Please could anyone help me with the last bit of the parental contribution for ds's statement.

[macwoozy]

I've finally reached the last few questions that have been asked by the LEA for the parental contribution for the statement. It's all looking promising, the ed psych came to the school to watch ds as part of the assessment, and when I asked her if she was in favour of ds getting a statement, she said that 'yes, it's gone on for far too long now' She remembers assessing him when he was at pre-school at 3 years, and now he's 7.

I wondered if anyone could shed a bit of light on these final questions, I don't really know what to write.

'With whom would you like more contact?'

'What do you think are the family's needs and your needs?'

I've frantically been typing away for the last week or two and have typed over 6 pages of A4(I've already written several reports for them before) The school SENCO said that the LEA don't really read reams of paperwork, and considering that it's already been agreed that he falls under the criteria for assessment, I'm not sure if I should drastically cut down on what I've written, has anybody got any views on this? I really don't want to get it wrong, or add anything that could jeopardise their decision.

Understand your concern on the length of your report. Have you considered attaching a cover sheet with bullet points of your main issues/ concerns. Strongly worded like "complex difficulties" or "failing to progress" (sorry don't know your situation) usually catches attention.

My LA doesn't ask about more contact or family needs but I would have thought SaLT, OT, EP, CAHMS, Behavioural Support, Playschemes, respite, Special Educational Needs Services or specific outreach teams would be the type of thing that could be included.

Hi Macwoozy - we wrote a very long parental contribution for DS as well. Basically, we went through every area of his development and described how we saw it as affecting him then and what our hopes were for him with appropriate support in that area.

Thanks for that tibni and Cristina,

Spent all of last night making bullet points of my report and that still ran to over 3 pages, I was never any good at summarizing at school.

macwoozy, my parental report was 5 pages long, too, and I don't think the idiot who typed up the statement even read it.

I'd strongly advise you to focus your attention on the advice from the various professionals instead - if they send you a copy to check before they send it off to the LEA, do read that very very carefully and lobby them to get them to write what you want. This is because if later you don't agree with the statement, you can then say to the LEA "he needs full-time support at break times (or whatever) because the ed psych advice says so!"

I never got the opportunity to read any of the reports until after they sent it to the LEA. I wonder whether that was because the school actually applied for the statement rather than myself.

Have now finished my masterpiece, summarized into 4 1/2 pages, couldn't stop myself with adding more. Just wish me luck