Response to Proposed statement

[salondon]

Hi

My 3y8m old wont be starting reception till sept 2014. She got the diagnosis for Autism after I had started the statementing process. In my original request I asked for 1-1 shadow and I now have the proposed statement. It says pro-rata 25hrs/week 1-1 term time only.

Now, Since I have the diagnosis, and we are running an ABA program, how do I ask them to 'covert' that 1-1 shadow to ABA tutor? I am more than happy to get a %age of my tutoring fees paid

Tips?

Thanks

What does it say exactly?

You won't get the TA changed to ABA tutor if the intention is that that TA is more like a hands off extra pair of hands for the teacher in general.

Or does it say 25 hours per week 1:1 exclusively for your child?

It says:

The intention would be for DD to continue at xyz day nursery until the end of the Summer Term. Also intend to seek a place for DD at xyz day nursery from September 2013 with 25 hours pro rata, term time only Special Support Assistance.

I think you are right, it does not say its 1-1

this is NOT 1:1. You need to have something like - dd gets 1:1 exclusive TA support for term time.

Also, do remember an ABA tutor is equal to level 3 TA/LSA that gets paid 18 gbp per hour. A level 2 TA/LSA gets paid 11 gbp per hour and a normal TA (dinner lady) gets paid about 7 gbp per hour.

I know Zumba.. I got carried away on Saturday:)

I am told that the level 3/2/1 is a LEA specific terminology and since all I am getting is a Special Support Assistant, these Levels wont apply anyways. I am beginning to think that ABA is a long shot

You need to fight for 25 hours 1:1 of a highly trained TA in the first instance. Then you need to specify that parents are a part of the interview process. You can insist that the TA will be following evidence-based practice and has knowledge of the science of learning as the recent published reports show children with SEN do badly with non- education-specialist LSAs.

You can back it all up.

Thanks everyone.

A very helpful NAS volunteer helped me last night with this. I now have my list of changes ready and framing a response to them.

I can tell we wont get ABA in this assessment. Hopefully in 6 months time I will have enough evidence

Question - At the back of this statement " The intention would be for DD to continue at xyz day nursery until the end of the Summer Term. Also intend to seek a place for DD at xyz day nursery from September 2013 with 25 hours pro rata, term time only Special Support Assistance. "

Can I ask the Local Authority to tell me what the 25 hours pro rata, term time only Special Support Assistance will cost? say they come back and give me £p And them refuse that help and simply invoice them the same £p for my ABA tutors, who I hire? essentially, it wont cost them a penny more, but that money will be better utilised. Or I am being too naive?

... And I then refuse...

You won't be able to do this in that way. They have to specify the SEN provision that meets needs. They can't specify provision then say that they won't provide it.

Lougle, its in the proposed statement, nothing final yet. So, if I went back to them and said that instead of putting the "Special Support Assistance" in the statement, they can put "fund n hrs ABA at y rate" such that the financially its not any more burdening on them, would they agree?

OR

If I let them put "Special Support Assistance" and asked my day care to invoice the LEA for say £p(whatever the LEA says the cost of the assistant is) and then pay £p to my ABA tutor (who will go in the day care) and I then top it up - is that allowed?

Am I making sense?

Section 8:80 onward of the SEN CoP details lots of variations of statement provisions. It does discuss part funding, so you may well be able to negotiate that.

Understood.. TA