Would you complain/be upset by this?

[theDudesmummy]

Tribunal is tomorrow. No evidence filed by LEA, but I am aware they have called their EP as a witness. This did surprise me as, as far as I knew, she had not seen DS for over a year. Yesterday however I received a copy of her report on an observation (not full assessment, no recommendations made, just a description). She had been to observe DS at school last week. This was the first I knew of this. We were not aware she had come to see him, not asked to consent or to give any input.

My legal rep and indi EP both think this was unethical. What do people think?

Ps the content of the observation report does not harm our case, she comments that he is on an ABA programme but does not offer an opinion about this

Yes. Put in Complaint stating clearly that had you been asked to consent you would have done and copy to the tribunal.

It sounds like they will be relying wholey on this persons unwritten evidence. There has been a recent trend for LAs to submit nothing and convince tribunal that this should give them more air time as yours is all written down so doubling up.

Also be sure to emphasise that your evidence spans time whereas the EP just saw a brief glimpse on a day you had put extra support and done extra preparation for because there was going to be some changes in routine after school. Had you known he/she was going in, you woukd have been able to either suggest another day that woukd give a more rounded picture or not done the unsustainable one-off prep work that day.

Also, ask the EP in who's interest was that visit since she didn't give enough of a shit whether his needs were being met before the hearing as she's not seen him until then.

The difficulty is that, when it comes to needing permission, observing is a grey area. In the nature of things schools often have random adults turning up in class, e.g. Ofsted inspectors, trainee teachers etc, so there's a case for saying that just sending an EP to stand at the back of the class with no interaction with DS doesn't require permission. If they had asked and you had refused, they would have applied to the tribunal for an order and would probably have got it.

Typical dirty bloody-minded tactics

My ds has weekly SALT sessions specified in his statment but has had none for a year. Lo and behold, when it came to AR a couple of months ago the SALT (who until then I didn't even know existed) assessed him without my knowledge, I only found out at AR. She's now leaving on maternity leave, with no replacement. Couldn't fucking make it up.

Sorry, not helpful I know. I've just come from a meeting at school, so am in a slight rage

Good advice from Starlight.

thedude - sending you honks for tomorrow. Disgraceful it's got to Tribunal! Hope all goes well.

Thanks for the honks, will bring this up tomorrow in Tribunal.

We were not aware she had come to see him, not asked to consent or to give any input

What a shame. The poor EP was deprived of the chance to make an informed decision about his needs . Ask if this is normal practice in your LA, and how soon she will be seeing him again

Unfortunately, the observation will be affected by being so last minute. [casually drop in here that you weren't told about it till the day before tribunal, and you weren't asked to consent, and you would have liked her to phone your indie EP as 'working together for the child', yadda yadda].

Do mention your disappointment that that she didn't have the opportunity of seeing him on a less successful day, no playground observations, hadn't seen him at home, did no assessments, didn't speak to parents, and hasn't ever seen him before nor had any other input.

How did it go?

It went very well. Waiting for ruling of course but the judge gave loads of indications that he was for us in many of the disputed areas. Our witnesses and FS all earned their keep admirably! I spend plenty of time in courts and tribunals in my work, but in this one I sat and shook throughout (and very annoyingly my voice was shaky when I started talking, not something that has often happened to me!). My God did we need when we got home!

The most difficult bit was that the process meant that we appeared to be in opposition to the school, which we are not, they are pawns of the LEA and system as much as we are. We repeatedly made the point that we like the school very much and want to continue to work with them co-operatively. The school SENCO (who was a witness against us) sent me a nice email last night however, stressing how they want to work co-operatively with us too. That helped.

The LEA EP was just annoying and ill-informed/prepared, and we largely ignored her. She did not have much to add, given her limited input. We were able to make a good point in the tribunal in response to the LEA saying that they said they had all kinds of expertise and ability within their services to help DS (so home programme can be wound down as they and the school can meet all his needs) that we have received precisely no ASD-specific help from them, and that all the help he has had has been provided by us not them. Hard for them to argue with that given that their EP was sitting there having done precisely nothing to get involved in his life/education.

Fingers crossed for the judgement then. The waiting is horrible. At least in a jury trial, they don't make the defendant wait 2 weeks for a letter.

Fingers crossed you'll get the right judgement. Sorry, I can't remember - was it against refusal to assess or against the Final Statement?

The school SENCO (who was a witness against us) sent me a nice email last night however, stressing how they want to work co-operatively with us too. That helped.

Was an appeal against statement (basically disagreements re details of how to integrate home ABA programme with part-time MS school, how many tutor hours, how many consultant workshops, how long it will go on etc etc...)