Documents that go out with statements - is there a compulsory list

[senmerrygoround]

Last week I settled my tribunal appeal with the LA, and have now received a copy of the revised final statement for ds who is in Y6.

Nothing else. I know that the contents are what's important, but I have a speckly photocopy of a scanned document. Is there not supposed to be a list of documents that must go out with a revised statement? Eg right of appeal, transition letter, right to apply for direct payments, etc?

Or does this not apply in this case?

On ds's statement on front page

Item 2 'When assessing the child's educational needs under section blah, blah the authority took into consideration, in accordance with regulation blah, blah the evidence and advice set out in appendices A to F. It then has a list of all documents and evidence it relied on, things such as parental advice, medical advice etc, etc.

Then copies of everything listed are attached to statement. So any evidence or advice featured in the statement should be attached.

Thanks Claw, I wasn't thinking of the evidence as such although LA has not sent those out to me either. Let's hope they've sent the appendices to the schools!!!

I was thinking of the other documents I listed earlier?

Let's hope they've sent the appendices to the schools!!!

Don't count on it. My LA sent only one out of the 10 appendices to the school they named in Part 4. This is now subject of my complaint to the LGO because ALL of the appendices should have gone to the school - not the one and only, which, taken on its own, supported the LA's position that a speech & language unit would support my severely dyslexic DS.

I only got right of appeal info with draft. Finalised all I got was finalised and appendices.

That's interesting. I had a quick look at SENCOP and couldn't see if there was a mandatory list of documents, and was wondering if it was specified somewhere else.

I'm going to have to ring the LA, aren't I, and ask I was hoping I could ring and quote rules to them!

The appendices are part of the Statement. The LA should have sent you copies of all appendices attached to the Final Statement - even if you already have a thousand copies of said appendices (as I did). SEN CoP and Education Act state this somewhere (or at least they both state the named school has to be sent appendices - not sure if they state the same for the parent?)

I think both also state that LA has to inform you of your right of appeal

Well a statement is a legal document and the appendices are what make up that legal document and with any legal document it should be complete.

Personally I wouldn't worry about them informing you of your right to appeal etc (assuming you already knew this) I would be more focussed on making sure appendices were attached.

Right, I've done more digging and found these and have pasted below in case anyone else is interested

From SENCOP
8:131 When the statement is amended a new document must be issued which clearly states
that it is an Amended Final Statement and the date on which it was amended, as well as
the date of the original statement. Additional advice, such as the minutes of an annual
review meeting and accompanying reports, that contributed to the decision to amend the
statement, should be appended to the amended statement in the same way as the advice
received during the statutory assessment. The amended statement should also make
clear which parts of the statement have been amended, so that parents and professionals
can clearly see and understand the changes.

8:133 When the amended statement is issued parents must be informed of their right of appeal to the Tribunal against Parts 2, 3 and 4 of the statement and the time limits within which they should appeal, the availability of parent partnership and disagreement resolution
services, and the fact that the parent’s right of appeal cannot be affected by any disagreement resolution procedure.

In addition to the above, the Special Educational Needs (Direct Payments) (Pilot Scheme) Order 2011 require that:
The local authority must provide information and advice about direct payments to parents / beneficiaries who are 16+ whenever it serves a copy of a SEN statement or prepares a learning difficulty assessment;

Phew, I think that's it!