Who pays for this please?

[happyjustobeme]

LA invited us to a feedback meeting after the various ASD assessments for DS2 who is 3yo, they said that someone from pre school should also attend to input from their experience of him at pre school. So I asked his wonderful One to one support in pre school worker to come. The meeting was arranged by the LA for a time when DS wouldn't have been in pre school.

The meeting lasted an hour. His pre school support worker gave her feedback. The paed and Salt gave their feedback. The ASD diagnosis was confirmed, which was no surprise to us.

Who should pay for the support worker to be at that meeting? The LA or us? I should say that DS' pre school support worker is also one of his ABA tutors at home, as she came on board with that once we started doing ABA, big she was his pre school support worker first.

It is an hour of her time, so not a fortune, and we are willing to pay it. She has invoiced us for it as part of her invoice for ABA services this month. I am just conscious that there may be more meetings as time goes on, and I don't know where the responsibility for paying falls.

Thanks.

Bull, as I'm still clueless!

I would say the LA will have expected the pre school to have provided a member of staff for free so either the pre school or you will probably have to pay (they could pay out the sen budget). I think if you had said there would be a charge up front then you might have been able to negotiate it.

You could try and ask the LA to pay as she came at their request - can't lose anything by asking. If you get EHCP then get costs written in for meetings etc. LAs are not good at doing this as everyone historically was state funded and would turn up for free - but now everyone is watching their budgets its more common for one dept to charge another. We have EP monitoring visits in DS statement and even though he's employed by the LA there was a 'discussion' at annual review between him and the SEN officer about who would pay for him to visit!

So i would ask LA to pay but don't be surprised if they refuse - but make it clear for future meetings there will be a charge

We make ABA costs for annual review, annual report and any extra meetings written into the statement (we learned our lesson the hard way)

Thanks Agnes, it never occurred to me that it might be a cost we would personally have to bear. The LA suggested that a representative from pre school come so that they would input. I didn't instigate that she come, although it was me that asked her, so it never crossed my mind that we might have to pay.

I am reluctant to ask pre school as they used their sen budget to discretionally fund the support worker for months before the LA agreed it. The pre school has been amazing in its support. I would rather pay it as it is a small sum.

I am really interested in what on the ABA side is included in your DS' statement. I hope you don't mind me asking, but what did you ask for and what did you get? ABA is new to us (DS is four months in, he does 18-20 hours a week as he is 3yo), which we wholly privately fund. It's been amazing. I cannot believe how much he has progressed. Everything seems easier and calmer compared to when we started.