residential placement ..too expensive??

[jiggles01]

Hi,I hope someone has an answer for me .... We are going to tribunal in July ,and we have named residential school and it is very costly provision .If tribunal think M/S(lea choice) cannot meet ds needs, does it automatically go to our choice or could that still be turned down as "unreasonable public expenditure"and if so what happens then ??

If there are social reasons not just educational reasons you could try for joint funding with social services if they are also involved. And or health funding (if health reasons ie challenging behaviour)
Good luck!

Am in a similar position, requesting residential placement but LA has named another special school. It is mostly a matter of proving LA's school can't meet needs and that your own choice can. However, the LA may suggest another school before the hearing and put this forward instead. As the LA has named a mainstream placement in your case, they may start considering special schools at this stage. Do you have clear reasons why no other local day special schools could meet your child's needs?

To make your case stronger for residential provision, you really need to have a professional recommending an educational need for a waking day curriculum - eg an Ed Psych or Consultant Psychiatrist. These would normally have to be independent, as LA/NHS staff are often more constrained in making recommendations due to budgets. It is also useful if they have visited both schools and written reports on whether they feel it is able to meet the child's needs. It is very important that any reasons you put forward are educational needs, eg need for consistency through the day; not social needs, eg behaviour affecting siblings at home. The latter is a social need and the LA will say that it's the duty of SS to deal with it.

It's possible to get multi-agency funding as mentioned above, but in some ways harder - when fighting LA you have SEND as a right and can refer to independent reports, but NHS/SS budgets are just as tight and there are no equivalents to SEND.

Thanks, yes we have had independent reports(ot salt,ep)done, and residential was recomended as needs are so severe -SLT,OT,self esteem issues etc,he does no hobbies or after school classes as he thinks he is no good and he needs intensive help re salt and ot .yes i think lea will now put special school ,but can tribunal still say no if special maintained cant help -he has severe SLi so does need intensive slt and it is recommended via a waking day curriculum.is your hearing in july ready for sept ?

As I understand it, the tribunal can only consider those schools that are being presented in the hearing. So if all of the LA's options are unsuitable, then they should name the residential. The SEN COP refers to 'inefficient use of resources' but the need for an appropriate placement overrides this - if nothing else is suitable, the expensive placement should be named. The LA sometimes argue for more time to consider other options but this is frowned upon as tribunal think LAs have plenty of time before the hearing to do that - I think there is case law covering this.

Sounds like you have a strong case. Will your SALT and OT be attending?

Ours is for a Sep placement, just getting appeal finalised now. Cutting it fine but there's a new priority system for secondary placements so we should still get a hearing before Sep, I hope!

Salt ,ep ,definately attending and maybe ot or residetial school.i believe you are allowed 3 witnesses .we have just posted grounds of appeal asking for 4 dates in july to be heard -as you say the tribunal now prioritise sept 2010 placements first.We also have solicitor it is costing a fortune but we had no choice as we could not let our little man continue being over looked . yes our solicitor said it is just the choices of the 2 placements on offer but im sure i read a case where residential was thought to be too high but in the end they won. most days i am so sure we will win ,but then i panic and wonder what will happen if we lose.

Here is some relevant case law, I'm sure your solicitor is aware of it. There are issues of 'overprovision' but if you have SALT/OT supporting a waking day curriculum I don't think that will be an issue.

I am sure you have a good team behind you and they're doing everything that needs to be done. You just need to wait for the LA's response to your appeal, they might even not oppose the appeal or pull out before the hearing if they realise that the evidence is strong (sometimes LAs do this the day before so you've already had to book and pay for experts/representation, grr).

We are currently in the final stages of going down this road, but as a previous poster suggested, multiple agencies are involved, and the LEA will fund jointly with SS and the NHS for DS2's residential placement.

I just found this document online. It says that

"Even if the Tribunal considers that the school proposed by the LEA is not suitable, it does not follow that it should automatically name the school requested by parents if that latter school costs a lot more because it makes provision (e.g. residential provision) which the child does not need. The Tribunal should specify a type or consider adjourning if there may be other, less costly, options Hereford & Worcester v Lane [1998] ELR 319"

So it's possible that the tribunal might still avoid naming the residential placement even if LA's choice is unsuitable.

Definitely get together evidence for waking day curriculum; I ended up in residential placement for education just as joint funding was coming in, and increasingly saw more and more students struggling to be accepted due to the funding constraints and wider options within the local community (my county had no in-county academic post-16 provision for people with severe physical disabilities).

Perhaps check what 'local' provision (including neighbouring counties) the LEA might suggest, and work out how this might be inappropriate/not meet needs?

thanks ..the only other schools are blossom house in merton and penn in high wycombe my ds has severe SLi and i dont think they are intensive enough... unless there are any mums who can share any info with me.He is working at level 1 maths and 2c reading though 5 yrs behind in comprehension.he is 11.His expressive language is at 0.1%tile

I don't know anything about the schools, but Penn's website says it provides residential too - so it might be worth asking for details of their waking curriculum (seems to be week only though) to compare the other to.

Blossom House told me that they weren't assessing any more pupils for Sep, as they already had quite a waiting list. In our case, I doubt they would have accepted DS anyway as I've heard that they don't deal with challenging behaviour.

Have you been in touch with either of those schools yourself to see if they'd offer a place to your DS? I sent DS's details to quite a few schools myself and they wrote and said they couldn't meet his needs or were already full. It's useful evidence to show Tribunal that there aren't many other options available.

Tactically, it's better if you get in touch with the schools yourself, especially if you think the LA might approach them anyway. That way, you can emphasise the needs which you don't think they'll be able to meet and also attach any reports that the LA don't have/refuse to acknowledge.