Statement funding question

[claw2]

Probably a very silly question

How does the funding work when a statement is issued?

Do schools get a set amount or is it based on the individual statement?

Sorry I should be more clearer with my question, with ds they are funding a place at indi school

but with provision such as continued access to SALT, adult support to him understand tasks, help with dressing and toileting, social skills programme and one to one support to help implement programmes, learning programme designed by SALT etc, etc.

I know provision is quantified or specified, however will the LA provide funding for this too or is it part of the funding for the placement?

Does the indi school not cover all these as a part of the fees charged? I think with indi they pay the price that it costs. My daughter has school fees that are set according to the SALT and OT input that she has as a part of her school week. These fees are different to those in the school that do not need one or both therapies. The OT and SALT was written into the statement however at the frequency that it is being provided. The LA fund it all.

The LA will agree a package of support that your DS needs. That will be funded by the LA, either through bringing NHS SALT in (most likely) or private SALT (unlikely), etc., paying extra for TA support if it isn't part of the school's usual package, etc.

When the LA sent your DS's proposed statement to the school in question, they would have said 'can you meet needs?'. The school would say 'not from our base fee.' The LA then says 'what would you need to meet needs?' From there the fee is calculated.

I have been wondering a bit about this too. My DS got a statement in March, it included a degree of one to one support (not as much as we requested so we are appealing to Tribunal but that is a separate issue) yet there has been not a peep from them about any money. We have had precisely nought pounds from them so far (we fund everything ourselves and have had to continue to do so). It is very frustrating. We have, in April, with the help of our legal advocate FS, issued a proposed funding agreement, but have had no reply at all. It is like the LEA is a black hole into which you fire requests, appeals, evidence etc and they are all just absorbed without trace....

Thanks the indi school has SALT and OT on site.

However the SALT support isn't quantified and specified, just very vague, as is the rest of the statement.

Which got me wondering whether indi schools were funded as a package. I will ask the school, exactly what support ds will get.

Can I just ask, when other people have had funding for various things agreed on their statement, how has the money come and when? As I said above, we have had various things agreed on our statement but there has been no money forthcoming for any of it and no reply at all to letters asking for the actual funding to be provided, in over two months.

The indi school should say what the fees cover - ie DS1 is entitled to 2 sessions with SALT or OT as part of the fees (doesn't need to be s & q) but any additional sessions are given and funded by the LA according to what is in parts 2 and 3.

It is also not usual for there to be both small classes and 1:1. 1:1 is seen to be needed in order to cope with the size and complexity of m/s. Most of the staff will be used to assisting with toileting/dressing etc. Anything greater than this would need to be in parts 2 and 3 to be funded.

It is important to find out what support there will be. If there is nothing included in the fees it will be up to the discretion of the school to provide unfunded therapy.

The danger is that no support will be s & q and therefore no support will be given. Any progress that is then made will 'prove' that he is able to progress without support and does not need onsite OT and SALT. You need to be able to argue that progress is a result of support that is not available in the m/s to keep placement. This is why class size, specialist teachers, specialist qualifications, SALT, OT, counselling etc are all written into parts 2 and 3 according to the head of DS1's indi school.

Hours don't have to be specified if it says things like 'immediate access to onsite clinical psychologist' for example.

Does the school have suspended OT equipment? Is use of this one of ds' needs? If so, very few MS will have it, or a sensory trained OT.

Its all been very rushed, school have just said 'can meet needs' but according to statement, he doesn't have any needs, although the professionals reports they have attached to the statement, say the opposite.

So I need to get onto the school and find out how they intend to meet his needs.

Will a simple 'what will be included in the package of support for ds' be enough or do I need to ask more?

I would phone them. He has done the evaluation so it is reasonable to expect that they mean they can meet the needs they observed rather than the needs according to the statement. It is best not to assume but to ask them directly.

The statement will be legally binding on the school and they are not obliged to provide any support that is not detailed in that document. It's up to them. If the fees are individually set according to provision detailed in part 3 they would need to be willing to provide potentially thousands of pounds worth of therapy. I can't see that they would be willing to do this without up-to-date assessments. Will the school be carrying out its own SALT and OT assessments?

Interventions need to be tribunal proofed - ie assessed needs - targetted interventions - measurement of progress etc and above all recorded in case the question of placement does come up in future.

Keep, no one can carry out assessments of ds at the moment, he just refuses to participate, gets really stressed and breaks down. CAMHS have advised against it too.

I have asked the school to carry out careful observations of him and record any difficulties.

I will be having a meeting with school and professionals in 2 weeks, to discuss 'what will be helpful for ds'. Ds will only be going for one half day this term and he will have full time one to one support for that time. So I will make sure I am prepared for that meeting and with any up to date info and recommendations I do have.

DS' school don't have any additional fees. It is a standard price. DS has had two terms of individual SALT on top of his 5x a week group communication therapy run by a SALT. The individual therapy isn't in his statement, but the school thought it was necessary atm in order to help him get the most out of the group therapy.

Before that he didn't have any 1:1 SALT for 2 terms.

He might get art therapy or counselling if they think he needs it (And parents ask for it probably).

It's such a tricky thing, because as you are most likely aware, you can have 1:1 SALT in a statement and a school not delivering on it with very little power of the parents to even become aware of this and secondly challenge it.

Initially the school said they had concerns about meeting ds needs due to the level of anxiety about school he had and thought he might be better off in a much smaller environment.

However after ds spending 2 half days there with his tutor, they have said yes can meet needs.

I don't know whether that was a pre-warning to the LA to leave the door open or if after meeting ds they changed their minds.

I think they were expecting a very disruptive child, by his teachers comments to me. What they got was a extremely passive and quiet child.

Without seeming picky, be careful to view this from the right angle. You shouldn't be concerned about funding, rather provision.

You need to make sure that Part 3 has the provision your DS needs. I understand that the LA don't want to make changes at this stage. I also understand that Part 2 essentially says 'typical kid'.

What does Part 3 (the provisions) say? What provision is stated?

Carefully planned transition

learning plan advised by ASD outreach and SALT

differentiated curriculum to meet his language and social needs
instructions support by visuals

ongoing support to develop his convo skills, via social comm group accessed weekly

School staff to put in place strategies for self esteem and anxiety.

social stories and access to SEAL curriculum or other equivalent self esteem groups and programmes to support self esteem

continued access to SALT, with SALT advise on setting IEP's

Twice yearly planning meetings senco, SALT and AS team

assistance with dressing and toileting

adult support to help understand and complete tasks

change of routine gradual

quiet place to retire to and familiar adult

help to manage his emotions and anxieties

social skill training programme. This should include structured programmes and one to one support and small group sessions.

Explicit teaching of social understanding and unwritten social rules and social vocab.

Activities to build his motor skills.

That statement wording doesn't give him any direct SALT, does it? 'Continued access to SALT, with SALT advice on setting IEPs' can be boiled down to a SALT phoning the class teacher to tell them to put x on an IEP.

Why is he only going one half day this term? Does this mean that he will effectively be out of school for the rest of the academic year and be stuck with 5 hours tuition? Do you think that this is best for him? What does he want?

Cynically speaking it appears that the LA have agreed to fund indi with no additional support, you waive your right to appeal parts 2 and 3 in order to finalise but he doesn't actually attend until Sept.

You have said yourself that you don't think that you have a very strong appeal case atm. You need to make sure that spend the next six months building a strong case rather than relying on out of character LA 'generosity' to waive their usual requirements. I started off with a crap statement that did not identify all needs or make adequate provision but then got all that I needed to make parts 2 and 3 strong. You need to do this to make sure that DS's educational future is stable.

Perhaps rather than thinking he will be safe because it is rare to move a child from indi you should imagine what parts 2 and 3 of the statements of such children look like. Ask the school whether most DC remain there or are 'reintegrated' into the m/s state sector.

It doesn't give him any direct anything, but SALT and OT reports I have which do recommend direct SALT and OT are out of date.

I have 2 EP (LA and indi) reports, neither of which could do assessments and CAMHS report which basically says that social interaction, lack of social understanding etc and his inability to express himself verbally is responsible for his anxiety and self harm.

One half day this half term????

What on earth is the point in that?

So im kinda stuck, I don't have up to date SALT or OT. Ds is currently refusing to participate in formal assessments. CAMHS are advising no more assessments.

I think its just a case of making the best of what I do have for now and a place at indi school is a start, with much smaller classes, more experience and more expertise on site. I have the meeting in 2 weeks too.

one half day a week

They might be out of date but your ds deteriorated since then so he's hardly going to need less.

I think it is reasonable to write as I mentioned about, that the statement does not Q&S which it must do soon, but the flexibility that this allows is appropriate for your ds considering the failure of the LA to meet his needs so far and the subsequent deterioration in his mental health, as it isn't yet clear what provision he will be able to access until some time in a stable environment with suitably qualified and experienced staff.

I think you can also mention that when his statement is reviewed, you are expecting to revisit those recommendations and have them included in the statement. Say that you are grateful that the LA is seeing this from the same perspective as you and hope that their agreement for ds to be educated in x indi school enables him to improve to the extent that his statement is amended to be specified and quantified.