what to expect at a CAF meeting?

[bunny3]

We have one on Tuesday (if it isnt cancelled by school for the third time). It is for ds,8. Looking at the Gov website, it looks like a CAF meeting can involve other agencies and assesses homelife as well as educational needs. I am slightly alarmed that our familiy life might be under scrutiny.

God, I am so angry now. Thanks for the links, the more I read the more I think they havent got any idea what they are doing..

Thanks TC, am writing huge list for dh to bring up with head tomorrow. Our next call will be school govs. might be MP next!!

Lol, we virtually write essays in ds's home-school book. Proves we are trying!!

Goodnight and thanks again

Dh is on the case. Unfortunately SENCO on residentil trip for a week so she wont be at meeting, Head is incommunicado as on a course today. I had a sleepless night and really wanted some sort of resolution today. It is dd2s 2nd birthday tomorrow and it will be completely overshadowed by this.

Would it be appropriate to contact the board of governors? What do they do? I dojnt really know much abou them.

Hi TC, trying to put this to one side but I cant. The Head rang dh and the had a brief convo. Tomorrow at the meeting (not with his classteacher or SENCO present!!) they will do the Pre-assessment checklist - they havent done it yet so this is against procedure. The Head explained to dh that where we are (Bournemouth) CAFs are used differently to they way they are used everywhere else and are a way the school might be able to receive extra funding for ds. She was very cagey. we will attend the meeting with her tomorrow but I'll take a back-seat. I am too emotionally involved in all this to be rational. I cant see how the school can choose to use a CAF in a different way to everywhere else. Makes no sense to me, it is becoming quite apparent to me that the school are clueless in dealing with this.

Will find out who SN Gov is, if they have one.

Lol, what a lot of confusion. I do feel slightly less threatened now I know the school are as clueless as I am. We are still meeting tomorrow but dh is going to take the lead and we are not going to sign any consent forms. We will however make good use of the opportunity to have a face to face meeting with the Head.

hi, just a quick update. The meeting with the school went well. We agreed not to bother with the paperwork a CAF involves and it was quickly pushed aside so we could concentrate on discussing strategies to help ds. Even the Head said how productive the meeeting had been and wasnt it better than filling in lots of forms!

The move here (Bournemouth) is towards having a CAF completed for any child who needs any outside help (Ed Psych, SALT OT etc). So we might have a fight on our hands if ds does need more help than the school can give. We shall see.