SEND Tribunal - can you change the date?

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Just received a date for my Refusal to Assess hearing, one of my witnesses is unavailable. I can't find any info in the pack they sent me, does anyone know if you can request a change of date on these grounds?

yes you can - there is a form on the sendist website - request for changes form - it does say to try and agree with the LA - not sure how that works in practice so I guess you would fill the form and send it to sendist and the LA - I guess then the tribunal would ask for witness availability before re listing it - also worth phoning sendist - they are pretty helpful

Make sure you explain in the application why the witness is so important and that you feel you will not be able to put your case forward properly without them. They sometimes refuse such requests on the basis that you can manage with just the witness' written statement or report, so you need to explain why that isn't enough - e.g if it's an expert, explain that you may need them to comment on the LA experts' evidence and advise you on the questions that you need to ask, also that you need them in case the other side or tribunal ask questions that they can answer and you can't. It's usually helpful if you can say that their evidence will help the tribunal.

It's my independent Ed.Psych. I am going to wait till I hear back from my OT and SALT on their availability, the main things I am pressing for are OT and SALT input (which has been minimal so far on the NHS), so possibly they are more important. Though obviously I would have liked all three available.

The more I read about 'other people's' (ie you lot!) tribunal cases for refusal to assess the more I worry about mine!

Yes, I know that you can change the date WhoKnows as I put in a Request for Changes for my tribunal to get a later date, as I couldn't get my indi reports in before the final evidence date. BUT I then got fed up when I realised that my LA just seem to be using delaying tactics and I was worried my new date wouldn't be til Sep, so on the advice of wise ones here I asked for my original date back. Which I got last Thursday _ I explained that I had decided I needed to have the hearing before I could submit independent reports as DD is not even in school because of anxiety - she has been off since late Jan.

So now I am going to Tribunal with no indi reports and no witnesses.... I am hoping that the fact DD has not been in school for so long is 'evidence' in itself and shows that the LA argument that she is being supported in school (ha!) is complete rubbish. LA are saying the school has put in strategies to support DD and not mentioning that the strategies evidently haven't worked.

It is all so confusing and topsy-turvy. I was trying (like most of you) to get DD assessed by a number of indi experts to convince the LA that DD needs - er - well - assessing...!

Can anyone offer me any reassurance that there is some chance that my tribunal panel will see the situation as it is - namely DD needs assessing because she is out of school because of anxiety because her needs aren't being met there, which in turn is because her needs aren't properly understood.

pannetone - my last appeal was a part 2 3 and 4 but my child was out of school as well and the tribunal really took that point to heart and when we went in with the LA before the hearing started it was the first question the tribunal asked was about if he was getting any education - he was getting nothing and then from that point on it seemed like the tribunal listened.

im now doing a refusal to assess and am finding this much more hard work - I have the reports, I have a child academically behind etc etc but still battling - I just think if you have a bloody minded LA then you just have to go with it and believe the LA will see common sense

Pannetone, will your reports be available after the evidence date but before the hearing? If so you could apply to get them admitted anyway.

Thanks bjkmummy some reassurance there. I have read your other thread _ I hope you get to keep your tribunal date - as you say the teacher had enough notice of the date.

Nennypops - DD is being assessed by the indi SALT 5 days after the refusal to assess tribunal. No chance of an earlier date as she is recovering from surgery. The indi EP is assessing DD on 20th May - and the tribunal date is just over 2 weeks later. So allowing time to write the report it would only be ready just before the hearing. (Had a thought though - the same indi EP is assessing DS 2 days after DD - maybe she could use that time to write DD's report and I could shift DS's assessment later....)

BTW my LA have not yet sent me the 'case progression checklist' which they were meant to send to me and the tribunal by 5pm last Thursday. I checked with the tribunal and they havn't got it either - I have to email the Tribunal and put in writing we haven't received it. I suppose it won't have any dire consequences for the LA likely them not being able to take any further part in the case, will it?! That is probably wishful thinking!

the submitting of the case progression form is a direction from the judge so technically yes the tribunal could bar then but in reality the LA will submit it late and nothing else will be said although I did recently see an order where the judge gave them 2 weeks to comply and the LA were told non compliance meant they could not take any further part in the tribunal

Thank you all, I've read your other thread now as well bjk - hope you get to keep your date.

I'm really torn on this, the hearing isn't till the end of Sept as it is, I really don't want to delay any longer. I suspect this one will go all the way, the school don't think DS needs a statement, he's behind but not overwhelmingly and he's attending quite happily. Hmmm. You can see why so many fall by the wayside.

what I would say is that more often it is felt that the EP is the most important witness - at mine I had EP and OT but not SALT but had a report - the LA didn't get a SALT report so all my SALT went in. as you are at the beginning you could ask for an adjournment but I think I would want to know what timescale you were looking at if it was relisted - its also such a long drawn out process and it takes over your life and is draining so extending that stress is also something to consider but you also want to have the best case you have before the panel as well. do you know who the LA are likely to call??? what is the LA EP like??

Sorry for slight thread hijack above WhoKnows. It is such a hard call on knowing the best route to take when your child's well being and education are at stake.

Not had any contact with LA EP service for over 5 years. I've no idea who they might call as it's refusal to assess they haven't had any assessments done on DS, his NHS OT and SALT assessments are very old too. I might ring SEND and find out how much more of a delay I'd be looking at.

OK, just as I was about to send my Request for Change form off I received one from the LA requesting dates a few days earlier, so having got availability from my witnesses for dates after the original one I now have I now have to ring them all again to check these new dates and then respond (presumably). This must happen all the time I guess.

Seems a bit odd that the LA are asking for earlier dates - wouldn't seem likely that there is availability - their must be 'gaps' where the LA concedes before tribunal (make that my appeal please!) but it seems unlikely that you'd get a specific date before the original hearing date.

I can't work out what I need to do - obviously I need to contact SEND, but do I need to respond to the LA too? One of my witnesses has emailed me just now and said she's not available on the dates proposed by the LA.

Right, I have just emailed SEND saying I object to the dates proposed by the LA and suggesting a week later instead.

Then, having read through all my notes again this morning I realised I should have copied the LA, so I have this morning completed another Request for Change and sent it to both, with a note to the LA saying I am objecting to theirs.

All sounds pretty stressful WhoKnows _ sounds as though you have 'covered all bases' now. Although I haven't done a refusal to assess tribunal before, I have done a disability discrimination case against DS2's school - and that is also heard by a SEND tribunal. Arranging a suitable hearing date got complicated (mostly because of the school saying winesses couldn't be made available). In the end the judge directed that we each had to give our availability over a 2 week period and we got to a date that way - and both sides had to stick to it.

I can see the person at SEND getting a bit confused. When I realised I should have copied in the LA last night I thought I'd better forward them the two emails I sent to SEND and CC SEND in again so they could see I had included the LA. I guess this sort of thing happens quite often.
Hopefully they pull all emails for any given case together and consider the whole picture. I am getting twitchy every time my phone pings with an email, even though it will probably be days till I hear anything.

Did you win your case Pannetone?

Yes, I was a bit worried with my refusal to assess hearing that the judge wasn't going to take kindly first to us asking for a new date so we would have indi reports, and then saying that we wanted to go ahead without them! But the direction I got back last week letting us keep the original date was very 'measured' and said that the interests of the child were paramount and agreed that it was best for DD for the hearing not to be delayed.

You could ring SEND after the holiday weekend to check they have all your emails and that they are all being put to the judge together. I have found the clerks helpful on the phone. And they obviously do make notes of what you ask over the phone - in fact when I rang, the tribunal lady could see that the order with the new date was ready to be isssued - but it was 'held' to allow me to write in and request I didn't want it any more!

Yes we 'won' our disability discrimination case on the grounds that DS's school failed to make reasonable adjustments for him. One year on (DS now at uni) I am somewhat disgruntled to find that the school has just been given an outstanding OFSTED including comments that the school meets the needs of all its pupils, including those with SEN...

The stuff from SEND says not to ring them to check on your emails, but I think I might as I have sent so many similar ones in a short period of time. They must realise that parents are very worried, anxious and unfamiliar in this process, whereas the people they deal with from the LA should (in theory) know what they are doing.

Well, partly I ring them because they seem to have stopped sending an auto aknowledgement that they've received your email and that makes me twitchy that they haven't got it. I mentioned it to a tribunal clerk and he said the auto aknowledgement response 'sometimes' gets triggered . The SEND staff have always been polite and helpful when I've rung and I usually get straight through, which is quite something in itself.

I've had acknowledgements of all the ones where I've put them in the "to" box but not when I've cc'd them.

That's crap about your DS's school, there's one near here similar, outstanding according to Ofsted, including SEN unit, apparently not the case at all. Worrying.

The send people are very nice and very helpful think we get so used with dealing with LA that we forget there are some good departments out there as well so I would give them a ring