turned down 4 a statement

[lesley1978]

Hi,
My 6 year old son was recently turned down for a statement ....Firstly I want to see if others agree that he needs one ...secondly to find out the beat way of appealing...

My son who is 6 began at mainstream school with them being aware he had a few problems and he was transfered there from a mainstream pre-school plus a special needs one that he attended part time.

I had been nagging my health visitor that something wasn't quite right from when he was about 2 years old , although he had been quick to learn he had not started speaking properly ...she refered him to a speech therapist and sent someone from our local surestart centre to look at his behaviour ....and she gave advice and that was it ....

So that was it so we thought not knowing what we could do we left it at that....

so a couple of years later a few months before he was about to start school we returned home from a shopping trip " this was to grab a pen " before we to pick our two sons up ...the son mentioned above plus his brother who is a year younger.....when we arrived we found our son in the arms of a rather annoyed looking policeman who was about to break in to see if something had happened to us....Im guessing he thought we had left him alone ....So I jumped out of the car asking why my son was there as he was left at playschool ...and I was informed that the postman had found him playing in the front garden and he had asked where we were and him having speech problems couldnt tell him where we were and he knew he wasnt normally outside so had called the police when he was still there after he had finished delivering the road .....

So we went to the playschool as they still had our youinger son I was too upset to go in to collect as buzzing through my head was how my son had crossed several roads one which the traffic doesnt travel exactly slow and walked up a country lane which is used frequently by traffic and thankfully nothing had happened to him on the way home ...My partner went in and asked the head of the playschool where exactly our eldest son was and she said oooh he is sat over on the carpet ...so he said no he wasnt because he was in the car he had previuosly been at the house with two police officers ....so they obviously werent aware of it and we took them straight out of playschool ......and it took this experience for our health visitor to decide that he did have more issues than she thought and he was promptly referred to a peadritician plus she found a safe playschool plus the special needs playschool....

He is now in receipt of d.l.a plus he attends mainstream school but I fel that he isnt getting the help needed and that the curriculum is not being addapted as we were told it would be ....e.g we voiced concerns over his spellings which were things like saturday etc and he struggles to even say it and do simple c.v.c words we were assured that he only had to do the first letter right but we now know this isnt the case as we have had his school books home and they have crosses next to wrong words even though he has done the first letter....we were also told that he was lgdd2 as they couldnt guarentee level 1 funding but have since been told he is level 1 plus school action plus....whenever we ask what help he is getting they skip around our question and dont ever say how much time he has so we asked for a statement as we thought it would be beneficial to start a plan of action as it may be that he would benefit from being in a special school and our peadritrician has agreed that at some point it may be best ....so we were somewhat dissappointed to find that they thought the school were doing everything ok and a statement wasnt needed as he had made progress ...( although to be honest we are talking about a child who is in year 2 now and still cannot sound all the letters in the alphabet ) and is struggling with everything beyond gross motor skills ....appologies for going on a bit but i though it beat to provide all information ......so now my questions are does he need a statement and haow is the best way to appeal ....many thanks lesley

[Janet-M]

A parent can ask for their child to be assessed for a statement .From what you have said if it was my child I certainly would apply .

I would also put all of your queries about what help your child is currently recieving from the school in a letter and send it recorded delivery to the head teacher .Never ever have important maters discussed verbally unless you then take notes and send a letter saying on xx date we discussed this .. you stated xx etc .. can you confirm in writing that this will be acted on .

If you do get your child statemented I would VERY carefully look at what they have said your child needs .Sometimes they put sentences like eg .. speech therapy as required .. this is just not good enough .You need it statemented exactly what is required .

What part of the country are you in ? as my child has speech problems but I am not able to have him statemented as the LEA say enough resources are in for speech .. even though there is far from enough.

Any way apply , what have you got to lose .

[Janet-M]

hang on you say he has been turned down , sorry

turned down by who and on what grounds ?

section 8 in here is what I think you need to read

Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001

[lesley1978]

He was turned down on the grounds that he gets the help he needs on school action /plus funding and has shown some progress!!although as time passes it becomes more and more apparent that although he gets help it isnt consistant or a level he should get this was by the l.e.a ( im in somerset and apparently it very hard to get a statement )...altough I agree he is making progress the gap between him and his peers is ever increasing and if it continues in this trend it will be vast by the end of primary school .....his difficulties are communication predominately ,plus global delay , and behavioural problems .... i feel personally we are told one thing by the school ( he has a school home book to write how things are at either place) as he cant communicate as to what he does ...we have got other children at school who tell us what he has been up to......and they tell us things like good day instead of good day but he did clown around in assembley etc...we were told he had got lgdd2 funding ...altough later we were told they didnt apply for it even though the school phsychology liason person recommended they apply ....the s.e.n.c.o decided against it .....lesley

[emmaf01]

Try these people- the Independent Panel for Special Education Advice.

Independent Panel for Special Education Advice (IPSEA)

My son has developmental delay and they think he is ASD. He has speech problems, sensory sensitivity (eg won't eat many foods because his sense of taste is heightened), is not yet toilet trained (not for want of trying) and can be "interesting" because he has a short attention span, and so on!

He starts school next week. He has been assessed and recommended for SEN.

IPSEA specialise in getting your child help. It was recommended to me.

[groovycaz]

Originally Posted by lesley1978

He was turned down on the grounds that he gets the help he needs on school action /plus funding and has shown some progress!!although as time passes it becomes more and more apparent that although he gets help it isnt consistant or a level he should get this was by the l.e.a ( im in somerset and apparently it very hard to get a statement )...altough I agree he is making progress the gap between him and his peers is ever increasing and if it continues in this trend it will be vast by the end of primary school .....his difficulties are communication predominately ,plus global delay , and behavioural problems .... i feel personally we are told one thing by the school ( he has a school home book to write how things are at either place) as he cant communicate as to what he does ...we have got other children at school who tell us what he has been up to......and they tell us things like good day instead of good day but he did clown around in assembley etc...we were told he had got lgdd2 funding ...altough later we were told they didnt apply for it even though the school phsychology liason person recommended they apply ....the s.e.n.c.o decided against it .....lesley

Hi lesley,
Im sorry to read about the problems with your son, I have bee dow the same route with my own son and after fightig for 6 and half years have only managed to get him statemented,
does your son have a diagnosis of any particular problem, my own son has been diagnosed as Autistic and also has Dysparxia, resulting in poor handwriting and fine motor skills,
Is your son on an Individiual education Plan, In my case the LEA would not issue a SEN without this in place, also I had to have OT reports as well as education psychology report and reports from s;peach and language, i had to ask my gp to refer him to camhs, who diagnosed him, but had to have reports from Autisr Spectrum Disorder Team before any statement was issued.
If you have requested that statutory assessment be undertaken, the LEA have to contact your childs school, the school educational psychologist, social services (if registered) the child health dept (plus any other medical specialists that may be involved with your chils IE speach therapist), any other person involved with your child, ie specialist teacher etc, then when all this information is gathered together a Named Officer of the LEA will decide if a Statement of Special Educational Needs will be made, at this stage (which is what happened twice to my son) they can either decide not to assess, or assess however not issue a statement, or assess and issue a statement, I discovered when it was to late that I could have at this stage appealed the decision not to assess, which is every parets right, and if they decide to assess, they could take into account the advise they received during stat ass that the school can provide the help needed without the need to issue a Statement of Special Educational Needs, but may require extra funding, If this was the case they will send you a "Note in Lieu". A Note in Lieu is similar to a Statement in that it setsa out your childs special educational needs and what help is required to meet those needs, the note in lieu is set out in 5 parts, these are
1 Basic information, your name and address, child name and address ,.DOB
2 A description of your childs SENs as identified during Stat Ass
3 Describes the special help that the Ass has shown your child reqires to meet his/her needs
4 Provides the reasons for not issuing a Statement of SENs
5 Describes your childs non-educational needs and appropriate provision.

I believe this is simply a money saving tactic, used by my own LEA, which does'nt help the shild with the support required, they tried this with my son but the school did not have the resourses needed within their budget to meet my sons needs.

Unfortunatly as I've found, its all abour money, and you have to fight and fight to get help for your child,

Ive just come to the end of 1 fight and I'm already worrying what will happen to my boy if they take away his statement after his yearly assessment and his statement does not start until the new term next week, so from my own experience, you really need to have all the appropriate reports in place before the LEA will consider issueing a statement,

If i can offer any advise on my own experience in having my son statemented please ask...Gc

ps you can read my plight on my thread "Long fight with my local education authority"

[freebird]

Hi Lesley.
all good advice here so far...
LA's are reluctant to give out statements for various reasons but my own cynical view is that a statement is a legal document and if they do not deliver the services stated, they can be sued......
We all know that they frequently don't deliver and the anguish caused through legal action, delays, jargon, lies and bad attitudes is set to wear us down..to make us give up..

Of course that's my cynical opinion from personal experience.

Here's another option.

The Government is instructing LA's to work in a Team Around The Child Way.

I'll cut to the chase.

You can request that a Team is set up around your child.
You can choose the Team with your son .
You can choose a Key Worker who will pull the Team together and make sure that they work together to meet your child's needs.
You and/or the Key Worker can initiate a Person centred Review of your child's progress.

This might not be the answer to your Statement request but it should be an effective way of getting a good Team of people working together around your child, to meet his needs.

A good place to start would be to talk to which ever professional in your son's life, you feel a connection with. Health Visitor, Speech Therapist, Teacher, SENCO, Social Worker, School Nurse, Comm Ped, ...any one from your local Parent Partnership, or Early Years Team......
Have a think who you feel shares your concerns re your son's needs.

I'm a Parent/stakeholder on our local Team Around The Child College and we deliver training to profesionals, working with our children. We train them to work in a Person Centred, Team Around The Child way. They will all have to, so this concept is not unknown to professionals they just need to put it in to practise.

When you get a key worker and the Team Around The Child set up, it will take some of the stress off your shoulders, having to chase everyone and sort everything. You will still be part of the Team but professionals will be accountable to you and services will be more needs led for your son rather than service led.

I hope this helps.

Freebird x

[emmaf01]

That is really helpful info, Freebird- I'll be acting on that myself.

[freebird]

Emma PM me with your contact info I'm in Liverpool too.
Don't post it here though.
Freebird x

[zaffie]

Hi Lesley
Who applied for the statement? if it was parents you have the right of appeal as long as it is within the time schedule. IPSEA are great used them myself.
A statement is a legal document a lot of education authorities are not issuing them because it will cost them money. IMHO it has nothing to do with needs but costs.
regards
Zaffie