So desperate :( have hit rock bottom with statement process, any help appreciated :(

hi i dont know if anyone sughgested this already  but try the IPSEA free helpline  - takes a while to get thro sometimes but they are really great! 0800 018 4016

good luck and best wishes

Well - I made the quick decision to home school him ASAP after a meeting with the head and Senco who reiterated that even with the extra funding if he got a statement they would not self-fund an assistant, even part time, and his support in the classroom would not be increased (his 'support' being visual timetables and a number line behind a cardboard screen. And no helper. At all.) nor would any outside help be brought in.

So I informed them I was removing him - I informed the LEA the next day, and luckily I was just in time - as they had begun their decision process, writing out the provisional statement. So they would have named his mainstream on it had I not removed him when I had, and we would have had to appeal the decision.

Yes Crystal the LEA can write 'an autism school' but they won't! Also there is only one applicable provision he can attend in the wide local area, until secondary when there are two or three more choices - and they all have immense waiting lists!

So I'm now a full time home schooler, with no preperation, and no support, I'm also having to do all the Senco duties (well I was anyway) the head teacher duties, and all the statement forms and appeals and prep - it's all on my shoulders. I have a feeling the LEA are going to try to slap us with a note in lieu, and Theo won't even get on the list for Abbots Lea without a court battle  I'm just waiting for the ominous brown envelope to flop through the letter box. 

I can't do my placement for my degree anymore (volunteering in a school!) and they don't count homeschooling towards practical experience for placement related courses (not even for the SEN teaching assistant diploma I can do alongside, ffs!).... I'm still doing my degree part time at home and running a small art business... and Theo is incredibly full on - I now have no break from him whatsoever whilst trying to do my other things, which is already starting to show  and I'm trying to deal with the possibility of being diagnosed with MS (as well as my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome - systemic degenerative condition...)... and make sure I don't leave my two daughters out!!

Life is tough. 

On the plus side - Theo seems very content with his home schooling and happy to undertake the tasks. Although he did slap me across the face on the bus on Friday. But heyho! 

hi again - just a thought + I don't know if this is how the LEA might do things, but as long as they say he shd go to AN Autistic School in the statement, then that wd cover the school you're after?  Sorry if I'm barking up the wrong tree 

Thanks everyone... I've requested advice from so many places!

The NAS advice was fantastic I must say (thanks NAS!)

The situation has really just ping ponged from bad to worse - the LEA are refusing to name a full school on the statement as he can't go to it straight away so at present I don't understand how he will ever get to go as you have to be LEA referred (so how do you get on the waiting list if the LEA can't name a full school??!!)

And I've been warned that if they word the statement in a manner that names his current school in section 4, then he is legally required to attend, whether I want to home school or not - and we'd face another battle just to get that removed and for us to be allowed to home school!

So I'm really in a tizz - do I get him out of the school that's failing him now, just before the  provisional is written, or do I wait because it's looking like the statement is going to be a useless document with nothing on it - and I can't find out how to get on this flipping waiting list.

It's an absolute nightmare and it's getting more stressful every day.  

Hi! Midnight

Getting help or supports that ASD children genuinely need is SO frustrating, exhausting   process. I am on the same situation and I really know how you feel. I am about to start statementing process for my 9 yr old son but our LA has firmly determined that they are not going to "give" anything to any children at the moment (well, they said it is due to budget cutting). Why they are allowed to do that???, 

But good news is, you are not only one here! many parents share the same experience, we can provide emotional support each other. I remember, at a parent training course, a speaker said "the parents need to be a warrior to get what your child needs". We can team up, we can support each other.

Hi Midnight

If you want to talk to someone, then try the SOS!SEN helpline. I've found them very good. I did have to spend half an hour redialing their number until I got through last Thursday (which was their first day back after summer)

Is the school independent or LEA maintained? if not independent, are there any independent ones near you?

Write to your local MP, the Area Education Officer for your area, either your local County Councillor or the Lead County Councillor. You may have already done this - but these people should be able to help, and if you contact them they will have to make enquiries and respond to you. You don't need to put too much effort into the letters, just write what you have explained here and you can send them copies of anything else you have that is relevant.

Sorry I can't really give you any advice - I'm not that far through the statementing process yet.

I just had a very long and detailed email response from IPSEA which basially confirms my fears - there is nothing we can do apart from wait for the final document and then appeal the part that says 'to attend the provision once a place is available' at a SEND tribunal level in the last ditch hope that they will force the LEA to remove that sentence, and catapult him straight to the school. It's very unlikely to be successful seeing as his need is no more or less than the vast majority of other children on the list.

We can appeal for another school to be named (there is none!)

We can appeal for 1:1 *if* he meets the local criteria (he doesn't)

So... yeah. Come 11th Oct I will just take him home! (The final will be no different to the provisional if we have nothing to appeal *for*!) 

I will be hanging fire until the final statement is in my hand anyway, which they seem to be breaking all the rules about sticking to the timescales as it is  as far as the legal timescale they have until the 11th Oct to send the provisional but they've said that there is a delay on the typing of medicals (his final appointment) and it could be at least 6 weeks before they get the notes typed.

It's just endless. 

hi again - sorry things are just as bad.  Has he started back at school?   Can I suggest you hang fire until you here from the nas?  I know it's a terribly difficult time but they may be able to help in some way.  I've been in positions when I've been beside myself with the system.  They're watching their budgets like hawks so are unwilling to provide something unless they have to.  Sometimes, by not providing something they end up creating a crisis and then they have to respond and provide what you were asking for all along.  Unfortunately this is how things sometimes actually get sorted out.  Unfortunately again it's a very sad and unhappy time getting there.  

Thanks again for the responses...

I emailed IPSEA a few days ago, I emailed OAASIS today, possibly SOSSEN tomorrow...!!!

I have been reading up on SEND tribunals and it doesn't look good on that front either! it seems to say that you can't appeal if you're only unhappy with *how* the LEA are fulfilling what they have stated. You can only appeal if you want the statement ammended! So if the LEA write the thing we want, but then fail to provide it, from what I'm reading we can do nothing at a SEND tribunal level :o

I will be going to the council most definitely. 

I'm even thinking now I might not de-register Theo and remove him in protest until they implement something and contact the press! 

I really hope NAS get back to you very soon. There is another SEN advice organisation that may be able to help too in the meantime:

www.ipsea.org.uk/.../Advice-Line.aspx

hi again - I'm so sorry about how things turned out today.  Yes, it would concern me about him falling off the radar.  That's another question you need answering. When the nas get back to you they may be able to help point you in the right direction.  At present you're dealing with paid employees of your local authority and school.  I would give the Director and Chair/vice chair of the Children and Families Dept/Committee a go.  Esp the councillors.  You need to go where the real power lies.   Also councils have scrutiny panels, chaired by a councillor, which look at provision within their local authority area in depth.   There will be one that relates to education or social care or children and families, budgets etc.  All this info should be on your council's website.  I know it's another battle to fight and that you could do without it.  All this struggling on.    After the nas have got back to you, you may have another way of taking things forward.  Ultimately, if you're truely stuck then I'd be looking at legal channels.  I do hope you get a break soon.

The school said no to the 1:1 and no to the idea of part time home schooling. I've got nothing left!

SENCO said there is nothing she can do, she wants to be able to do something, but she, like me, can't think of anything left for us to try.

I phoned the NAS education rights number - it's just an answer machine so I left a message.

I phoned the LEA - they said that once they officially write up the statement they will look for a provision elsewhere to fill the waiting gap, but she also admitted that there wasn't one. (So pointless really).

I contacted Parent Partnership and I got the most useless person in the world who didn't seem to understand basic questions and kept telling me I had to start the statement process (didn't need that today) I kept saying I started it months and months ago!!!!!!!!!!

I'm thinking of pulling him out of school entirely until he gets to the end of the waiting list - but I am very worried he will fall off the radar and I'm not sure how we would continue to assess him and update statements, see ed Psychs etc without a school  

hi again - I hope the nas has been able to help you.  Also that the school will allow you to do the 1-1.    It seems a bit amazing to me that the prov statement is saying he can go the a school for children with autism and yet his present school seems to deliberately have a "blind spot" about his needs whilst he's with them.   I'd push that with the LEA and also the Children and Families Dept of your local authority, up to Director and Chairman level.  Seems cynical, regardless of their understanding, or not, of autism.   Yeah, I'm one of those "fix it people" as well.   Feeling powerless is rotten.  It's a torturous process, isn't it, jumping through hoops, pressing on, victories, defeats, up and down like a yoyo.  We get very battle-weary sometimes.  You will come through this, one way or another. I hope you got somewhere today with the nas and the school.

Thank you 

We haven't received the provisional statement yet, so I can't appeal - but seeing as we only asked for the school provision, I can't see them suddenly adding something else to it...

I'm more than happy to appeal, threaten, annoy the boss etc until they take notice...but... I've got to the point now... I don't know what to ask *for*!

We can't do anything about the waiting list. And we've been told there's no way we can get  1:1 - there doesn't seem to *be* anything else. I don't feel like I've *got* anything to throw at them!

I'm going to call the NAS education rights phone line today..  last time I appealed I knew what we were going for, but now I don't have a clue.

I'm going to ask school today if I can volunteer to be his 1:1 in the meantime - but I'm terrified they'll say no.. I have a 'let me fix it' mentality so if this plan falls through, I really have nothing. Although this is far from being something I ever wanted to see myself doing.

I feel like I went to battle against an army in a mechanical suit and a huge armoury of weapons, and now after 5 years in the field I'm reduced to a chopstick  

We have been ignored, and then dropped by every service we've ever encountered and we are literally receiving no further help (aside from DLA! Thank goodness) than 5 years ago.  

hi Midnight - I really feel for you and your son.  We had something similar but fortunately the school he was originally at was good and we got there in the end.  But it is an awful slog which no-one should have to go through....fighting the system You'll have gathered it's all about money and local government is being squeezed very tightly.  If you haven't, then I'd ring the nas for advice.  If there is a waiting list for the school of your choice (there was with the one I wanted my son to go to) then that's difficult unless something unusual happens to reduce it.  So as you know, it's getting better provision in mainstream in the meantime.  Normally you can appeal an LEA decision.  I mention this because you haven't said whether you've done this.  The nas advice should point a way forward for you.  I think you're at the stage where the gloves are truely off and you chuck everything you can at them.  The LEA is powerful but it isn't the end of the process so that's where you need to get advice from nas.  The LEA will want you to throw in the towel (I nearly did).  Then someone asked me if I'd done everything I could?  I gave it another go, threatening them with a tribunal and the secretary of state, if I remember things correctly.....quite a long time ago, so things may have changed.  If something's going to cost them, perhaps a lot, then they may reappraise their decision about a teaching asst etc.  But get the nas adviced.....mine is patchy!