ive just been told re- statement

[bubblagirl]

ive just been speaking to my ds specialist pre school teacher

and she said all statements look low on hours as schools are given 12 half hours already to offer sn children on top of there statements

i said i would want this in writing before i agree to said statement of low hours she said not all schools know or act on this they just take statemented hours only just thought id share this with others in case they want to follow up with there schools and get something in writing

as i don't want to agree to statement to find the school then doesn't give the proposed 12 half hours there end

anyway thought was worth looking into

When we got our statement, the school received a letter that DS had been awarded 19 hours on their Matrix allocation which brought in around £12,000, but that school were expected to designate further funding from their allocated budget. My DS has 25hrs 1:1.

I did question the original statement and was told by our case officer that school would be expected to top up the hours. I have a very willing school, but I guess other schools may try and wriggle out of topping up.

When we got our statement, the school received a letter that DS had been awarded 19 hours on their Matrix allocation which brought in around £12,000, but that school were expected to designate further funding from their allocated budget. My DS has 25hrs 1:1.

I did question the original statement and was told by our case officer that school would be expected to top up the hours. I have a very willing school, but I guess other schools may try and wriggle out of topping up.

i had no idea about this and seems a lot of schools either don't do it or don't know so at least if his hours on paper don't look much i know 12 hrs should be on top of that

we was told something differnt ,was told what ever we get in statement the school is responsbile for funding 5 hrs of it so if ds gets 17 hrs lea fund 12 school 5.I orgunally thought that school would fund 5 hrs on top of statement but this is not the case

think were same lea bubblagirl , and yes think i would want it in writing to not that we dont trust lea we tryst thm as far as we can throw the whole collective bunch

Can the lEA legally state 17 hours and and expect the school to fund 5. The school budget is allocated locally, and therefore at their discretion.
It is probably a different form of words between LEAs. I'd suggest getting clarification from your case officer and something in writing to confirm what is meant.
If you think the provision is inadequate, and you have evidence to support it, then don't accept it. Have you sought advice from the local Parent Partnership?

well worth keeeping in mind, thanks for mentioning it bubbla, will check out facts when time comes as to who funds what - IN WRITING! [WINK]

Different LAs devolve different amounts of SEN funding straight to schools, with the expectation that schools will provide a certain amount of hours (5/10/whatever) to children who need it without them needing a statement.

When a child gets a statement it doesn't mean that the school get out of doing that extra bit. If your LA are good at writing statements, and not all are, the wording around the hours should say something like "Jimmy will receive 15 hours of 1:1 teaching assistant support each week. This support is additional to the support that schools are expected to put in from funding already devolved directly to them for SEN purposes" - or something along those lines.

Lots of LAs write 15 hours or whatever on a statement and have an understanding that schools will provide the first 5 hours of that (so the LA top up is actually only 10 or whatever). If that is working and both the LA and the school put in their required amounts then that's fine. If for whatever reason the school cannot or will not provide their "bit", then the LA, as the authority issuing the statement, are legally required to provide the whole amount themselves out of their non-delegated funding. They won't shout about that, and they would probably first try and get the school to play ball, but ultimately that's the legal position - whatever an LA specifies should be provided in a statement is their legal responsibility to provide, not the school's.

That makes sense casserole - my feeling was that a school cannot be legally responsible for statemented hours set down by the LEA.

yes, exactly.

There will, however, have been some sort of school budget consultation with the LA ahead of each financial year - typically where the LA proposed to give schools x amount of the education funding handed down from central government directly and proposed to keep x amount centrally for allocating for particular purposes - of which SEN is one.

So schools (or heads and bursars at least) will be very aware of the amount they have been given by the LA for their general pupil funding, for the general SEN funding and how much they are required to put in before the LA will top up. Don't let them tell you they aren't ;) Your child's TA might not be aware - but school management will be.

well ive asked my specialist pre aschool teacher to get me something in writing as were waiting for proposed statement to turn up and i want to know what school will be giving before i except the terms of the statement she seems 100% sure school has to give 12.5 hrs

so will look into this further just wanted to mention it in case it can help someone else also

Bubbagirl - ask your case officer to provide the same information, too. They are legally required to have it down somewhere.

This might be useful too:
www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/sen/faq/faq20howisfundingallocatedtoschoolsforsen/

Best of luck

thank you casserole as i say its the first ive heard of it today but she wanted to let me know so i wouldn't imagine she'd tell me if it wasn't true i'll look into it further thanks