Classic comment from SENCO this morning........

[bjkmummy]

My daughter gone back to school today. Handed in margos report to her teacher /senco and quickly explained that she has been dx with asd. No great response from her over that. She then asked me about what was happening with the statement and I explained they have issued a note in lieu - she then responded by saying - whats a note in lieu! There really is no hope for my daughter is there! She also didn't know hat dyspraxia or hypermobilty was so I'm guessing she has no idea over ASD either.

[bjkmummy]

lea often win - that doesn't sound too hopeful then ...... I think my NIL is the first one to be issued by my LA

[wasuup2014]

NIL's can be won, just my LEA hasn't recorded it as that, most likely I guess.

[sazale]

Thanks BJK, I purposely waited the 2 months hoping it would be Feb to give us more time as DS 7 has been referred for a 2nd opinion re ASD/dyspraxia and was hoping it would happen before tribunal.

This one will be number 3 in 12 months. The first in Feb this year for independent ASD placement for DD 15, they conceded the day before. The 2nd for DS for refusal to assess and they conceded at initial response 4 days after they conceded DD's! Now it's for parts 2 & 3 as the statement just basically says for school to decide what he needs and school to pay for it out of the £6000 SEN budget.

It's looking likely I'll be sending for Margo again!

[wasuup2014]

www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1145781/childrens-minister-councils-ready-deliver-send-reforms The test for an EHC plan seems to be if the special educational provision required to meet the child or young person's needs cannot reasonably be provided from the resources normally available to mainstream settings. How do you define "normally available" in the new school funding system? Is this up to the nationally determined threshold of £6,000 per year? Or would you say that "normally available" also includes top-up funding from the "high needs" block of funding? If so, when would any child ever qualify for an EHC plan?

The definition of SEN and the legal basis for issuing an EHC plan has not changed from the previous law on statements of SEN.

All local authorities have a duty to ensure they are supporting children and young people with SEN or disability.

The decision on whether to issue an EHC plan is made solely on the individual circumstances of the child or young person and the ability of educational providers to meet their needs.

"Resources normally available to mainstream settings" is not the same as the threshold in the high needs funding arrangements, for which the costs of additional SEN support up to £6,000 are met by schools from their annual budget.

There are circumstances where it would be appropriate for a child or young person to have a plan where the additional support costs are lower than £6,000, or occasions where a child might not need a plan, even though the costs of their support exceed £6,000 - it depends on what is best to meet the needs of the child or young person in question and help them achieve their outcomes.

[AgnesDiPesto]

My LA tops up above the £6k without a Plan. The 6k is strong govt guidance but my LA says it hasn't issued statements for children < 20 hours 1:1 for years and the £6k limit would mean it had to start issuing plans for children between 12-20 hours again, which it won't do. So here the limit is £10k + AWPU.

But I agree that you could be below the financial threshold and still need a Plan for e.g. DS has private ASC specialist SLT. The NHS SLTs have little knowledge of autism and couldn't (wouldn't) work with ABA (because they were so embarrassed by their lack of knowledge compared to ABA staff) so we argued we needed specialist SLT with knowledge / commitment to ABA. As mainstream couldn't provide this (only get NHS SLT visits as part of block contract between NHS and LA) then this has to be provided via statement even though the cost of private SLT is only £900 pa. As it happened LA gave us private SLT via direct payments (so didn't have to admit NHS SLT not up to job) & DS already had statement for over 20 hours but the e.g. still holds.

There will be lots of other egs like children needing specialist equipment etc. I would think access to private dyslexia specialist would also be outside resources of mainstream schools as most will be stuck with using (often poor) LA dyslexia advice or more hours than the LA staff can provide.

So anything the school can't / won't buy in could mean you need a Plan for LA to provide it.

[bjkmummy]

I think she probably does need over 20 hours support as she needs support for reading, writing, spelling, maths especially when she hits secondary as she is going to struggle to access the curriculum. The senco of the secondary I went to visit said this even subjects such as art she wil need support in - went back to see the senco when I won the refusal to assess appeal and she has now back tracked on what she said as she has realised that I'm 'that' parent, the one who keeps appealing to tribunal so seemed keen the second time to put me off her school saying she couldn't guarantee any support for her next year.

Then factor in everything else plus the NIL is so unspecified and quantified I don't know how the LA can honestly say that they can make the decision her needs can be met at school action plus, they are now in possession of the asd dx but I think that report has been filed away into a dark cupboard never to be mentioned again and they certainly haven't re looked at their decision since they received it so onto tribunal we go......