The mythical all-powerful "Panel"

[TOWIELA]

Straight from the horse’s mouth (well, BS’s mouth), this is the role of the mythical-all-powerful LA Panel. Shame on the LAs who tell parents that their child’s future rests on the Panel’s decision.

(Any typos are mine – BS weren’t that generous enough to make their text copy/paste friendly)

The SEN Code of Practice permits a LA to establish a Panel to moderate requests for statutory assessments of children with special needs. Typically these Panels comprise of representatives from Education, Social Care, Schools, Health and Social Care. The Panels are chaired by a designated officer from the Special Needs Services

The Panel members have no decision-making powers and their role is to support the SEN decision-making process by providing advice to the Chair of the Panel. The action to be taken in each case is determined by the Chair and it is the Chair who alone is accountable for the decisions which are made

If decisions were made by Panel members this would be unlawful as they do not have the power to do so

From BS's A guide to good practice for LAs (Makes for some very interesting bed-time reading)

What a circus!

Panels ARE permitted, btw but I would be dubious of the need for such a costly meeting except to justify salaries. Most decisions coukd be made on written advice by a competent 'Chair' who incidentally must be the child's case officer in the model proposed.

Someone has posted on face book this morning that bs are holding attaining day for sen officers on how to fight tribunals at a cost of £200 per person. Would love to be a fly on the wall as to what advice he gives the LA

These panels tend to not keep minutes.

I suspect that this is because the evidence they are interested in is the evidence of how much they can get away with.

I bet it goes like this:

Can the child be managed within school resources?

-No

What is the minimum the school needs to be persuaded to keep the child in mainstream?

-Money, an extra EP visit in the name of the child but not FOR the child and an invitation for the HT to visit Barcelona to look at good practice for children with SEN.

How shall we put this in the advice to ensure the subsequent statement is woolly legally but fools the parents?

-Say 'access to' full-time TA (fund 3 hours a week and use TA already in school), say EP to visit school, say HT to be released for 3 days to attend training which they will embed into whole-school policy.

Are the parents switched on enough to know this is crap?

-No (agree the SA), Yes (refuse the SA and force an appeal, to give in week before, still send HT to Barcelona for playing along).

That's what I learnt that there are no minutes - here the panels are just a group of them stood round the coffee machine I'm sure. They held such a meeting about my son so I asked for the minutes to be told it was a 'case discussion' so not minuted.

Have to say I agree with the last post above hence why i expect a no and will be forced into tribunal no doubt.

Very interesting.

I got a copy of the summary of 2 panel meetings regarding dd in my SAR.

At the time it came to decide whether to issue a statement it states that DD's case officer couldn't recommend a provision but the statement did not warrant a placement in a school for medical difficulties and physical disabilities (DD is an aspie). The panel met and determined that her needs could be met in a specific school which just so happened to be the school the case officer said it didn't warrant! Guess which school the LA decided to name? Yep, that's right the one the panel said!

In my DS's case for refusal to assess - I got the Panel's neatly tabulated document showing that my son had been discussed (current school & current dx detailed etc). But the actual "no" decision was in an email from the senior SEN Manager - which I only got through a DPA search. To use her precise words "a resounding NO... Nowhere near statutory assessment" - oh so that would be why a Judge ruled that he should be in an indie ss then!

(When do you think BS will start advising LAs to not use emails to do their jobs but everything should be verbal? Amazing what you can find in a DPA search!)