ABA Costs

[4nomore]

Can someone give me a realistic figure for what an effective course of ABA for my son might cost. He's about to turn five, he's barely verbal and really quite autistic (DX ASD). I'm asking because he will soon be made a damages award and my solicitor has asked me to suggest some relevant therapies and their cost to help him formulate the value of the award. Might be helpful if you could give me the names of some respected providers too.

Thanks

We're asking the tribunal for £24k per annum (for 3 years or so). That would be a fully funded 30 hour programme for 48 weeks a year. On top of that weekly OT and weekly SLT.

It is possible to run a programme for a LOT less than that if you do the majority yourselves and train cheaper tutors.

hth

Perhaps you could ring Autism Partnership for a quote. or UKYAP.

Thanks Star..., I'll pass the info on to my solicitor and maybe start putting out feelers if he thinks that I should.

Good luck with your tribunal, I've sort of been following your epic struggles (we're Herts too) but I didn't realise it was that much at stake!

You might want to talk to AUtism Partnership, and/or Treehouse because they will be able to provide A LOT of evidence as to why ABA is the only suitable provision/therapy, and also the long-term cost-benefit to society.

Thanks for wishing me luck. You might be interested to know that ds is HFA though. Don't know if that will make a difference.

Do you mind if I ask what led you to seek damages?

It's not actually damages relating directly to my son but is in respect of his father who was killed when he was very small. Ironically his father was a learning disabilities nurse!

Was the HFA a private diagnosis? I thought that in this area they only diagnose ASD, right across the board from Kanners to Aspergers.

TBH it isn't a 'diagnosis' it was the words the paed used at the dx, and the words our private EP used. It doesn't appear anywhere and I'm glad.

So sorry to hear about his father though. What an awful thing to happen.

Are the damages related then to your ability to afford to fund the therapy compared to possibly being able to with that income!?

Don't feel you have to answer. I hope you get what you need.

I'm not sure why this information is required tbh but when I spoke to my solicitor yesterday he asked me for some ideas about interventions, equipment, respite etc. I think the really crucial thing will be when he sends my son to an Ed-Psych (with a crystal ball presumably) who will do assessments and will then make a suggestion regarding my son's long-term prognosis and whether he's likely to dependent for life - that is the main thing which will affect the level of the award.

I would say that you should ask for £40k a year - the figure for a full 7 hour a day, 48 week a year programme - including team meetings, plus supervisory hours, training up by supervisor of new tutors' fees, plus consultant fees, money for materials, NI payments, insurance etc That's the sum friends of mine have won for full programmes at tribunal.Good luck! There is much research your lawyer can point to that ABA is the only proven effective education method for autism - refer to the SCAMP or Southampton University research on autism.

£45k+ is about right for a fulltime programme. However you could also look at ABA schools eg Treehouse in North London is about £65k a year I think.

Bit confused by the advice you are getting from your solicitor - are they personal injury specialists?

Usually you would claim the hours of care your partner would have given to his son over his lifetime and / or lost wages rather than therapy costs; although of course you could use the money to pay for therapy.

Thanks everyone.
Agnes, it is based on wages and I'm not entirely sure why he's asking about therapies. He is an injury specialist and he's going to be taking the advice of a specialist when it comes to setting up a trust for my son but this seems to be part of fleshing out the final schedule of damages claimed (the liability hearing went through with this bit not finalised, partly because the advice was that my son needed to be older before any halfway reliable prognosis coule be obtained)

Oh ok that makes more sense

Is there any chance your son will need residential? 24 hour curriculum?

Look at NAS schools / website

The residential thing would be worth looking into - thanks, I hadn't thought of that.