Dealing with professionals...

[StarlightMcKenzie]

I moved LAs because if the vindictive and malicious nature, not to mention ignorant and law breaking nature of the one I was in.

I had no hopes of the new one, only of starting again. I was expected battles at every turn and bullying so have refused to engage mostly. However, the service I HAVE used have been the usual over-stretched, under-trained blah blah blah and there are immense culture problems but the pure HATE isn't there, and refusal of services is met with relief and a respectful no further questions.

I just want people to know that moving CAN make a hellova difference.

Other professionals could see it, my GP signed ds off from school because of it and OT visited us at home too, but seems as soon as a child is released from hospital, it then becomes a 'home' problem and professionals want to wash their hands of it. OT tried to discharge ds and prepared some bogus report about what great progress ds was making, despite being hospitalised and signed off school and my GP referred to CAMHS.

Then its oh referral to CAMHS to help the 'family' cope, rather than an educational problem or a problem requiring other professional support.

Seems the only difference between an obvious physical difficult and any other difficulty is they cant blame the parents.

we gave birth to em, so obviously it's our fault /snark

However we "get over" that, while some pros never forgive us it seems.

Currently cross at more info withholding shenanigans today so feeling a bit cross. It's for the only area where DS has made any progress over the last year, so frankly can't see why school would want to hide it, except to be silly.

Bochead - very articulate post about the link between health and education.

I think this really changes the way children are dealt with. NHS depts often clearly don't want to be dragged into school issues and confrontational debates about the level of a child's needs or run the risk of attending Tribunals so they will try and duck out. Also, the NHS is allowed to ration services to health priorities whereas the Education Act does not allow this so there is a natural conflice there.

Those working under block contracts actually have it spelt out in the contract - you will attend Tribunal for LA. This makes the battlelines very clear.

Claw I can imagine that, in hospital, there is a clear system to school children attending, outside, you are just at the whim of the LA who, as usual, will say 'fight us for it, prove it, or you're not having it'

I absolutely agree with you Bochead that much of the provision delivered in schools could be and perhaps should be delivered outside and probably more effectively. Imagine real life social skill groups outside school rather than sat in some corridor with some reluctant TA.

Just because the provision is educational doesn't mean it needs to be delivered in the school.

I don't think there is any evidence at all for 'social skills groups'.

You can't learn social skills that way, in isolation.

Find a subject the child is motivated by and then find some other kids that are motivated by that subject and then sit them in a room together ffs.

The problem with schools is that they are considered irrelevant and/or boring at best and frightening and stressful at worst. Not exactly contusive to practising social interaction.

The do social skills lessons in ds' school. But there are six children, all with similar interests and issues and they have a laugh watching each other practise the skills and commenting on the performance of each other and watching themselves of video.

They do 'whole body listening' for example which ds tells me is so that the OTHER stupid person can tell you are listening not because it makes you listen any better, and you have to do this so they don't get cross or make you listen for longer because they think you weren't paying attention.

The other key corrupting intersect I see in my mental flow diagram of service provision is the LA's role in the statementing process.

To have the same body responsible for the assessment & articulation of services needed as is responsible for funding of service delivery was always going to create a sense of internal conflict within that body. The fact that in many LA's it is the same PERSON responsible for both tasks & that individual promotion prospects depend on delivery of the second, and that a blind eye is turned to blatant law breaking in relation to the first requirement is just warming the petri dish of corruption that so infuriates us.

An honest SN process would separate the statement writers (and the EP's that inform them) completely from the funding body of service provision at a minimum.

A similar detangling of conflict of interests needs to occur for NHS staff and any others subject to the whole block contract process.

IE its exactly the same service for hospital, that is now providing home tutor for ds, the medical needs centre.

The same tutor, who is tutoring ds was also tutoring a little girl at home while she was recovering from surgery.

So seems recovering from surgery and unable to attend, you get home tutor. Recovering from self injury and unable to attend, you don't.

The only difference I can see between the 2 is you can blame parents/fob off to another service ie CAMHS and get out of providing the service for self injury, you cant for surgery.