We are Back at Tribunal again

[jenk1]

despite the meeting we had with the LEA last month, and them saying they agreed to most of our requirements for DS,s statement, they have refused to put it in writing, stating staff shortages and that they have 8 weeks to finalise the statement.
They even wrote to SENDIST and said they will no longer take part in the hearing and they expect us to write to withdraw our appeal, so i checked with IPSEA rep and she said erm no not until they release the final statement for us to read and she checked with their legal people and our LEA HAVE to include DS dx of AS from the independent consultant.
So i emailed the LEA and told them i had until monday 20 August to withdraw my appeal and they replied saying they were looking into the matter and nothing since.
So ive phoned SENDIST, the lady said dont withdraw if you havent got it in writing cos you are leaving yourself wide open to anything.
So she said we are looking at an October date now, but we shall go back to tribunal if only to get his dx put on cos its important.

Your LEA are unbelievable!

My LEA did something like this. they agreed to the school placement and then formally withdrew from the tribunal obviously expecting we would to. Our advisor then warned me that i had to 'future proof' his statement, ie, that I had to tie up any loopholes that might allow the LEA to pull him out of the school should budgeting, etc, get even tighter (is't possible?). I kept the tribunal date, got my witnesses all lined up - one of which the LEA tried to nobble by saying as she was an LEA employee (the school SENCO) then she should not be our witness - she (bless her heart) told them to get stuffed. I wrote my son's statement for the LEA 'just to help them out - here are a few suggestions' type of way, they changed three words and then pulled out 24hrs before the tribunal. Apparantly at another tribunal they never even turned up at all. According to my source (a headteacher of a special school) SENDIST bods took a very dim view of this and started giving those parents MORE than what they had asked for and their kid landed up with loads more hours of support than he actually needed! I would most definately keep the tribunal date if I was you. Our LEA have submitted all the independent reports with our statement so I can't understand why they say they can't - surely what one LEA does they must all do????

Good luck. I really hope it gets sorted soon and they do the sensible thing and get it sorted but regretfully it might be the day before the tribunal. It's such a stress - mulcho positive vibes and encouragement to you.

thanks flyingmum that gives me more confidence reading your story.
The LEA manager even tried to tell me that "do you know your independent psych is NOT qualified to dx it HAS to come from an NHS one" our ipsea lady has checked and he IS (which we knew anyway) and she said his dx MUST go on the statement alongside the NHS one.
The tricks they play.

They do lead a dance don't they. What evidence do the LEA have to support their view on your son (is it just getting the statement you are after or a school placement or both?) We submitted over 350 pages in our case statement and the LEA only submitted one! Another thing that helped was the LEA ed psych did a fantastic report on our son who was absolutely revolting when she saw him (well done son!)and our independent ed psych was a senior consultant, who lectured and published books so outranked her considerably - she would have looked a complete idiot at the tribunal (which she knew).

I think that because budgets are so tight that the managers have been told that except in exceptional circumstances cases will go to tribunal. They then pull out at the last minute. This makes the managers look good to their head honcho's They can then say in their annual reviews or whatnot "we fought hard and did our best but there was so much evidence" to justify the money.

Good luck.

Oh bloody grrrrr

we have the school placement, he starts on 11 september but the LEA are refusing to accept our independent psychs dx of AS, our psych is a specialist in developmental disorders and is more qualified than the NHS ones!!!!
they are trying to tie us down to "DS can have the placement but for only 2 years max, when he will be reintegrated in mainstream"
well we dont know how ds will be in 2 years time and dont want that written into his statement, IPSEA have told me to go back to tribunal we,ve not fought for 2 years for them to give him a statement not worth the paper its written on!!!!!
i hate LEA,s.

Bloody LEAs

It does sound dodgy on their part and I would have thought that a tribunal would take a pretty dim view as to why they won't submit your ed psych report or as to how they can definitively say that your son will be reintergrated into mainstream. What evidence do they have for this possibility?

The one thing I found helpful was trying to think like the enemy (it is a battle after all). What have they got to support their view? And if the answer is 'nothing much' then you should hopefully be able to feel more confident though deeply pissed off because they are putting you through this just to justify their paperwork.

I hope you make them look bloody fools at the tribunal. Will your ed psych be a witness at tribunal and has he/she visited the proposed school? If they will then I think you've got the LEA scuppered. Also regarding witnesses, my advisor, Claire Franklin, who has done over 400 tribunals, said that SENDIST are very keen on hearing from someone who really knows the child and on knowing the views of the child.

I cannot recommend her enough, by the way. You have to pay a bit but not massive amounts. If you want to know more let me know and I can give you her email address.

Many hugs sent to you. I used to get so stressed about it I felt like I had bees buzzing around in my brain.