Tribunal help - what to ask for???

[zumbaleena]

Hello smart ladies

I am in the process of lodging a tribunal appeal and need some guidance. Background is I have a nearly 4 yr old asd girl (hfa) in a mainstream set up. We got a statement for 12 hours TA which we are challenging. Dd is on a 24 hr abavb program which includes 12 hours in school.

In the tribunal, I am hoping to ask for 25/30 hr ABA support, 12 consultant visits per year, 1 hr SaLT and 1 hr OT per week and fee for a mainstream private school on the basis that dd learns best in a small setting only.

My questions are -

1. Has anyone got the above or closer to above?

1. Does it look like I am asking for a lot?

1. What is a better strategy - to ask for more so we can withdraw and settle before or risk going to tribunal and losing everything or just asking exactly what we need?

1. Above are my ideas of what she needs....I do have assessment lined up but of course, they may recommend something else. Can I change her requirements based on these new expert needs in the process of submitting evidence to the tribunal?

Thanks a lot in advance

1. Have 35 hours a week ABA 48 weeks per year. You need to say how many weeks. 12 hours a year SLT (+ report and annual review mtg). No direct SLT. ABA know how to teach language so the (private) SLT is a consultancy / advisory / assessment layer. 4 aba consultant visits pa. 12 hours a month ABA supervisor. No OT. About to get lunch cover 1 day week by school TA.
2. Yes it would be unusual to get ABA and indep school. One or other is hard enough. Is it a full or parttime school placement you are wanting? Ds is year 2 and still goes parttime.
3. Depends on your LA. ours never compromise at all so better asking for just what you want but others will bargain
4. Yes you can change / refine proposal. Always easier to go down than up though.

It will be very hard to get ABA AND private school. I won't say impossible because it has been done, but most versions of that are ABA and SEN provision paid for by the LA and independent fees paid for by parent.

The reason for this is (rightly or wrongly) is that you could argue that ANY child would learn best in a smaller setting iyswim. It isn't an Autism specific education, which is what you will be arguing for for ABA.

Thanks star and Agnes. I think we will be able to afford private school ourselves if ABA is paid for by lea. I am majorly putting this in to build up pressure....of course EP urani will need to back it up. If he doesn't, it,s all down the drain.

Agnes....your point about SLT as consultancy makes sense as vb is already doing a lot of speech. The fact that I can refine proposal helps a lot.

We had 4 years of pointless NHS SLT we finally got rid of this year by getting direct payments for private SLT (LA is a pathfinder). We always argued with ABA we didn't need direct SLT as well and in fact as NHS SLT here is so anti ABA it was a vast waste of money (and very stressful) to have SLT involved. We had 3 SLTs and none knew anything about autism and just had a menu of recommendations they handed out to every school irrespective of the child' needs. SLT would also only turn up when she was in school to see other children and never when the ABA supervisor was there which was very irritating. So now we have an autism specialist SLT who advises ABA and does assessments from time to time. This is working so much better. I would have paid for private SLT myself rather than carry on with NHS SLT.

If you get ABA you can always just pay for part time indep school. DS learns better in 1:1 ABA than in school so he wouldn't benefit from going to school more so you may be able to save money there by just paying for a part-time place.