When did they pay?

[theDudesmummy]

We have had a Statement since March last year, and won a Tribunal in November. Nevertheless still have to receive a penny from the LEA for the provision stipulated, both in the Statement and at the Tribunal.

Can I ask other people how long after getting a Statement/winning a Tribunal your LEA paid anything, and how you got them to do this? Our LEA is simply ignoring us and were are just having to carry on paying. We are getting to the point where we can't any more and our ABA tutors and consultant are going to end up unpaid if something does not happen soon. We are considering contacting our MP, the Tribunal judge, the media, and taking legal action in the civil court. Not sure which of those, if any would have any effect. We just don't know what to do any more.

From the day the statement naming ABA was issued!
Go to Local Govt Ombudsman first as that is free.

Have you had the Final Statement with the changes as per the Tribunal's Order? The LA is only liable once this has been issued and this should have been issued within 5 weeks of the date on the Tribunal's Decision.

It sounds as though the tutors are directly invoicing you, you are paying the tutors, and then trying to reclaim the money from the LA?

If that's the case, and you have the revised Final Statement, then I'd immediately stop this. Get the tutor to invoice the LA directly. The contract is between the LA and the tutor - not you. If you are acting as a kind of middle person, then the LA will string you along forever. The tutor is now a service provider to the LA.

I would also complain to get any back-payment from the date of the Final Statement. However, you can only complain to the LGO once you have been through your LA's formal complaints procedure. Their procedure will be on the Internet.

We will go down the route of the complaints procedure and ombudsman for the backdated funding, if we have to. But that will take time, something we no longer have as our tutors and consultant are basically not being paid at the moment as we have run out of money. The tutors invoicing the LA directly is also just going to mean they do not get paid, and I can't do that to them (young women who have been working very hard with my DS for a long time now).

Well in any case we do not have the revised statement despite it being well over 5 weeks since the tribunal decision. We are at the end of our tether really! they just literally do not respond.

I just wondered how long it generally took people to get any money from the LEA?

The fact that you haven't received the revised Statement is the problem. The LA are only liable from the date of the revised Statement. They are obviously stringing it out as long as possible to avoid paying.

It sounds as though you will have to go down the formal complaint to LA/LGO route because the LA have now failed their Statutory duty to finalise the Statement in the statutory timescales. This will be a slow process but get your complaint into the LA asap to focus their minds.

Then when the LA reply to your complaint and say how wonderful they are, escalate it up to the LGO pointing out the LA's failure in statutory timeframe and that you expect the LGO to investigate why they failed their statutory duty and ask the LGO to recommend that the LA reimburse you for your costs from the time of the 5 week deadline (LGO can never order LA to do anything, they just "recommend").

T

Thanks for that. But surely they are also laible to pay for the provision specified in the original statement? That statement clearly named the nursery in part 4, specified one to one for fiftenn hours a week at nusery, and specified the ABA programme. None of which they ever paid a penny for depite us asking them again and again when they were going to do so.

Ahh - I hadn't realised that. Yes, if it's on the original Statement too, then they are liable for that as well.

I really do think the only way forward is to start a formal complaint asap to the LGO (which unfortunately means you have to go through the LA's complaints procedure first). I would also copy in your MP and local councillor to your complaint letter to the LA. Complain about them not paying anything on the original Statement and also them not complying with the statutory timescales for the revised statement, and also them not paying the new provision.

When you write to the LA, make sure you write "Formal Complaint" all over your letter and that you want your complaint to be handled as a Formal Complaint in accordance with their corporate policy (you should find their policy online)

If you have complained to council many times and got no response LGO may accept it early. Ring them and explain the urgency. LGO do treat children out of school / without education as a priority and it sounds like you are about to fall into that category.

I have not yet put in an official complaint, so will do that first (up till now we have writen to them, spoken to them, sent them propsed agreements regarding funding, and eventually invoices for what we have paid for, all with no response). No he is not at all out of school or education, he is part-time mainstream school, with a part-time ABA programe. If we don't get some funding soon however the ABA programme may well be jeopardy as we cannot ask our tutors and consultant to go on working without being paid indefinitely.
This would be a huge disaster. .

They have not yet made the new statement, no. But yesterday late afternoon we seem to have at last made some progress, LEA came to an agreement with my DH which probably means we will not have to take further legal action (agreed to pay an acceptable, to us, proportion of the backdated funding). We have not got time to go through LGO, JR etc to get our money, and they have said they will pay the now-agreed amount within ten days, so looks like things will start to improve...

Unless you have signed anything saying its full and final settlement then I would take the money and still go to LGO for the shortfall even if it means going back on a verbal agreement. this sounds really dodgy. They are legally obliged to pay in full from day one.

Hoping the LA do the right thing at last for you, theDudesmummy!

The problem is that they way they worded the original statement was open to interpretation (which is why we went to tribunal) so we could choose to carry on arguing and possibly lose the argument, or cut our losses and take what they are offering now. In fact there was no choice as we don't have the time to carry on the argument.

Dude's mum - When the statement was first issued, you must have had a meeting with the school to discuss the implementation of the statement? Was provision and how its going to be funded brought up at all?

Unless your LEA said they will pay you directly, they arent liable to pay anything as far as I understand. The school has to provide the provision and request funding to the LEA if they cant meet the provision from their own budget.

My nursery agreed to hire my daughter's current tutor however, havent paid her 3 months' salary yet. If nothing happens this month then I will speak to the school and LEA.

When the statemnt was issued he was still at nursery, which was a private nursery that we paid for, at that stage. However, given that they named the nursery on Part 4 of the satatment, they have now agreed to pay for the nursery, backdated to the date of the statement. Also they will pay for the one to one at the nursery (we sent our own tutors in to do that). What they won't pay for is the tutoring at home, but we have managed to strike a deal that they at least pay for the consultant's workshops (consultant's and tutors' time), so we are going to go with that. Because it said in the statment "VB programme" but did not specify where this was taking place, they are taking the line that they will only pay for what was delivered at nursery not at home. We lose out a bit but still get something, and we don't have time to fight against the interpretation, and who knows whether we would win anyway, it's pretty much open to interpretation. So will will go with what they are offering now (no choice!).

I will cheer when I actually see the money, not before!