Tribunal - a few questions

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Just got a tribunal date (October) for refusal to assess and have a few questions.

I put both mine and DH's names down on the appeal request, as we would both be going and if anything happened to prevent me from going it could still go ahead. I'm now starting to worry that Dh will be asked questions and possibly not give the most appropriate replies (i.e. get tricked by the LA) because he has not been greatly involved in DS's SNs stuff to date. It has always been me that has dealt with all the professionals, requested Sa, spent hundreds of hours on MN etc.

Can he just refer all questions to me or a witness (EP etc). Or does he have to give the answers? Might we be questioned separately? Can I reduce him to being there for moral support only? Would I need to make that clear in advance?

Also the paperwork doesn't seem to say anywhere were it will be held, does that information come later?

I'm very nervous and it's still months away. To cap it all the new legislation is likely to be in place by then and we're not going to be as familiar with it. I spoke to IPSEA who said it would have to be decided on the new legislation if it is in force.

the venue and time are given 10 days before hearing.

as far as im aware its not like a court your not going to be questioned separately or kind of interrogated as you are there as a set of parents rather than individual witnesses so dh doesnt have to answer if he cant and would be able to let you answer for him.

ou could always ask if dh can attend as an observer but that would mean he can't take notes or say anything at all.

you will have to fill in an attendance form to say who will be going for your team for want of a better word.

i was meant to be at hearing next week but its been delayed for a month so ive got very close but not actually been and we've resolved at mediation this morning anyway.

there are some videos online that show you how tribunals work.

there is a SENDIST guide for parents which is available online called 'how to appeal an sen decision' sept 2010 which gives some helpful info.

Oh, thank you. 10 days notice of time and place doesn't seem very long, I'll need to arrange childcare. My only experience of the judiciary has been jury service, I'm sure this will be totally different but I guess they still have strict procedures.

I'm glad you've got yours resolved. I'll look up some of those videos.

not 10 days isnt long and they state that the hearing will be held within 2 hours of where you live you it might not be local either!

my mum had arranged to take the day off just in case i needed her to do the school run because i had no idea what time it would be etc

i found the guide really useful but i have to say the whole process has been draining.

my appeal was lodged in december and we were given a date for next week until the LA asked for an extension. the last 6 months has been a stressful blur, ive cried, shouted, ranted at the LA and everything. this is all over a special school place and could have been resolved ages ago if communication from the LA had been better. its very frustrating.

Yes, within two hours of us includes most of the South East and London. I will have to put my parents on standby too.

I originally got the date about 3 weeks ago, within a week I received a request for change from the LA requesting a date my EP couldn't make, it has taken a lot of sorting out and I have been on tenterhooks. Otherwise I'm having a much needed break from doing too much at the moment while I wait for my professional reports to come in, but I am finding the whole thing very emotionally hard.

They won't ask one of you to answer a question you can choose which of you do. They don't ask parents much at all, usually just witnesses. You usually come out feeling you wanted to say more so it's important to put everything in the bundle eg do a statement in reply to LAs defence setting out why you disagree in case you don't get to say it all on the day.

Make a list of the main points you don't want to leave without saying.
You may need to make an opening and closing statement so may want to write that out so a summary of your case and than at closing sum up again addressing anything extra that came up.

Think of examples of your child's difficulties this is where you have the advantage of knowing your child best and can think of lots of examples to illustrate everyday life. Often panels will ask for egs of difficulties and sen officers have never met your child so rarely have any.

i was at tribunal this week and had only me and dh down as attending. this is my 2nd tribunal so can kinda say now they all seem to follow a similar pattern.

my best advice similar to what agnes has said is make sure that you written bundle is conclusive - I took the LA response to tribunal and wrote a detailed response to each point the LA had made and why we disagreed with it.

I felt that if a panel had done it on written evidence only then we may win on that alone although nothing is guaranteed of course!

also try and get a code of practice as that is your friend here. at my hearing the judge was clear it was the code of practice that was important - she would not listen to any LA 'policies' at all and gave quite a stern warning about that.

I didn't make an opening speech but was asked about my daughter.

when it came to the main part it was the class teacher who spoke mainly - again myself and dh said very little. the tribunal have read the file in detail and you will be amazed at how much they understand the case so they lead it and ask the questions. this time it was myself who spoke as I had done all the work, although dh did have a good understanding he actually I don't think said anything! you are not questioned like say you would be if you were giving evidence in a court case as a witness. its much more civilised than that - its a bit like a meeting really.

I did give a closing speech but again it doesn't have to be anything major at all - I just said that the most important views were my daughters and for them to take them on board as her views hadn't been mentioned previously to that.

it was all done in less than 2 hours, yet again I came out feeling I didn't say enough but I think every parent feels like that but then I also know that my bundle was good and the judge commented on how well put together the bundle was.

you get the final bundle about 2 weeks before the hearing - mine came 3 weeks before due to easter. my hearing venue was at an actual tribunal offices in the county next to me - it was a 45 minute car drive. we did go and check where the venue was the weekend before as it was in a city we weren't familiar with and Im glad we did as we would have struggled to find it on the day plus parking was an issue so we were able to pre prepare for that. my tribunal before that was in a differet town again about 45 mins away but in a magistrates court!

the panel know that parents will be nervous etc and they do their best to put you at ease, there are no trick questions, if the LA say something you don't agree with then you can respond. the LA will be on their best behaviour and come across as almost reasonable at the actual hearing and seem to forget about everything they have done leading up to it!

keep posting on here as so many of us have been through it and I think between us all we will be able to help with most things

Good luck!

Thanks both of you. I've been following your other threads BJKMummy.

The Code is a worry, it is very likely that it will have gone by the time of our hearing. At least I have plenty of time to prepare. Fortunately I have a friend who has been to tribunal to help me, also fortunately, my job involves sifting documents, creating new ones and using words very carefully to achieve the result we need. There are a lot of parallels even though the field is completely unrelated.

Yes, we would want to prepare our journey, I tend to for anything remotely important, the thought of driving round lost or not being able to park fills me with horror.

I had a slightly different experience to bjk. My Dp is similar to yours, he knows virtually nothing about education or what Dd3 needs at school but we wanted to both go. We also took a representative in the form of a local advocate.

I was worried that the panel would only address our rep but they didnt, they directed most of their questions to me, Dp redirected any that came his way to me and then they aske the rep if there was anything he wanted to add especially if they saw him passing me notes.

I spoke loads!!! I found the panel very supportive and the expert person was very knowledgable (I have since googled her)

I had loads more evidence than the LA and loads more opportunity to speak. We even had a 10 minute break just before the final speech bit so that we could make sure there wasnt anything that we desperately wanted to say that we had missed.

I really hope you have a similar experience and that you manage to say everything you want to say and just tell your Dp not to say anything daft like I did

Good luck

I think that's what helped me in that my previous career I worked in the legal field where it was all about evidence and making sure you had the evidence so with my tribunals have approached them like that - plus having help and support from others is invaluable.

if you've already lodged your appeal then I would guess it will be the code as it is now that will be used not the new code coming in sept. for a refusal to assess its part 7 of the code that is your friend at this stage.

at my hearing I had the code with me to refer to and I did at one point do that as the book was open at a certain page for the point I was making. it was interesting to note that the LA didn't have a code of practice with them!

I googled my judge afterwards and that made interesting reading for me as in that she was very experienced and seemed from what I read to be a fair judge - I couldn't really find anything on my panel member.

They do have permanent venues so could probably tell you what is the most likely place where your hearing will happen if you phone. However, they can't absolutely guarantee it because sometimes they get so busy they have to arrange somewhere else, e.g. a hotel. However, I don't think that happens very often. If you're in reach of London, it will probably be in Pocock Street, near Waterloo.

The new law on assessment is very similar to the current law, so I don't think you need to worry too much about that. The new Code of Practice should be out fairly soon so you'll have plenty of time to check it out, but again the provisions on assessment in the current draft aren't that different.

We're on a Waterloo line, so that would be OK.

As part of my job I am regularly audited (I work in Quality Assurance) so I am used to knowing my documents inside out, knowing exactly what I need to defend my position and also how to stop speaking when I've said enough and not waffle. I never thought it would all come in handy in a personal capacity.

I really just want DH there for moral support, and the feeling that I shouldn't have to do this alone, I have done it all so far (to be honest it's easier in some ways, then it is all under control).

sorry to de-rail the thread but bjk did you include your written response to the LAs response within your evidence bundle? thanks

Oramum, at the final evidence deadline which was about 4 weeks before the hearing I sent all of my final evidence I had and then did a case statement where I went through the LA response point by point and responded to it. I also went through as well and explained which parts of th code of practice supported our case and why etc - if you pm me I can send you a copy of it if it helps. Someone sent me there's for my first tribunal which really helped me and this time I copied the same format as my last one.

hi bjk that would be great if you dont mind? my tribunal against parts 2 and 3 is next month and the deadlines are fastly approaching. I will pm you now.
I hope you dont mind me asking, when did you submit the case statement? after the final evidence deadline? thanks