DD2 having her 1st review at school and I have no idea what to ask for or expect.

[mumgoingcrazy]

I know lots of you have gone through this, so I'm hoping you may have some advice for me.

DD2 (2yr 6mo) is in an assessment unit in a sn school. She has had physio/OT/SALT/Portage weekly up until Sept. Since then we have had physio and OT, and as the SALT provision was cut we decided to bankrupt ourselves and go private for this until she is statemented.

At her annual review in a couple of weeks they will start the statement process and attending will be the Ed Psych, teachers/keyworker, OT, SALT, Physio and head teacher. This scares the hell out of me, what do I need to do to ensure DD2 gets the help she needs. Am I naive in thinking they'll all do the best they can by her?

Should I get DH to take a day off and come with me?

Thanks very much in advance

Hi
Hope the meeting goes well.
Whenever we have big meetings like yours for our ds I rarely go alone, dh takes time off work or I ask an advocate from the carers centre to come as well.
Not because I feel threatened but always useful to have another person to ask questions or listen to answers, can be more difficult to absorb everything when on your own.
Might be useful to make a list of all the things that you want covered in the meeting including having salt in the statement, biggest mistake we made was not having salt written in to first statement as I believed all the talk that he would recieve a good ammount of input.
hth

Would also suggest you do not attend this meeting on your own, certainly get your DH to attend this with you. You need your own advocate!. Such meetings can cause considerable nerves and the other person too can ask questions and take notes of what is said.

Private SALT must be costing you a small fortune .

Statementing as well can take around 6 months to set up. Were you aware of this?.

Do not readily believe all that they tell you, take it with a pinch of salt particularly when SALT is mentioned.

I would also suggest you put in the request for the Statement yourself. This is for two reasons; first off you know its been done then and secondly you can appeal if the LEA say no.

SALT can appear in the Statement, it should be in part 2.

Thank you very much. I'll definately take DH with me after what you both said.

I spoke to DD2's SALT and she was the one who suggested getting her statemented sooner rather than later as her provision was cut to 10 x 20 min sessions a year. She said it should all be in place by the summer ready for a Sept start so we decided on pivate SALT to fill this void. Our NHS SALT said she will be recommending 30 mins twice a week on her statement.

I'll make my list of things I want, DD2's teachers said they'd help me (knowing it's my first time). Will the LEA say no to a statement for DD2 when she's in a SN school?? I'd assumed as she was in SN school she'd automatically be statemented. (So clueless about all this ). I have to choose schools for DD2 in October which scares the hell out of me, so need to get the statementing process started.

Am I right in thinking once you get the 1st statement done, the rest are just amendments? That's why getting the 1st one right is crucial.

Thanks again
x

I'm another one who says you definately should not go alone, and if necessary find an advocate from a support organisation or a friend with sn experience.

After the statement is done and agreed (you DO NOT have to agree with the first draft) then it will be reviewed annually to see if it still meets her needs. I can't remember but it might be a 6 months review at first?

So yes, getting the first statement right is important. Make sure that the minimum number of hours of 1:1 is appropriate.

As for schools, you need to visit - its not too early now, as many have coffee mornings for pre-schoolers who might come. See if you can visualise where your dd2 will settle in best. But remember things can change a lot from 2 to 4 years.

After the statement is fully agreed by you as parents (you get a draft statement first of all which will not name a school) you then agree or disagree with the content.

If you agree to the content (DO SEEK INDEPENDENT ADVICE FROM EITHER IPSEA OR SOS;SEN ON THIS MATTER BEFORE AGREEING ON THE STATEMENT DOC) further changes to it are not easily done or achieved. It therefore needs to be bang on to start with.

Parent Partnership are an organisation you may have heard of but many of these are not independent of the LEA and can tow the party line. You need an independent organisation like one of the above.

Annual reviews are done thereafter.

Re your comment as well:-

"Our NHS SALT said she will be recommending 30 mins twice a week on her statement"

Hmmm. That does not sound like a great deal at all, that's the barest of minimums.

OMG I have no idea about all this stuff, I'm so pleased I came on here. I've got so many questions I'm afraid.

What is IPSEA, SOS and SEN and how do I get hold of them?

I thought the SALT provision sounded ok, but maybe not. What amount should I be asking for? We really can't afford to carry on with private SALT past September, it really is to just fill the void whilst DD2 gets statmented.

What kind of support agencies would give me an advocate for this meeting? (or is this IPSEA, SOS etc mentioned above?

Thanks again, this is a HUGE help.
x

Bump