What to expect a multi agency meeting for statement - help needed please!

[Nattynoos]

Hi all

My husband and i are attending a multi agency meeting on Monday for our son who has asd and adhd. He has had problems since foundation and the school are finally admitting that he needs help and so are applying for a statement of educational needs. (its a long story so i have condensed it alot!!)

I dont know what to expect at this meeting and im really nervous. The head teacher is chairing it with the senco, his class teacher, educational psyc and a wonderful lady from a special needs school who did the report a few weeks ago that has finally got the ball rolling!

Can anyone put my mind at rest and tell me what to expect at this meeting and will they tell me how much help they are expecting to give my son?

TIA

can I suggest you talk about applying for statement yourself , since if you do it you have right to appeal school does not.

any luck they have identified key areas your son needs help in and might be able to look into emergency funding as statments take so long , we started ours in January and still going on.

is hen on schoolaction or school action plus

He we have tried but did not get anywhere as school were not behind us...the SENCO is useless!....but now all of a sudden they want to apply for one for us as a report was done on my son and it was so detailed that they could not ignore the situation any longer!

This is why we have the meeting on Monday and im really unsure what to expect and im so nervous about it!

Yes he is on school action plus.

School Action plus to my mind at least is not worth the paper its written on. Its good in theory but is not backed up enough by hard cash and is also not legally binding (unlike a Statement).

This meeting may promise much but may be a lot of hot air.

I originally told the school we were applying for the Statement doc ourselves.

I still would not let them apply for a Statement doc; you're far better off doing so yourselves. You have more power than school ever do in this regard in terms of appealing.

If you do apply for it yourself you need to write to the Chief Education Officer at your LEA and give them six weeks to reply. If they say no (which they often do) you must appeal their crass decision.

IPSEA's website have model letters you can use:-
www.ipsea.org.uk

We did apply to the LEA for a statement ourselves in November last year and in that letter it said that they now have a duty to contact my son's school for their view!....when the letter came back it said that the panel agreed that he should be monitored under the school action team!...school were not behind us then.

I took this letter to my son's Paediatrician who is behind us 100% and who also agrees that he should have a statement, who then wrote to the LEA herself in December. She got a reply on February saying that he gets help 4 times a week for 15 minutes with his writing and school seem to be managing with his other difficulties!

I asked for the communication and interactions team to go in and assess my son in April and i suppose because their report was so detailed school have to act on it.

It is exhausting and so frustrating!