Statements !!

Thank you.  I have now gone online and applied for a statement.  I have just posted all the relevants documents backing up my application (Letters from CAMHS, the paediatrician and educational phycologist and the Occupational Therapist).  Having read through them again I cannot see how they refuse a statement but I am not holding my breath.  No double I will be back asking for advice when I get the rejection letter.

I have tried calling IPSEA for the last 3 days and just cannot get through but I will keep trying.  It just goes to show how many people are having issues.

Thanks for your advice.

Ming - you can apply for a statutory assessment yourself, with or without the schools blessing. You need to do your homework though as you may have to argue your case on point of law rather than merit. At the very least get a copy of SENCoP and speak to ACE, IPSEA, parent partnership, SOS!SEN and the NAS.

If you are refused an assessment don't accept a token gesture/compromise from the LA, proceed directly to a tribunal. 

My son has ASD and has an IEP on Action +.  We have just suggested to the school that we get an SEN but they have told us it will be impossible.  At the end of year 2 his SATS results were around 2As which was pretty good only trouble is now we are nearly at the end of year 4 and he is still on 2As.  2 years and no progress.  We have been warned that this is the age that he would plateau.  The school seem satisfied that as he is not the worst in the class he is ok.  My argument is that he could do so much better with the right help.  They seem happy to let him plod along at the bottom.  He also finds school very stressful and begs me most morning not to send him in.  This week is not so bad as he has just had a week off for half term so managed to relax but give it another week or so and the cracks will begin to appear.

I am terrified about him going to high school and how he will cope (or not) with that but at least if I can get an SEN I could possibly get a school who would cater for him.

Hi Valleygirl

My son was out of school for 3.5 years during the primary stage because there were no local schools that could meet his needs.  The one school that we thought we wanted ended up rejecting him and told our Pupil Services Officer he needed to go to a residential school. They also questioned his diagnosis and suggested he had PDA.  Utter hogwash.  So much for 'experts'.  And these are the people who are supposed to understand autism.  In actual fact, they just didnt like us (parents) - it was nothing to do with our son.  We were too assertive.

Anyway, they did us a big favour as we have now set up our own school

www.brightfuturesschool.co.uk

That was a big challenge but we opened in Sept with 1 pupil and now have 3 more in various stages of officially seeking a placement.  So if you're anywhere near......?

Otherwise, you might want to look at all the options that are available in your area.  There is some info on this on the NAS's Autism Services Directory

http://www.autism.org.uk/en-gb/directory.aspx

and your Parent Partnership Service should also be able to give you information on the range of placements that are open to you.  I agree with SheffieldMum that getting all the info is really crucial.  If you can get reports from people like an independent Educational Psychologist and Speech and Language Therapist to say what your son's needs are and what kind of placement he needs, that would also help - but its expensive :(

Someone else has already mentioned the NAS Education Advocacy helpline - definitely worth getting support from them.

Hope that helps - good luck

Zoe

Hi everyone

It is very clear that our experiences of getting help and information with regard to statements is very varied and complex.  Below is a link with further information which may help some of you further.  I would also recommend the link mentioned earlier by Sandra which I have also added again.

We did request one which is why the educational pshycologist is coming to the school. But we know that he will probably not get one as he is coping quite well at school. But at least if I hear from the person who has to make that decision, I will be much happier.

As a parent you have the right to request a Statement. The Local Authority have 6 weeks to respond. If they refuse a Statement you still have the right to appeal. you can download the SEN Code of Practice here. http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/docbank/index.cfm?id=3724

ojqmum said:

The mainstream school my son was at told me that I would never get a statement because my son was too clever and needed to be 2 years academically behind before anything could be done.  I thought they were the experts and knew what they were doing so i believed them!  How wrong I was!!  After a long traumatic journey my son now has a statement and started at a special school in September where he is finally being taught the life skills he needs in order to survive by dedicated caring professionals who DO know what they are doing xxx

We have been told it is highly unlikely as our son is high functoning, very intelligent (that he is ahead of the class) and is coping well. However, my school has a high number of special needs children and so are able to cope well. They did say they would monitor his progress as they know it may go downhill when he is constantly sat at a desk. He is seeing an educational psyhcologist next month to advise us on what help he does need as his behaviour has gone downhill this term but we still expect a no on the statement.

Hi busymum.

You might be able to find more support in your search for the best possible educational placement for your son by following the link below.

http://www.autism.org.uk/advocacy

It's for a telephone helpline where you'll be able to get advice about your son's entitlements and support in getting him the most appropriate provision.
Good luck with it.

Sandra

Our son has Aspergers and has had a statement since year 5 (he is now yr 6). It has been a strange mixture of the school encouraging us to apply for a statement, and them seeming to think that once everything was written down all will be well.

They kept forgetting that they were supposed to actually do what is on the statement.

We found the specialist teachers to be very supportive and 1 has been an excellent advocate for our son; with her help provision has improved and more importantly the schools attitude towards our son has improved. The school have stopped saying that our son should be at a special school , or that he must be mentally ill, and have started accepting that his difficulties are due to AS. They now have to accept that his cognitive tests put him in the highly intelligent range, and that they need to stop dumbing down the work and give him strategies to cope with the pressures of the classroom instead.

We have found a secondary school whse SENCO seems to really understand his needs and without looking at his statement offered him all the support it lists. The LA have obviously refused to pay his transport and said he can only have a place there if we sign a tranpsort waiver form. It makes me very cross as the catchment school have said they will not offer pretty much anything on his statement but can still meet his needs. So we have written letters to the LA. But the bottom line is we have signed the form as we want him to go to themost appropriate school .

Kitty - correct, and quite surprising, a schools responsibility goes way beyond the academic and all areas can be supported by a statement. Our eldest is academically bright and we had assumed we'd never get a statement but on reading the SENCOP that all changed. This week the LA confirmed they are going to issue a statement, and not one jot of it will be directly to do with academic support. Sending you back to CAHMS is a disgrace, a tactic to throw you off. Ask for a statutory assessment (but get lots of advice on what to write), request a tribunal when it is refused and see how fast they turn around.

A statement is a legally binding document and you can sue the LA if it is not implemented to the letter, whether that will achieve anything is another matter! But it *can* be the most powerful document your child will ever have.

The trick is getting a statement that does what needs to be done rather than what the LA and their monkeys think they can get away with. For this part you may well need to go private (research your choice very carefully and check the LA will consider private evidence, the tribunal will if nothing else) and you have no hope of recovering your costs from the LA (but there are a lot of sources of charitable funding and check you are receiving all the benefits you are entitled to, DLA opens a lot of doors and a rebate can help pay for a private report).

Don't give up at the first, second or third hurdle, that's what they want you to do. Wear them down, not the other way around!

Like some of the others who have posted here, I've been told by both the school and the Autism Advisory Service that my son (aged 9) won't get statemented because he's 'not failing'...what sort of ludicrous system do we have that has to wait until a child fails before they can get help. So much for every child fulfilling their potential!

I must admit I haven't followed up the statement process because I have been put off by their comments, and it will now be too late for the secondary school transfer anyway.

As far as I can see from the SEN Code of Practice, its not just academic failure that should be taken into account, but I think the 'not failing' aspect has effected me a lot, and I have assumed my son is not 'bad' enough to warrant help and support - after all, he 'only' has Aspergers!

I am now challenging the school to get a CAF in place - my first request was refused by the school, because they said they could deal with everything in house...3 months later they were asking me to go back to CAMHS for extra support!

I do feel slightly defeated with this one...especially if, as it seems, statements are not worth the paper they are written on anyway!

We had similar from our nursery/infant school. The head teacher said we'd never get a statement (and we've heard from other parents a similar line being rattled off). She seems to have a real problem with statements and maybe SEN children in general and that attitude seems to have percolated down to the SENCo and staff. The SENCo is a class teacher and gets 1/2 day a week to be SENCo. You have to wonder from what standpoint they make these sweeping statements and it's not their decision at the end of the day anyway. My daugther is academically bright and way ahead in reading and maths, but we're expecting her draft statement by the end of the month. I'm just not sure whether to give the head teacher a copy in a nice wooden frame or fold it into a hat she can eat. What do you think?

ojqmum said:

The mainstream school my son was at told me that I would never get a statement because my son was too clever and needed to be 2 years academically behind before anything could be done.  I thought they were the experts and knew what they were doing so i believed them!  How wrong I was!!  After a long traumatic journey my son now has a statement and started at a special school in September where he is finally being taught the life skills he needs in order to survive by dedicated caring professionals who DO know what they are doing xxx

I'm glad you had a good experience with Parent Partnership, unfortunately here in Birmingham, at least North Birmingham, they are very frustrating and you really have to wonder whose side they are on. That said, once we got above the volunteers and got the manager himself, wow, he was wonderful and amazing. 

dolly said:

There is no doubt that the getting a statement is a complicated and distressing experience, and that is even with the school on board. Let alone without.

When my son's statement was finally put in place it was not the answer to all my problems as hoped. However, it did allow him to change to a school with a specialist autism unit. As well as providing him with support that suits him, it means every year when the statement is reviewed I do not have to go through the nightmare of fighting to get him enough hours.

When I started upon the long road to get a statement I got a lot of guidance from a lovely lady on the NAS Advocacy for Education helpline. For more local advice and support I found Parent Partnership  to be extremely helpful, without them I would have been, even more, lost in a confusing system. It is worth checking out the Parent Partnership website to see if they operate in your area.

 

The mainstream school my son was at told me that I would never get a statement because my son was too clever and needed to be 2 years academically behind before anything could be done.  I thought they were the experts and knew what they were doing so i believed them!  How wrong I was!!  After a long traumatic journey my son now has a statement and started at a special school in September where he is finally being taught the life skills he needs in order to survive by dedicated caring professionals who DO know what they are doing xxx

Hi,

We had this problem until we hired a good lawyer.

She scared the beejeebers out of the LA and stranegly they became a lot more cooperative. She also does legal aid work.

There is no doubt that the getting a statement is a complicated and distressing experience, and that is even with the school on board. Let alone without.

When my son's statement was finally put in place it was not the answer to all my problems as hoped. However, it did allow him to change to a school with a specialist autism unit. As well as providing him with support that suits him, it means every year when the statement is reviewed I do not have to go through the nightmare of fighting to get him enough hours.

When I started upon the long road to get a statement I got a lot of guidance from a lovely lady on the NAS Advocacy for Education helpline. For more local advice and support I found Parent Partnership  to be extremely helpful, without them I would have been, even more, lost in a confusing system. It is worth checking out the Parent Partnership website to see if they operate in your area.

We got a statement for our son 4 years ago but here in Sheffield the funding does not follow the child which is causing huge problems.  We have a statement which contains vague language and we know the school are not adhering to it, it is very frustrating.  I too have a poor relationship now with the school as they feel I am pushy and too well in informed.  We are now going through transition for secondary with no guarantee of an appropriate place being awarded by the local authority, we have also had to employ an Independent Speech and Language Therapist as we have been abandoned by the statutory services as they have little capacity.  The constant stress and worry of raising a child with AS and trying to get the best for them is utterly exhausting.  Everything boils down to money and resources, you have to become your child's advocate and learn how to navigate a complex system that rarely wants to help you as it should.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I think I will have reconcile myself to the fact that I am always going to be following up and checking that my son is getting what he needs at school. I really feel that most schools only pay lip service to the idea of inclusion and I have the impression that my sons school dont want him there really. I Still I am feeling a lot more fired up since reading your replys and ready to take it all on.

Good luck to anyone out there going through the statementing process. Its heartening to know that we are fighting for our childrens right to an education. Lets not give up.

xxx

Oh boy!

Don't even get me started!

I am currently in the statutory assessment process for two children and it is absolutely unbelieveable what "spin" they can put on this.

I am not sure if you have also heard of Network 81 who are another organisation who can help.

Also - if you can either afford to do so or are on means tested benefit there are solicitors who can help. I realise this leaves most people in neither position frankly, but I am sure there are others, however, Maxwell Gillott have been superb in my experience.

I have two very strong diagnostic reports each stating specialist education is needed and one of the two children has not attended School for over a year!

Best advice, no matter how despairing it becomes at times, do not give up. Fight until you get what is needed. My understanding is that the LA do not like Court/Tribunal cases and the NAS main website for application for statutory assessment was a goldmine of information.

This is the biggest nightmare for me and since all my time is taken on it, it impinges on our family situation and any other activities with the kids. Diabolical, especially when you think that if you could fund it yourself you could transfer to a special school!

Please don't give up, please keep going.

My heart goes out to everyone in this situation,

Lisa