Part 2/3/4 Tribunal Hearing - Do cost comparison discussions between the LA's Part 4 choice and mine *always* take place?

[ChrisInNeed]

The key argument I will be making is that the specialist S&L school is the only option which can meet DS's needs adequately, so hopefully costs do not come into play.

Presumably the initial discussions at the hearing will be on Parts 2 & 3 and if the LA's nominated school can meet this?

I am not clear if the cost comparison discussions:

• will only take place if the Panel decides that the LA's choice can also meet the needs adequately?

or

• will always take place?

To put it another way, if the cost comparison discussions start taking place does this imply that the Panel has rejected my argument that only my nominated school can adequately meet DS's needs?

Speaking to other parents I am told that the outcome is communicated after the hearing, so this would seem to suggest that the costs discussions always take place, as if these don't take place then that would effectively reveal that my choice has been accepted.

Thanks.

It depends how big the cost differential is. In our case the provision we asked for was 8-10 times the cost of what the LA was offering so the difference was so vast we could only have won on the basis the LA package could not meet need.Our advocate brought it up but simply to say we didn't need to discuss costs because parents could only win if the panel found the LA package would not meet need and our package was the only one left on the table. The Panel accepted this was the case and no more was said.

I think you still need to provide info on costs of both packages so the Panel can decide of itself if cost is something which needs to be discussed / requires a decision.

In our case the LA exaggerated our costs upwards and theirs downwards to make ours look as outrageous as possible - which bit them on the bum when we won and the Panel awarded their inflated figure rather than our accurate one (we actually spent £10k less in the first year that the LA said our ABA would cost which provided a nice buffer in subsequent years when costs went up)

Yours doesn't have to come in cheaper - if its only a bit more expensive panels sometimes order it anyway on the basis of added value. If its a lot more expensive then its not really an issue.

Once you start adding up LA costs they tend to come out higher than they say - they aren't good at giving unit costs e.g. for SLT etc. Worth posting on here when you get their figures.

Also on the day they tend to talk up / improve their package - so the LA told the Panel the autism outreach staff could come to DS mainstream school daily - when the usual pattern had been 3-6 monthly visits! So in that scenario we could have said you can't do that for the costs quoted.

But its really only an issue where the costs are fairly close.

Just realised you have another thread on costs!