Tribunal won but what now

[theDudesmummy]

As some of you know, we were very pleased last week to have won our Tribunal, which included the ABA programme. But now what? Those of you who have been in this position, how did you proceed? We have had no communication from the LEA and they have ignored emails from me. At present we are just continuing to find the programme as we have done the whole time since the original statement came out in March (with the programme already on it, plus one to one support at nursery, none of which they ever funded).

How did people actually get the funding for their programmes? It is all very well having a tribunal ruling.

Mine went quiet in me post tribunal. Mine was for a school place so I just spoke to the school. The SEN officer was also speaking to the school and school found her an absolute pain the bum :-) not just me then! A few weeks later I got my new statement although has to send it back as they hadn't attached the appendices! Made me laugh cos when the statement came they stuck the standard letter on it saying if I didn't agree I could appeal!,

Would then have an excruciating phone call from the SEN officers boss who had bare faced lied to me during it all saying how we should now all move on and work together!

I think it take a few weeks for them to sort things and they may be quite sore losers at the moment hence why they are quiet but they may be in the process of getting it sorted

Ok thanks for that. I was just hoping for money to pay the tutors this month, which would be really helpful in current situation! But we may have to wait. I will keep contacting them though.

Have made good friends with school again post-tribunal and all is working really well on that front, so no difficulties there, however.

From the date of the Tribunal's decision, LA has 28 days to appeal and 5 weeks to finalise/revise the Statement. LA are only liable to implement the terms (and pay for the provision) within the revised Statement once it's been finalised.

Mine was finalised 4 weeks after Tribunal's ruling, and I too had the standard letter "I hope you are happy with the contents of the Statement, if not please call me to discuss"

I think tribunal gave our LA 6 weeks. After a few days sen officer rang (must got short straw) to say how we must have been delighted with outcome. We asked how long to implement. LA said oh its over our threshold for tenders we are obliged to put contract for ABA out to tender. We said that's ridiculous as we have a provider and there is only one locally. They said they would get legal advice and hinted would take full 6 weeks to sort. We looked again at wording which said LA must fund aba but said nothing about organising so we offered to keep contract between ABA with us and Told LA their obligation was just to fund it. LA decided they would do that but still took 4 weeks from tribunal decision. The week before we got the statement (3 weeks after tribunal) the LA sent a letter calling a review a month later as ds was due to transfer into school 10 month later and they had to name a school 3 months time. The letter in effect said would collect reports etc as though this was a new statutory assessment and implied ds would be transferring off ABA we had just won and back onto the provision tribunal had decided was inadequate by time he went to school. At that point we told LA where to go and write a letter refusing a review so soon after ds had undergone so many assessments and making it clear that it looked to us as tho LA were flouting tribunal decision it would also look that way to the next tribunal they dragged us in front of. That was 4 years ago and despite an attempt to remove ABA before ds went to school (which no expert supported) and us having to threaten jr the LA has mostly behaved itself for last 3 years. But don't expect dirty tricks to end just because you won.

Thanks for those replies, which are rather depressing of course. The fight never ends does it?

PS they have not implemented the terms or paid for the provision in the original statement, so should they at least not be liable to pay for that prior to the 6 week period?

Yes dudes. While you have all this spare time you should submit formal complaint on council website. Not to Sen team but central complaint email (will be complaint page on website) asking back payments. When you have completed internal complaint you can go to ombudsman if council haven't paid up.

LEA have said they will respond to my emails next week (only following email in which I hinted at legal action regarding the back payments). Thanks for the advice about the complaints procedure. I will certainly do that, probably alongside county court action, if necessary.

I think they have 5 weeks to amend the statement. If they appeal they still have to comply with the order of the first tier tribunal unless they get an order staying the effect of the original order.

I am now getting increasingly depressed following the elation of winning the tribunal last week! Well, we shall see what they come up with and take it from there...

Dudes just ring them Monday and ask them straight out how long its going to take. You will be able to tell from how they are on the phone if they have accepted the decision. Given the LA will almost shut down for 2 weeks its not unreasonable to ring and ask.

Yes I think I may just do that. Thanks.