Help with School

[Tibet]

I want to apply for a SA for my son. He has been diagnosed privately with hfa. I am going to the school next week again to discuss things with them. My last meeting was with teacher and senco over a month ago and we discussed getting an IEP set up for my ds and the school have given him cards to express himself when he is lovely or has a problem in the playground. I haven't heard anything from them with regard to the IEP so I will follow it up next week.
My DS has recently become very violent at home and yesterday I went to my gp about it. I'm covered in bruises. My gp drafted a letter to our pead saying that my ds needed an urgent appointment and we couldn't wait until July (which is our current appointment date) could I please be contacted with regards to seeing ds as soon as possible. I am hoping this happens as yet we haven't been diagnosed by nhs.
Should I wait for nhs diagnosis or at least further clarification before I proceed with the SA.
Ds school told me when I last spoke with them that unbeknown to me he was already on the SN register and was receiving group support with other children in the class. But nothing more specific to his needs. Ie communication and social differences.
We went for our first salt appointment a few weeks ago and I am still awaiting the report but after I told the therapist we had a private diagnosis she agreed her findings showed this.
Our private psych has recommended that my ds should be getting one hours support once a day within his ms classroom plus support put in place within the playground times. School say they cannot so this as they do not have the funding. They said a children that are more serious than my ds are struggling to get help. I found this rather offensive as just because my ds is not currently causing disruption at school and is well bahaved they think that he is less entitled to the support he needs to help him acheive his full potential.
Please can anyone tell me what they think I should do before I approach LA about SA. Should I be getting some more reports done or do you think I should go for it now. Can you reapply later on if they refuse is there a time limit you have to wait ? Of anyone has any advice is love to hear it. I'm just about to get my head stick into the code of practice and talk to ipsea now I have overcome the recent hurdles this is my next task. Thanks all in advance for any knowledge or experiences you can share

Hi, my dd has completely different difficulties to your ds but I am currently going through the req for SA. The best advice I can offer is to phone IPSEA they are absolutely brilliant. If you apply for SA you need written evidence. Include any school reports, salt reports, ed psych reports or private reports that support your case. If the lea refuse to assess you have the right to appeal. Also there is no time restriction upon when you can apply again for SA if they refuse to assess.
Good luck!

Thank you armani for your reply. I will get on to ipsea very soon. Good luck to you too

Thanks Tibet I've got a feeling I'm going to need it :(

'School say they cannot so this as they do not have the funding. They said a children that are more serious than my ds are struggling to get help.' Dd's school said exactly this to me! It angers me so much! The school now have to fund the first £6000 of any sen funding from their budget, they have the funds to do so! And with regards to other children I politely replied that I am acting in the interest of my dd, as she is my priority, I'm sorry if they misunderstood this.

It's awful and not right. The point about the £6k funding does that also apply to children who are not statemented ? Is it per child? It's really like a part time job isn't it trying to get our dc's what they deserve. We are strong and we will do it, I've got my battling gear on! Keep reading knowledge is power and right now my knowledge is limited so I need to get my head down. Really hope it goes well for you and yours

The £6000 is for children with or without a statement, who are supported through school action and action plus per child. There are four bands, with regards to funding, that a statement can provide. Band 1 provides no additional money whereas band four goes right up to independent schooling. However to get a statement with band one funding is usually difficult as the LEA often refuse to assess on the grounds that the school should be able to provide the provision needed from within there own budget (the £6000).

Ok thanks that's really helpful to me. So what happens if a child is not on school action or SA plus , the £6k does not apply. That's really useful info for me to start with - thank you. I need to find out it ds is on SA or SA plus as they are being quite vague about it .

So just so I have this right....if my ds is on school action (I know only for sure that he is on special needs register and getting group lessons and IEP on way) he as an individual should be getting help to the cost of £6k per year? Does the school have to prove this is being done, is it a legal requirement? Sorry for all the questions I know you have your own stuff to deal with - you don't have to reply I will get stuck In with it all. Thanks for info so far extremely helpful

The notional £6k is irrelevant.

If your ds needs help to make adequate progress, that's school action
If the school can't do it unaided, they need outsiders: School action plus.

And if they can't access outside help, then you request stat assessment to establish whether the council needs to step in with a statement.

Finances influence provision, but there are dc whose extra provision is cheap, but sufficiently technically challenging to need LA input.

If your son is on the sen register I would have thought he was at school action. Who ref to salt? With salt involvement he would be at school action plus.
Yes he should be receiving extra provision up to the cost of £6000, however the school have no legal requirement to provide this provision, it is based on their discretion of your sons level of need.

A statement is the legal document stating the provision that the named school legally have to provide.

At this stage though, it might be worth seeing if there are any other ways they can adequately meet his needs. Several ways to skin a cat etc.

Also asking the HT to confirm whether what you've been told is true. And / or approaching the governors with the problem.

Documenting baseline provision and attainment, finding good ways to track progress, demonstrating you're persistent, but also sensible and flexible... all likely to help school find an internal solution. And all very useful for tribunal, should that fail.

MumuDeLulu from what you are saying I will assume my son is on school action . He has a speech therapist come into school that has been organised by the nhs. He had a baseline appointment initially two weeks ago (the Paed referred him) and salt says he will need visits from a salt to the school to see tommy. Is this outside help? Sorry I haven't got a clue have I ... Who are the autism outreach people? Is this something that should come about once we go through the CDAC which we are waiting for and thankfully to my dr it should happen quicker.
Armani salt was referred by Paed so is this classed as outside help meaning ds is on school a room plus. I think the salt who will be seeing ds is assigned to his school do would this still be classed as outside help. Are we literally talking about someone who is not a school teacher or senco at school as being an outsider?
I will ask ht and ask school to confirm in writing what is what with regards to ds help at present.
What if the school don't agree with me about ds level of need? Thanks again

If your ds has salt involvement he will be on school action plus, as they are an outside agency.

An outside agency could be salt, educational psychologist, autism outreach, occupational therapist etc. Anyone who doesn't work in the school, who are asked to become involved with your dc.

Ok thanks alot. I appreciate your help and MumuDeLulu...you must think I'm a right numpty to know so little.

This is the problem I'm having, school do not agree with me about the level of support dd needs. Dd is 7 and in year 2. She currently has involvement from OT, ed psych and is being re ref back to salt. OT has recommended dd needs 1:1 support, school claim they can't fund this. Dd has a speech disorder and adhd. Salt keep discharging her as she won't engage with the therapy due to her concentration. This has impacted upon her reading and writing, resulting in no progress between y1 and y2. School currently provide constant support at a 1:5 ratio, despite this dd hasn't progressed. School say she has no concentration issues etc. so as I was unable to liase with them I have applied for SA.
I had a meeting yesterday with ed psych (who hasn't yet met dd) and she thinks the LEA will refuse to assess on the basis of dd hasn't received the 6k funding she should have, so how can I prove the school can't meet her needs within their own funding.

I am prepared to go to tribunal if I have to, and am about to start obtaining my own independent reports if the LEA refuse to assess.

Oh I really hope you get it sorted armani. As you know I'm not up on any of this bit won't LEA ensure that school are spending the funding given before they look into it if u apply for SA. So if the school arnt doing what they should then the LEA might give them a kick up the butt.

Tibet, it's a full time job dealing with SN staff, and we all need a training period .

School might have £6k notional funds, but if (for example) they have no clue how to spend it productively, a dc can still need a statement.

Ye

Sorry posted too early...
I really hope the LEA sort things out for these children. I understand what your say about the school not knowing how to spend the funding...sorry I didn't mean to sound blatant I know you guys know far me than I do. It is a full time job isn't it. So stressful too on top of the stress we already experience. Sometimes I feel like I could break down my ds behaviour is so out of control.