Ds has been offered a place at Indi school. Some advice needed quickly please

[claw2]

Statement is still in draft form.

Indi school are saying they can meet needs. LA are saying they will fund indi school.

Do I just agree the statement?

Great new re independent school saying that can meet needs.

Would however wait until the statement is in your hands before agreeing to it.

Attila, LA funded ds's trial period at indi school. Indi school have written to LA offering ds a place. LA will probably say they cannot agree to fund, until I agree the statement.

Statement is crap, but indi school are saying they can meet needs.

Have you been to see the indi school?

Personally I'd let the school see the proposed statement and ask them to flag up any glaring omissions to me informally first as once you approve it further funding won't be forthcoming iykwim.

belt and braces + covering my back has become second nature I suppose

Yep ive been to the school. Ds has been for a couple of days etc.

School had a copy of the draft statement before ds went there and said they were worried they couldn't meet his needs. After ds went for a couple of days with full time one to one, they have said they can meet his needs.

Ask the school, what information needs to be in the statement that will make it glaringly obvious that they are the only school able to meet his needs.

Ask if they could send you anonymously the statement of another child from your county as an example.

Great that they met him and felt they could help.

It sounds though they are behind the idea tbh. And the fact that they funded a trial would indicate to a tribunal that they at least felt it would be a likely option. It does strengthen your case.

However, if a cheaper/state school is able to say they can meet his needs from the statement then that is where he will end up iyswim.

Are class sizes smaller? If so, this should be in.

Do they have an onsite Psych that can be summoned quickly. If so, that could be in too iyswim. Something like, ds needs to be in a placement with an oncall Psych due to his anxiety issues etc.

Crap statement with a decent school in part 4 is no protection.

Part 4 alone would be quite easy to change by calling an early annual review, and saying what school is doing got him over the temporary 'school refusal' and 'separation anxiety', but indie SS now unnecessary and there's nothing in parts 2 and 3 which another school would lack.

They can finalise a statement and fund a school without your agreement. You then have 8 weeks to decide whether to appeal or not.

If LAs were forced to wait indefinitely for 100% parent agreement on every bit of every statement, they'd never get anything done. The point of tribunal is they're allowed to write whatever the hell they want, and only a formal appeal can enforce changes.

Could you write up your dream statement?

Show that to school with the current one, and then send LA your proposed, asking them to bear it in mind and then hurry up and finalise.

What the others have stated as well.

If statement is crap never ever accept it. Crap statements are just as bad as having no legal protection at all. It needs to be right first time its issued.

LA will have to get the statement content right; after all they know the law and ignorance of same is no excuse.

Im currently writing my draft. The draft they have supplied just tells of all the progress ds has made and totally ignores or does not mention his difficulties.

The weakness I have, is that I don't have a recent OT or SALT assessment. The LA EP report, ds refused to be tested. My indi EP didn't even attempt to formally assess ds.

So any formal assessments are out of the question, they just raise ds's anxiety and he just refuses.

Im a little confused as the documents that the LA have supplied with the draft. They list reports which they have relied on the draft, but then enclose loads of other reports with the draft which haven't been used or listed?

The LA also seem to being 'reasonable' they have written to me asking if I intend to make further representations.

That's because you have a right to comment on the statement. They don't have to take anything you say into account so it shouldn't hold things up.

You need to be able to refer to evidence of need if you are asking for things to be specified and quantified. Even if they are slightly out of date, I would refer to the OT/SLT etc as it is the only evidence to hand.

Insert into the draft the amendments you feel represent provision which is critical for him irrespective of his school placement

They have refused to give me a working document, so im having to rewrite the whole thing. Which isn't a problem as under every heading all they do is refer to progress.

They did write to SALT (who hasn't seen ds for 2 years) for an 'update'. Again this doesn't help, as SALT attended school twice in 3 years, didn't provide any programmes as she should have and discharged ds.

So most 'recent' advice from SALT (which was gained for SA) is that ds doesn't need any direct SALT input.

I do however have recent report from LA EP, who reports that ds had difficulty with his vocab, needed time to respond and needed SALT input.

So one contradicts the other.

I would put in a section headed parental views into part 2 and add there all the difficulties left out elsewhere. I would try and get objectives and provision into 3a and 3b to cover these. I would be upfront with LA and say while you want the place and accept indi school can meet needs the current statement does not provide enough protection as needs are not recognised. I would say your concern given the history with LA is if the needs are not recognised at all then LA could turn round in 6 months and withdraw placement on basis needs don't exist. I think if you explain why it's important to you they are in there then that may help. You could say you are happy for some general ref to needs, objectives and provision goes in now but with a view to elaborating on this once indi school is in position to report at next review. I would say you feel the statement is vague but subject to (add your deal breakers) you will accept it as the evidence is limited but on proviso a more detailed stmt is written next review. I wouldn't normally make concessions but you just need the statement issued and the place funded. Once he is in then hopefully you will have a school backing you. If LA starts games again then you will have written evidence you agreed the piss poor statement under sufferance and never felt it was accurate. Then you and indi school can work together before next review. I think the advice to get a perfect statement is good advice but I also think given all you have been through you just need to get the best you can now and an agreement to flesh it out at next review. Talk to indi school and ask them to write careful obs for first few months to ensure difficulties recorded. For eg really detailed ieps setting out all his difficulties would be difficult for LA to ignore. I think you are right they won't change much as no indep evidence which is why if you put it under parental views they can't complain. Sometimes parents are the only ones who see certain behaviours.

Good idea Agnes, I am under a lot of pressure to get ds back to school and the LA at the moment are looking utterly reasonable for agreeing to fund the indi school. I will look totally unreasonable for prolonging ds's return to school.

However, I am very worried that once in school (any school) ds's difficulties will be overlooked yet again, as he is so passive and complies, overly so. He then just starts self harming at home and I get the old school are capable of addressing his anxieties, its just mum who cant, lets get mum some help!

I think even from the limited amount of 'recent' reports, a better statement could be made. The LA have ignored any difficulties identified within these reports. Any school could meet ds's needs with the draft statement, as according to draft, he doesn't have any!

According to draft he has no communication and interaction needs. No cognition and learning needs. Behaviour, emotional and social development they have ignored recent reports that school environment is responsible for his self harm and go on to slag me off based on no reports whatever ie 'it was noted by attendance officer that ds's mother had apparently made a decision to remove him from school without consulting her' (not true, I had numerous phone calls with her and a home visit, she was the one who suggested home tutoring and sent along a representative!) . sensory and physical needs none. Medical conditions none.

I am sitting here, looking at the statement, thinking why on earth has this child even got a statement.

There is no need to prolong things. If they won't agree to add things, they won't agree. They must know this case like the back of their hands now!

Set out the key essential, couldn't live without provisions - as Agnes says the dealbreakers - you wish to see in the statement and ask them to insert them into the statement based on the well-established evidence

Ask for an electronic copy of the draft to write amendments on and ask them to do immediately so not to cause further delay.

IE I have asked for an electronic copy of the draft and they have refused in writing.

I had already re-written the draft statement, was just waiting on school's decision. I can fine tune and hand deliver ASAP. The draft is just a load of waffle and contradictions and doesn't identify any needs. I don't think there is a paragraph that should be left in, they have just taken any positive comments from all reports and totally ignored any difficulties identified within the same reports.

I did as you suggested Agnes, I gave them a copy of my draft, with proviso and asked them to finalise and fund.

Fingers crossed, thanks.

Ok hope it works. Congratulations on the placement by the way! I think they have made it so personal about you anything you say will be ignored. But like you say if you appeal on wording it buys into their unreasonable mum argument. You have said in writing its inaccurate so you have covered yourself. Any later tribunal will see what you have been through and understand why you just went along with it. Concentrate on getting school on board - it's in their interest to show he needs the place. Next time round you and school can present a united front. You also need a break from this. Sometimes you just have to aim for good enough. Any tribunal will know a LA would not fund indi school if no need for it. Or look favourably on a LA moving a child from pillar to post who has 2 failed placements already. It's rare once a child is in to move them out again unless indi school rec it.

It might be as simple as the proposed being originally drafted back when they were planning to say "no" to indie SS, and they're happy to have a better document now they know that ££ have to be allocated.

School had a copy of the draft statement before ds went there and said they were worried they couldn't meet his needs. After ds went for a couple of days with full time one to one, they have said they can meet his needs

Agree with star that it's useful to know what school want in the statement. Because the funding can vary quite a lot, it's not always the same for each child, unless the LA is happy for all therapies etc to be bundled together and averaged out.

Can you write asking LA to finalise so he starts before summer holidays?

Agnes so many lies have been told by most professionals. No one wants to take responsibility and admit to failing a suicidal, self harming 9 year who is in such a state he can no longer attend school.

SALT for example simply did not provide programmes or attend meetings. They cannot supply copies of programmes or records of meetings, as there wasn't any, nothing on school file or FOI requests, BUT they continue to write that SALT supplied programmes and attended regular planning meetings and even had regular contact with me! The same goes for most other professionals involved, they supply inaccurate info to cover themselves.

Ds has been attending school, unable to eat or even use the toilet, without even the most basic support in place such as a social skill group.

Then school and LA professionals have been supplying outside agencies such as CAMHS and social service with inaccurate info, rather than saying ok we fucked up.

I really feel when faced with those odds against ds and I, a placement at an indi school is a miracle and I need to grab it with both hands NOW and worry about what the future holds after.

Mareey, I have written asking that statement be finalised and funding provided as a matter of urgency. Ds had two very good half days there for assessment (his home tutor went with him) and I feel it very important that this be consistent, before he starts full time in September (he cannot attend on a full time basis yet due to anxiety)

I think you might be right about the miracle. . . I really can't see any logical explanation for why (having been so absolutely out-of-touch-with-reality) the LA might have changed their view so suddenly and completely.

Course, if, having got him in the door with a rubbish statement, the school was to suggest a need for some changes to the wording, you would still have 8 weeks plus the summer holidays to make a final decision about appealing parts 2& 3 .

And in some ways, a statement full of "need for regular contact" with various lying incompetents unsuitable sources of input might be the last thing you need.