help calculating costs for tribunal ie cost of a TA, specialist teacher

[bjkmummy]

my tribunal fast approaching.

the LA (although not yet even named their school they will be fighting us with - the WD just says ' a mainstream secondary school - they are consulting 3) we want indie.

I think I could have a shot of winning this on parental choice if I can evidence the costs of what the LA are offering as I don't think they have costed what they have offered! they also don't seem to have approached my school even though the code says they must so don't think they know the cost of my school.

so = I need to know -

how much does 25 hours of 1:1 support cost (they've agreed to 1:1)
5 hours per week of specialist dyslexia teaching
2 hours per week of ASD teaching

then there is the cost of OT - but getting my OT to quote that

and also how do I get the costs of SALT - she needs 2 hours per week (my SALT now away so cant ask her )

I need I guess to be able to properly evidence the costs as no doubt the LA will reduce all the costs down.

also this business with the AWPU and the £6k - how does that fit into my calculations as well

apart from the costs - every report we have states she needs a specialist school and the main reason being noise so I really don't see how the LA going to get round a large mainstream school - they are trying to say that a bit of small group work will cover that one!

Dug out paperwork from 2012, costs as laid out in Tribunal papers:
SALT - £80.00 per hour - plus travelling time. We had calculated three hours a week and that totalled £9020 a year without travelling. Included social skills group.

OT - £80 plus travel - 2 sessions a week came to £6, 080 a year again without travelling.
Both would expect similar travelling costs.
Highly trained and experience learning support assistants (ELKAN at least) - £18.000 - £22,000. It was argued having one assistant is not good practice, therefore, your mainstream school will need two as staff members and our costs came to £27,000
Specialist training input will require a teacher with postgraduate qualifications in teaching dyslexics - salary of £40,000 per annum. Hourly basis per year was then, calculated at between £2,200 and £2,400. This and the TA apparently need to include on costs (I have no idea what they are!) So our total was £12,000 per year
Then, apparently a school will need a AWPU (also don't know what that is) at £2,500. Our grand total for keeping DS2 in mainstream came out at £56,000!
Plus there is then the issue of having a child receiving intervention that NO-ONE else in school gets - therefore, making them different and life impossible.

HTH - Good luck.

that is helpful - I found ds OT costs from the LA in 2013 and they quoted £85 per hour but no travel at all so I need to watch out for that trick as it seems like travel will add to it all - we live in a county with no inhouse services so everything comes from the county next door so travel will be needed for every service. awpu for us will be slightly more as we are secondary placement.

I think DD will be the only child in the school getting SALT and also not many will get OT either I should think.

I have asked the judge to order that the LA disclose the costs but its all get a bit tight timewise now

On-costs are things the employer has to pay in addition to salary to employ someone - things like employer NI and pension contributions.

but how do I find those costs out? are you just reliant on the LA telling you? I have asked the tribunal to order the LA release the costs but would you trust costings done by the LA? I have found some local adverts for TA posts but their pay seems much less than £17k a year.

at my sons the LA quoted OT at £85 per hour but of course did not factor in any travel costs at all and in all honesty I don't think my LA would have a clue how to work out the costs which doesn't really help me does it.

I want to be as open and transparent about the costs and to evidence how the figures have been sourced but maybe I am over thinking it

Standard travel costs tend to be 45p per mile.

No, you put your costs in: LAs are usually airy-fairy and claim it will be a lot less but panel can add up and know SALT and OTs do not come cheap and don't simply materialise at a given place.

Our mainstream primary Head said the LSA cost was £11 per hour. I assume thats what the school receive off our Statement. Lunch cover was £9 per hour. Travel for LSA was 42p per mile. LSAs work 38 weeks per year.

The school wanted 2 people trained to cover sickness, holiday, turnover etc. so any training time would be double.

The AWPU would be on top as thats what every child in school is funded at and doesn't include anything additional.

You need to cost OT & SLT for review meetings and to write AR report. That adds about 4 hours per year each

These costs would come out of £6k + would need topping up

this is for a mainstream secondary school so guess they will have a big pool of TA's that they will use - I do have a job description with the LSA payscales on so could use that I guess. I have found some figures on the LA website I can use for the autism outreach I guess so hard for LA to dispute it - my biggest headache is with 5 weeks to go the LA have not told me still which school they will be naming - part 4 just says a mainstream secondary school and they are consulting 3!