Need advice on statementing and school selection

[SquillosMum]

Can anyone offer me some advice about what I need to do:
my DS is 3 and will start at nursery in September. He has language problems following a serious illness aged 13 months and has been assessed by the community SALT who is now doing some sessions with him to try and encourage his language. We have applied for funding for some help for him at nursery but I am still waiting to hear what that will comprise. But we have been advised that he might benefit from attending a primary school with special speech and language provision when he starts in Sept 2009. There are only a couple of such schools in our area and none very close by. We have to select his school in November this year.

So what I need to know is can you select schools outside of your catchment area without having a Statement? How long does getting a Statement take (ie could we do this by November)? We are even considering moving house to be close to one of these schools, would this have any influence on whether he could get a place? Who should be helping with all of this?

He is also due to have a team developmental assessment next month so I wonder whether the outcome of that will have an influence and if I should just wait for that to happen before I do anything else.

Sorry it's so long... any advice gratefully received.

Thanks x

First the advice - phone up your SALT and one of the schools with special speech/language provision to find out what the procedure is to get a place. In my city there are 4 language units attached to m/s schools, that take kids that live throughout the city. So living near to the school or even having a place at the school that houses the unit will probably not be much help for getting into the language unit, as the places are allocated centrally by the SALT department after jumping through a series of hoops. In terms of statementing - that is likely to take 6 months plus. If language is the only issue it may not be plain sailing getting a statement. www.ipsea.org.uk is the place to look for advice/model letters for apply for statements.

By way of background - my DS also has speech language problems, and was awaiting multidisciplinary assessment when I applied for schools for him last November. I was wondering whether a language unit (m/s school with special speech and language provision) would be best for him. I was told that I could not apply directly for a language unit place, but that I should apply to mainstream schools, and then see what the outcome of the multidisciplinary assessment was. Because the multidisciplinary assessment was inconclusive (probably not ASD, but need to keep an eye on speech and social problems), I was told that they wouldn't consider DS for a language unit place right now, but wait to see how he did after a term in reception at mainstream.

You could apply to the school anyway even if you are out of catchment, but may need to be prepared to appeal. However if he will have a statement then that overrides normal school place allocation criteria.

You can request a statement now, or you might want to wait until he is at nursery and use their evidence as well. The assessment next month should give you more of an idea.

My DD is undergoing assessment for statementing at the moment - we started the ball rolling in October 2007 and are only now on the informaiton gathering stage! They say it must be done in 6 months but that is from when they agree to assess for a statement; our LEA are good but it took from October to April for them to really get going. My DD starts school this September, and we are hoping to get her in to a Specialist Language Resource Unit at a local primary too.

So I wouldn't leave it too long, as the LEAs don't exactly hurry.

Forgot to say, as TotalChaos says it's unlikely that you actually apply to the Language Unit directly. Places are allocated, and in our area they are allocated by the LEA not SALT. The LEA decides based on SALT and Ed Psych input though.

My ds has asd, so slightly different from your ds. In my area there is one language unit, and the salt will refer those that are eligible, via early years panel. All the children attending have to have a statement.
I am now awaiting draft statement for my ds, and have been through the assessment stage. I applied in mid-February.
It takes 26 weeks from the time you apply for a statement, not from the time the lea agrees to assess. From the time they agree to assess it should take ten weeks, as long as the professionals hand in their advices on time.
I think it is best to apply for a statement.If the process started in October
2007, I doubt that a statement has been applied for. I think you should check. Have you been allocated a "named officer"?
If the statement procedure has started, then you would have been asked for permission to assess your ds.
You can apply to start the statement yourself, look at IPSEA this.

Sorry, that is it takes 10 weeks to get to the point of draft statement, after the lea has agreed to assess. My mind is on my ds's draft statement.

Deeeja we requested the statement in October and have recently returned our part of the assessment. They are definitely assessing her and all the necessary people have done their reports.

I thought our letter recently said 26 weeks from agreeing to assess her but I admit I skim-read it and could be wrong!!

It's all definitely going along though, just seems to be so slow. Grr.

Deeeja we requested the statement in October and have recently returned our part of the assessment. They are definitely assessing her and all the necessary people have done their reports.

I thought our letter recently said 26 weeks from agreeing to assess her but I admit I skim-read it and could be wrong!!

It's all definitely going along though, just seems to be so slow. Grr.

Sidge, did you request the statement yourselves, or was it started by an early years setting, or school?
If it was started by an early years setting, I think there is no requirement to stick to the timescale of 26 weeks, which is why my lea were annoyed with me for starting it myself.
If you started it yourself, you should write to your LEA, and ask them why they are not sticking to the time-scale, and they have to provide you with a good reason.Phone up ipsea, for legal advice. You should write to you local councillor aswell.
I keep asking the lea for meetings, think they are sick of me, they seem to hate talking to the parents face to face!
Make a nuisance of yourself, as sadly it really is the parents that shout loudest that get heard.

Ah that's interesting deeeja, her (excellent) pre-school started the request as they had about 4 or 5 children needing statementing prior to school so they did the initial request. Then as soon as the LEA wrote to me asking me to confirm that I did want her assessing I responded, and they wrote back PDQ saying that they agreed to assess her. So since then things have progressed quite quickly as everyone involved knew she would be getting a statement and so have done her reports.

I didn't realise the time scale was different if it wasn't the parents requsting the assessment. They keep that quiet! I'm quite happy at the moment as things seem to be ticking along now. It just seems slow to me as I want it done before the schools break up for summer. Wishful thinking eh?

(Sorry to Squillosmum, I've totally taken over your thread )