SENDIST appeal Oxfordshire

[FutureMum]

Hello, I'd like to hear from other parents who have gone through mediation or SENDIST appeal with Oxfordshire County Council - please PM me for a heads up and moral support! Thank you.

Bump - not in your county, sorry I can't help.

I think you need to be very careful with any mediation about being pressured into things that are not right or fair.

But if your LA has yet to read the bundle and amend the working document in line with their own evidence it could be worth it.

If your on ehcp path I have been told by ipsea that mediation can be just ringing the mediators to get a certificate - ie no mediation. But that's just what I have heard and it's a new process.

I asked as personally I could never mediate with my tribunal Clark. I can't even look at him. He boils my blood

I just found that a solicitor's firm is offering mediation services. The surprise is that their whole website is geared to serving local authorities.

www.bakersmall.co.uk/public-sector-solicitors/public-sector-education-services/education-law-advice/special-educational-needs/special-educational-needs-advice-support-for-local-authorities.html

Their website even says 'We do not act for parents'. I would not feel comfortable with them as mediators

They are well known with us. Run for the hills...

I would not touch that firm's mediators with a bargepole. A few months ago someone posted a link to the website of their connected mediation company which showed that one of the mediators was one of the solicitors who does a large chunk of the local authority work - only it artistically failed to mention that.

I would never ever ever go to firm linked to any la for mediation. They want to sell their services to those with the deepest pockets - the la.

ici i might have been me that posted the link to their associated mediation company under a previous nn.
I did go for mediation with them in the end (mediators initials were MS if that helps ) on my solicitors advice and i was pleasantly surprised.
Solicitor told me to leave if it felt like it was going wrong but it ended up going really well, so much so that the LA conceded at mediation!
The mediator was asking the LA to give me certain information about their proposed placement and they just couldn't produce it, they well and truly shafted themselves. The LA rep disappeared at one point to 'look for something' and was gone for over half an hour and the mediator ended up ringing the rep on her mobile to find out where she was .
It was a shambles on the LA's part and the mediator was very very fair towards me, i think she knew the LA were proposing a ridiculously shitty placement.

It was an out of county indie ss i won, their original offer was a newly set up asd unit in a maintained ss.

good news fairgame