crap, but the wording of the statement and the assumptions and leading way in which the covering documents are written has just made me so angry.

Don't be angry. Just accept that they thought your DS would have his needs met best in expensive, scarce, resourced provision and acted accordingly. You want MS, so they have to rework it.

That's all.

When we got our proposed statement, which was pants, I followed the advice on the various sites ipsea, sossen,etc. I also went through a typical school day timetable and identified what needs he would have throughout the day. I then sent the amendments I wanted to the L A. They increased the 1:1 to be full-time, including lunch times. It is hard to get the professionals to quantify what a high level of support is, but if you can work through with examples as to why support is needed it should help.