How long to produce a statement

[eclipse]

I have a quick question for anyone who knows about statementing. A friend is trying to get statement for her son and the LEA are dragging their feet. I can't remember the time limit between initiating a statement and producing a draft document. I'm trying to see whether we can get them for taking too long. And if they've gone over their limit, any suggestions as to what to do to make them take notice. Thanks for any advice.

Hi Eclipse,When the time came for my son to be statemented, it took about 5/6 months. I have known children to have been statemented before and after this length of time. Get in contact with local council, Senco,any one who can help and get some advice on how long it will before he is finally statemented & ask why it is taking longer. Sometimes you need to put the pressure on. It May be that they may be waiting for reports from certain people which will hold things off.We had to wait another month as a report had not been given in by the time specified from one of the professionals and therefore it took longer then it maybe should have. Good luck.

Eclipse, I can't remember the time frames either, but when the statement process began, your friend should have recieved a big booklet from the education dept explaining the process and stating the time frames. Have you checked government website, I'm sure its on there?

Thanks, theheadgirl and Julia76. I thought it was about 6 months too but I think it is a med report that's holding everything up. I don't know how long one person can be allowed to delay things. I'll check to DfES website and see if there is advice for such a situation.

Thanks, Electra. It is probably a good idea to start bombarding them with letters just in case it becomes litigious and we need written evidence of the problems getting them moving.

hope, you get things sorted soon eclipse.

It is a bit of a loophole. The LEA can't be held responsible for delay in Health professionals producing their reports. This held our Statement up for ages. The best thing to do is start putting pressure on the Health professional or whoever it is.

From receiving a referral or request the LEA will send a letter to parents. They then have 6 weeks to make an initial decision to Assess. A letter will be sent (and parents have right to appeal.) If Making Assessment the LEA have a period of 10 weeks to gather the information. A decision to Statement / not to Statement or to make a note in lieu is reached and parents are informed. (Parents have right to appeal.) The LEA then have 2 weeks to write the draft Statement and 8 weeks to finalise the Statement. Total of 26 weeks. I think this is standard to all LEA's - hope it helps!

It is standard but delayed reports from non-LEA professionals are allowed to cause delays and not counted in the timetable. I know because DS's statement took a year, first through such a delay and then because we disagreed with it.

Thanks for all this help. It seems there is little that can really be done to force the health people to hurry up. I'm not sure if the tribunal people can do much here, certainly not that quickly. It's horrible to feel so powerless. My friend's ds has significant health and educational needs; it's not like they're not obvious. A panel of mumsnetters would have this sorted in an afternoon.