help needed with SALT complaint

[mum38]

hi

Just wondered if anyone had ever complained about their SALT provision? Our situation is that ds2 who has SALT provision under the education and health sections of his statement has yet to receive any SALT through the school speech and language service and it is nearly Easter. He is in Year 1. He was assessed last term and when dh (eventually) got to talk to them on the phone he was told ds2 was top of the list. Some therapy was supposed to start last term but ds2 had to have his tonsils out and was off 2 weeks. He has however been back at school since before half term.

I have nothing against any of the therapist or assistants (difficult to as I have never met any of them!). I am sure they are doing the best they can on limited resources but ds2 is in desperate need of help. I was thinking of complaining to the head of the LEA and maybe head of SALT services. I don't want to put anyones back up because after all we are hoping to work with them in the future but I feel we have to do SOMETHING.

Has anyone been in this situation? We were wondering if we found appropriate private therapy the LEA would fund. Unlikely I know but we can't afford it otherwise we would go private.

I would be grateful for any advice.

If it is in his statement in parts 2 and 3 and you find a private therapist then the LEA have to fund. thaat's whjat we did when we were in exactly the same situation. It was easy to arrange we just quoted the law at them. They stalled on the details of organising it, but said yes right away (they had to). In the end I found out the name of the head of special services in the LEA and rang her direct and said I wanted the agreement in writing by the end of the week. They agreed to the private SALT making the same number of visits as the NHS SALT. this was a bit cheeky as the NHS SALT had cancelled 2 visits due to illness and they didn;t include those (even though they weren't made up). i didn;'t bother arguing that point though as I was just happy for him to be geting anything.

Despite the other thread being nice to people in this circumstance doesn't do anything- just be firm but polite. As in the law say x, y z (see IPSEA website for the relevant court cases), ds2 has SALT specified in parts 2 and 3 of his statement, therefor the LEA has a statutory duty to privide it. As this is currently not being provided I have found Mrs X - a priavte SALT and would like the LEA to pay for x visits into school.

If it's only in part 5 and 6 of his statement though I'm afraid you are stuffed!

oh I did complain to the head of salt as well (and the LEA had meetings with him as well). After that they decided to take the unusual step of looking for someone to cover maternity leave. They couldn't find anyone so they just said that "limited resources" crap (oh that's fine then- lets not bother). But in parallel with complaining to the head of salt I was making my own arrangements with the LEA )(that's why I had to rng up and say I wanted it in writing by the end of the week the lea were saying "oh we'll just wait and see if someone is appointed and if they aren't then we'll pay for your private salt to go in" and they seemed happpy to wait and see indefinitely. In the end I lost patience!

Sadly I have to agree wth everything that JimJams has written.
There appears to be a national shortage of SALT's and this does not help our youngsters with their difficulties.
J has Semantic-Pragmatic Disorder and NEEDS SALT intervention to help with this.We went for an 18 month period without any SALT help at all because there simply was not a SALT in our area....NOT ON!!!
Eventually when we had J's statement finalised I made sure his SALT was incorporated in educational needs and medical needs.....so we were then able to ensure the LEA provided SALT for J.
Good Luck......as JimJams says be firm but polite and you will get this matter resolved.

JimJams and Jaysmum

Thank you so much for your comments. I am off to check ds2's statement. We have also just heard ds1 hasn't got into the local secondary school (over subscribed). SO I am going to have a lot of dealing with the LEA. Somedays you could just cry!!