Ineed an update!!!

[Ineedmorepatience]

It was ajourned until May!!!

Panel were really good again and very knowledgeable but school made a massive thing about how well she is doing and how she doesn't seem to need support!!

I repeated numerous times that she is masking and starting to fall apart at home but the panel felt that because she is in a new school, they should have more time to gather more evidence!!!

Shame because I felt it was going well too

reader, I doubt they'd adjourn a refusal to assess. If they need to adjourn, just to get enough evidence to decide whether he needs assessment, it kind of proves that he must actually need a comprehensive assessment.

And if the LA concede that, your case should be in the bag.

Anyone done 2 dc tribunals at the same time?

We're probably needing to get on the hamster wheel with youngster. Most probably need to give up (for now) wrt eldest, as no more £ for experts.

a friend of mine is doing 2 at the moment - shes got one at the beginning of next month and one at the end.

depending what happens with mine in 2 weeks time there is a chance we could be back again by about October time and there is still her twins brothers secondary placement to sort - if the LA play games with that then we would be look at a second secondary school placement appeal at the same time ( the joy of twins!)

Hmm. Never ends, does it. I know IPSEA are more likely to give you a rep if you have 2 dc appeals. And SEND say they'll try & link sibling appeals if you want- presume it saves them hassle too cos if one gets adjourned, (nearly) everyone's there already so they can crack on with the other.

bravo uggerthebugger you've really hit the nail on the head.

Reader- they are more likely to give in the lower down in the process you are

Assessment = moderate cost to la (11 k I was told)
Issue statement = big cost as it's going to be in place for year on year
Amend statement = danger zone as parents can get 250+ a year indi placements.

Don't worry about that yet. It's a marathon not a sprint. They could well have a very poor case and have no intention of doing more than praying you don't turn up ( I kid you not)

I had my appeal to assess dropped but they still issued the nil.

Presume you have three tribunals assess, statement then contents. Anything less is a nice bonus - but I have been very unlucky in my long journey

Does your dd kick off when she comes home or about going to school in the mornings? If so, make sure you film her.

Ugger, if you know panel members, is there any chance of getting a print out of this thread to them? I think it's really something they should discuss at a training day or something.

11k to carry out statutory assessment ! That is absolute rubbish.
dd's SA included an observation from the LA EP! For the rest they considered and disagreed with the previous NHS reports. All that the LA rep had to do was copy and paste the crap from the EP report into the statement, alongside the generic one liners of access to the national curriculum etc. It wasn't until I had arranged for dd to be assessed independently that the LA wanted to properly assess her.

If only you coukd get direct payments and carry out a statutory assessment yourself you coukd save the LA thousands and get top professionals to do it.

exactly starlight.
We had indie EP, SLT and OT assessments plus reports and they were witnesses at the hearing. This still cost significantly less than 11k and included travel fees!

Basically, it is worked out by starting with how much it costs to employ these people, plus their admin, plus their IT support, plus their Time Off In Lieu cover/maternity etc. plus their meetings for the 86th redraft of a meaningless policy, plus their lobby work to counsellors to try and expand their departments, plus their pre-pre-feasibility study of a new statement outsourcing arrangement, plus the feasibility study, plus the office reorganisation and the subsequent employment tribunals, plus the catering for the meetings and the 'expenses'.

Take all of the above, divide it by the number of children who have a SA and you'll find it comes to £11k each.

For many of us, that £11k spent directly on the child, or training for frontline staff that work with the child, would be enough to require them to never need a statement.

The la only got a ep in for 1.5 hours for our sa. Then he wrote a not very good report. There was a case officer admin time and a panel meeting. Possibly cost 1k at most of LA staff wages. I bet they are all charged out at inflated costs.

Ipsea told me SA was 11k on adverage. I wonder if that would be the true cost if they did them correctly? Calling in all professionals and talking and meeting as if the child really was central in SA?

I bet the tribunal cost a fair bit as that's where ( amazement) they had lots of meetings with lots of nhs staff and managed to get the world and his dog to assess ds ( but all reports where saying VERY strongly how well he coped academically. No one actually assessed his SEN or disability that gives rise to that SEN. Then all these over streached nhs staff had the day at tribunal along with the LA ep who is too over streached ds had to wait well over a year until he was a priority.

The LA EP that saw Dd3 for SA saw her at our home because she had basically run out of time !!

SALT and OT both re wrote previous reports!! School entered a big pile of shite!!

I think it probably cost about £20!

It is an utter joke!!

Well I slept really well last night! Said no post tribunal parent ever!

My ridiculously over active brain re ran the whole morning over and over again interspersed with horrible moments where I remembered all the things I didnt get chance to say before they adjourned

I was going to take a break but that isnt going to happen because I need to write down everything I didnt say!!

No rest for the shat-upon, Ineed. The sooner you start recording, the easier it will be to keep it up to date. Aim to have a plan by the end of the weekend, and take it from there.

Aint that the truth streaky!

I have restarted my record keeping anyway!

Ineed My experience is that with every delay, came more evidence of need and subsequently more expensive provision.

If they had just given us what we asked for right at the beginning it would have a)probably worked and b)been a fraction of what other children often get and I would have been none the wiser but happy.

ineed well done with the note taking, and sorry about the sleep.
I am still concerned that they get two bites of the evidence-cherry and you get one. Are you getting a right to do some evidence in reply, or more evidence?
If not, and you want a chance for more evidence, then Request Changes - but you know that drill by now

meir what are DCs needs? If ASD, then the NAS scheme takes more than one disabled child into account when thinking about help with representation from lawyers.

reader I am hoping that you can afford some independent reports as the easiest way to win a refusal to assess case is by doing your own assessment. You have done one, they haven't, yours says that a Statement is needed, no brainer.

Then, when the LA do their own assessment, their experts already have your reports in front of them and have to justify why they are coming to a different conclusion.

If not, I hope you are in Kent/Sussex and can go to the Bedgebury Foundation or that you are entitled to legal aid.

fingers crossed

ps - would anyone mind if meir and reader went onto new threads. I am too thick to follow all the lines of thought going on here. Don't worry of the rest of you are happy, I'll do my best to keep up

£250K+ a year placements?

Makes DS1's sound like peanuts!

And DS1's makes Eton look cheap.

Yep that is true too starlight

We told the panel yesterday that this is Dd3's last chance at mainstream and if this school fails her she will need specialist Asd provision and we told the LA this at the last tribunal! You would think they would want to keep her in mainstream really!

We was told on the day about million pound placement. I think the adverage is 20k a year indi? No idea really as we are a long way off looking a indi settings ( but it's a possibility in the future I guess if things don't improve ). No sure why I was told 250 k a year ( I guess that's quite rare?) over a child's education it seems more likely?