Nottinghamshire refusal to assess. (further info on 'vent' thread) THE NEXT STEP

[misscutandstick]

so, they have refused to assess. Appeal date is mid-august. (which defers to Sept 1st).

asked for reports from:
Paed, Inclusion (portage), trying to get hold of SALT (just swapped therapists), then chatted to Ed Psych to try and get her on side...

Ed Psych reckons that the next step in this county is to organise a meeting with the Head of LEA, which incidentally is the blokie who refused the assessment. At this meeting he is likely to call the teacher/head of school and EP for their imput. WHen asked the chances of overturning the refusal "unlikely but it does happen".

The way the funding works here, the pot of money is given to a group of schools to share out amongst the children with SEN within that group of schools. However the woman that does the sharing is off longterm and the new person HASNT ACTUALLY ALLOCATED the money yet, so NOTHING has been put in place yet as the school dont know how much funding is being given. The EP has only just found this info out. She understands that support needs to be in place for starting in september.

so!

If i attend the meeting (not sure how long it will take) theres a possibility i will miss the appeal date. If i dont attend a meeting with the Head of LEA it wont look good at tribunal. Can/should I make appeal and ask for meeting at the same time to cover all bases? dont want it to look bad at the meeting that i dont believe it will be resolved at the meeting. Or will it look like I actually mean business? If i manage to get reports in for meeting with Head OF Lea, should i take them with me, to back me up??? should i do all i can to make sure i can take reports with me? Incidentally, the writing a letter of "will you change your mind?" is done by meeting {apparently } here.

That is good news! My DS's one-to-one does also help small groups of other kids, including him, from time to time and I don't mind that as part of her role is to get him to integrate with other kids. You're right to keep going on the statementing too though, as he should get his legal rights as well as just goodwill from the school.

well done for getting so far with sorting out appeals etc, good luck for getting this useless shower to give your child the support he needs and deserves.

glad your ds is getting the support he needs for nurseryand hope you get the statement in the end.

Following this thread as we are going to be going down this route very soon I am sure - we are due to get our refusal to request (different LEA) by end next week. As someone who worked in the law before i entered Autism World I would say definitely appeal anyway and get a tribunal date - often its only having that as a backstop that makes things happen. You can always pull out of the tribunal - at the last minute if necessary - I worked in a different area of law but we always got a settlement at the court door - it took that tribunal or trial date to focus minds. You need to have that date in the diary to get the other stuff to happen and to get it in writing. Definitely do not miss any deadlines for appeal - its totally normal to carry on with the appeal and negotiate / go to meetings at the same time, see the appeal as a safeguard if negotiations fail. Tribunal dates are usually months ahead. I've seen loads of public sector bodies hold out to the last minute and offer a deal at the door of a tribunal or even half way through a trial - you don't stop the tribunal process until you have got what you want in writing and signed by someone in authority. Thats your bargaining chip.

Hi Miscutandstick

I've had a few battles with my LEA over the years re Statementing so have some experience of 'the system'

If they've refused to assess then you have the right to appeal to SENDIST however, the first step should be to try to get the LEA to overturn that decision.

Lodge an appeal with SENDIST immeditely - the clock is now ticking for your timelimit to appeal. Lodging the appeal doesn't stop you talkig to the LEA - in fcat SENDIST expect you and the LEA to try to find an agreement prior to Tribunla.

Write to the LEA stating that you disagree with their decision, that you have lodged an apeal with SENDIST, but that you would welcome the opportunity to meet them to discuss it.

you should have a named Case Officer within the LEA. that is the person who is legally accountable for the decision - not the @panel' that LEAs like to try to hide behind or the Director of Education etc - it's the Case Officer whose feet you need to hold to the fire.

Collect as much info as you can to build your evidence (as you are doing).

Mps are generally sueless - this is a clearly defined legal process and no MP can circumvent the law - LEAs know this so can cheerfully disregard any MPs interventions.

In fact your Local councilloor is a much better advocate as education is an issue that has been devolved to councils over which Councillors (not MPs) DO have sway.

get a copy of the SEN COP and understand the whole process.

On the IPSEA website is an information pack that leads you through the appeals process step by step - encourages you to ask quaestions to your school about SEN funding etc for use as evidence should it get to Tribunal.

KEEP A DIARY - cannot over-emphasis that one. Who said what to you, when etc. You can be sure the LEA will be keeping their own diary for evidence. Record the incidents such as being to that the woman who allocates funding is absent so funding has not yet been devolved to schools - again power stuff at Tribunal.

You asked why none of the 'professionals' seemed to want to help - the reason is that most are actually employed by the LEA, such as teachers, Ed Pysch etc. they won't upset the apple barrel for fear of reprisals.. the Health professionals won't bend over to help you either as if they did the LEA could state that the eductaional support required was partly on health grounds and expect the NHS to partly fund specialist provision - so the NHS professionals don't want to shaft their employers for additional costs either!

You may think I'm cynical but a dose of healthy cynacism will help you a lot - you will not believe the underhand tactics these B&* use against parents.

But the best news is that if you read the SENDIST decisions you'll find that they usually order LEAs to assess - after all what SENDIST wants to take the risk that SENs may exist but not be formally identified. It doesn't cost the LEA much to assess and they can always skew the results to their benefit and refuse a Statement at the next stage anyway. A lot of LEAs will cave in under the pressure (cost) and overturn their decsion not to assess just to save the time & cost of turning up at SENDIST.

I forced my LEA into issuing a Statement and then took the b*s to the Ombudsman, won my case and sued the LEA.

You can do it

P.S. Staying really really angry gives you the energy to nail the sods

Best wishes

What a great summary of the whole process wetaugust, reckon all those going through statementing etc should read this whole thread! Juliaw's legal point of view also really helpful!I have a pal who I am suspicous is about to get turned down for an assessment, because they think the mum will roll over easily (though the kid has clearly got very significant autism/special needs). I'm going to help her if this happens though, taking all your advice on board. My LEA plays a game whereby they persuade people they don't need to apply for a statement ("why put yourself through all the stress, dearie") as their kids can get schooling through to 18 in the local special schools and won't need a statement. All very well, but what if you think (as I did) that their school provision is shit! They are basically funnelling you into their (woefully inadequate) provision, and denying kids their legal rights of choice of education via a statement. It makes me so mad!