Got my reason for refusal with a hour to spare

[2boysnamedR]

No real reasons, just said school can meet his needs at school action plus.

They are calling in a educational phyco who has never met him ( what a joke! How can I believe this person will give me a balanced report when he has been called as a witness against my child!) also a representative from his school. A therapist tbc - wtf? He doesn't see any therapists at school - only my private slt who has been working with him for two months now!

I have a feeling it's all going to get very nasty and if the school oppose me and he loses this appeal they can go to hell and try and 'fix him' with no support from me. If they oppose me and then turn round and say they can't meet his needs at a later date that is there problem.

I thought school were supporting you and providing evidence?

They said they are. It says the school representative is tbc. Shall I ask the senco if she gets called as a witness against me will she oppose it? I guess she would have to?

If the head gets called I will wet myself - he doesn't even know my child

sounds like they have no real evidence so are not just going to pray that they get something - on a positive it shows that their case at this stage is weak. it is hard as you do feel that it is very personal and you are second guessing everyone. leave them to it now. my LA never got the EP to see my son in a year but called him as a witness - he looked an idiot in front of the panel as he could say anything. the panel will see what is going on and that no report has been done until this stage. I know its hard but the panel will listen to you, the LA also now have to prove their case and provide evidence and like I said if there case was strong they would have got reports by now. the school representative tbc also shows that they don't know what they are doing. in my case the LA were calling the NHS OT but she agreed with our report and told the LA this so rather than risk her going 'hostile' the LA just didn't bother calling her - frustratingly after dragging my OT to tribunal they agreed it all on the morning but that's another story.

Did they attach any evidence with their response?

You could always write to SENCO setting out what she said to you verbally about supporting your request etc and asking her will she be giving evidence at the Tribunal supporting your request. Technically witnesses shouldn't be on 'anyones side' they are there to give their opinion.

If their employer requests they attend to give their opinion, school can hardly decline.

Personally I would continue as if you have the support of no one. If SENCO says she is supporting you, ask her for a copy of the evidence she is basing her support on. Request a copy of school file and LA file and find your own evidence too. Do not rely on school.

It is usually SENCO who is called as a witness. I should imagine if LA are writing school can meet needs from budget, its what they have been told by school. Schools are often made to tow the line.

If they call in ot or pead they won't get any joy. My pead wants him statemented 'very obvious learning difficulties' where her exact words.

I have been in tears in front of his ot re his schooling so I can't believe she will says its looking great either.

I hope they shoot themselves with the ed phyc. His assessment with the lea last week was universally crap in all aspects. How is the ed phyc going to turn that around? There was nothing of any meat in the refusal. Except he is making progress, he has a good report (if reading that a child never attains to the level of his peers, can only grasp concepts on a 1:1 level and gets so excited he upsets his peers than my standards are way too high. I don't believe they ever looked at his case at all. It's going to tribunal and I'm submitting all my evidence as late as I can so they can't call in some crook to dispute it

Nope no evidence attached. I am going to get my slt to observe him in the classroom and write something for the tribunal. I want to get him assessed for dyslexia as well and it's now time for the private phyco to get called in. Not sure when the school phyc will go in, but your right I can't presume he will play fair.

The person who signed the appeal work knows ds case very well via my mp as I am a pita - but only from his slt needs side. I don't think he is aware ds has other complex needs.

I can't believe anyone would even bother to find me on the net but I might change name until after this gets heard

How do I get his nhs slt file - I want to see the actual clef form they filed out as my private slt said it looked like a pre school clef ( at 5.10 years old). That and my private report should be key to proving this is just a seris of jokes not provision

Try not to get side tracked by this, its pretty normal, standard stuff. Forget about them and focus on what you need to do.

Regardless of what school or anyone else says. Your grounds for appeal will remain the same.

1 a full assessment is the only way to find out what your child’s difficulties are and what help your child needs;

2 the school could not give all the educational help your child needs unless it receives extra help from the LA;

3 the school has given your child all the help that could be expected but he or she has not made enough progress.

You just need to focus on gathering as much evidence as you can to prove your case.

Follow IPSEA guidelines and write the standard 'I am considering whether to appeal against the authority’s decision to refuse a statutory assessment of my child' etc to school/LA etc. Request school and LA file too.

Worry about what evidence the LA have/don't have when you receive the bundle.

Do the same request to school, LA and PCT. There is a standard template.

Thanks claw - are they all foi requests?

No - they're DPA requests.

I think they are called subject access requests

Write to school, their response should be quite telling as to whether they are supporting or not. Request school file at the same time.

Dear Headteacher (or Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator)
As you may know, the local authority has refused my request for a statutory assessment of my child (give name and year group).
I am appealing against that decision and need information about the school’s special educational needs provision to put my case.
Could you tell me:

1. The SEN budget for the current academic year.
2. The number of children this covers.
3. The number of children at each stage of the SEN Code of Practice i.e. those at School Action, at School Action Plus and with a statement of SEN.

Could you also describe the typical help which is given for children with my child’s difficulties at School Action Plus and whether this is the maximum generally available? I very much appreciate the time and trouble you will take to provide this information which I need in writing. I have been advised that the Tribunal will find it hard to decide the case without full details of school provision. (You could also ask here if someone from the school would act as a witness)

www.ipsea.org.uk/AssetLibrary/Downloadable%20documents/IPSEArefusaltoassesspack_v2.1.pdf

If you don't already have a copy, everything you need to know.

It's alright. It really is. Hold tight.

Get your data protection requests in to see what's what.

School won't support you. They won't. They might be nice people but you don't pay their wages.

The therapist they will be calling will be a SALT who will assess your Ds a couple of months before tribunal. You may not be told about the observation/assessment so put in writing now to the school that you only give consent to outsiders assessing or observing your child on a case by case basis and with at least 5/10 working days notice.

Thanks, good advice about telling the school ds can not be assessed without my consent. I have had a private slt who has been working weekly with ds for two months. The school are calling in a ta slt. Neither a qualified teacher or slt so I can't believe anyone will listen to a non qualified person over a qualified one

You won't actually be able to refuse access and retain credibility, but this ensures that you know what is going on, and that you are able to express your wish to be present if that is your wish.

Once you have your appeal in, and registered with the Tribunals Service, in theory, the LA cannot send in anyone at all to assess/observe/or anything. This is because they have refused your request for statutory assessment - therefore they can't then send in someone to, well... assess. The minute they assess, then you have a very good case to argue with the Tribunal that by sending in their EP/whoever, they have therefore agreed DC needs assessing.

If you refuse any assessment during the appeal, then the LA would have to give a very good reason to Tribunal as to why they want to asses. The Tribunal might over-rule you, but you can give as your reason that the LA have said DC doesn't need assessment. Of course, you can also be very reasonable by giving LA professionals access to your DC, but not to officially assess in any shape or form.

Not sure if this makes sense... Too much Christmas cider But it is a nonsensical argument - they can't assess if they've refused to assess! This is exactly what my solicitor told me when my LA refused SA.

Good point Towie.

Phew glad it made sense - made my head hurt re-reading it!

Forgot to say that, in any case you should refuse to allow any assessments if you are going to instruct your own independent assessments. Many assessments are time-barred (i.e you can only do them once in a given time period - normally 6-12 months). Therefore if the LA have "used up" one of DC's assessments, your own indie professionals will be barred from doing the same assessment so might have to do another (lesser) assessment. This is also a valid argument that Tribunals will accept and so not force you to agree to the LA doing an assessment on your DC

Back to the cider

Manish - is that for an appeal against refusal to statutory assess or appeal against the Statement?

My solicitors were quite clear to me that I didnt have to agree to any LA assessments when it was for refusal to assess, for the reasons I said above ie by implication it meant that the LA were in fact assessing,and also because of any time barred tests meant your own indie reports couldn't be done. I followed their legal advice and there was no problem with the Tribunal.

However, this is not the case if its an appeal against the contents of the Statement.

Thank you Manish. Yes, I understand your clients are confidential - I wouldn't dream of asking for confidential info. I too said in my original post, let the LA have access. I agree - assessment and observation are different - we are of the same opinion.

Of course, there is the option of letting an LA assessment going ahead anyway (putting aside any time-barred issues) and then pointing out to the Tribunal that the LA were obviously concerned enough to do an assessment but still refused SA. The tribunal might take a dim view of the LA doing that.