DLA Appeal/Tribunal

clair_witch

Hi,

My dd is 10 years old and has been a persistent toe walker for 4-5 years now. This has resulted in extremely tight tendons and now her right foot cannot go into the correct position to walk heel to toe.
She has night time splints and is awaiting serial casting.

She also has some other issues. She is not age appropriate, has trouble sleeping, many sensory issues, is very uncoordinated, cannot cut up her own food, needs clothing laid out in order for her to wear and if I mssed out underwear she would just go without it. She has trouble with fastenings, shoes laces, buttons and that kind of thing.

On November 1st 2010 I put in a claim for dla for her. Mainly for the mobility issues and the fact she can wear through the soles of her shoes within little over a week. She walks on the balls of her feet and sort of spins at the same time, it means shoes last no time and she wears through the soles so so quickly.

I recieved a letter in December telling me we'd been refused dla as dd didn not have mobility or care issues. I immediately lodged an appeal. In January we went to see her consultant who said she'd recieved the form and was more than happy to fill it in, but she's like to await the OT assessment as they'll give clearer guidleines of exactly what dd cannot do. The consultant was frustrated that she'd written to senco at dd's school and they'd completely ignored her. She went on to make a point of saying this particular school are terrible for it and are never very helpful.

Today I recieved the paperwork and saying the tribunal will be in touch with me soon. I read through and was gobsmacked at the report from the school.

This is a new school that she only started in September, yet in November the head teacher wrote in saying the school have never been made aware of any problems regarding dd's foot or coordination problems. I clearly told the emas teacher of dd's problems at the induction and she promised to pass it on to senco. I have also spoken to the class teacher several times and dd has had many afternoons off for hospital appointments, for which I have always sent in the letter so they can see the appointment is genuine. Despite this they claim they are unaware of any problems.
She also knocked herself out in PE not long ago, and has had several falls and accidents slips sent home.

They also went on to say she knows road safety and yes, she knows road safety in her head, but she cannot safely cross a road alone. She panics at the slightest thing, so tends to look left, right, left, right and then leg it, whether a car's coming or not.

Dd has no academic problems and copes well with classwork, her problems are mainly coordination, the sensory issues and her rigid foot.

I sent in a letter from the physiotherapist and she gave the exact measurements of the angle dd's foot will go into. She went on to say she felt she needed orthotic and orthapaedic intervention and made the referrals. Orthotics gave the splints as a temporary measure, but said she will need serial casting to correct the problem. So the medics say dd's foot cannot go into a correct position to walk pain free and dla state she can walk just fine, because the school say so.

I have contacted my local law centre and asked for an appointment so they can read through the paperwork and advise me. I am just so annoyed with the school report. They also went on to say there were no concerns from dd's pervious school, when it was dd's previous school that made the first lot of referals.

They obviously didn't have a clue what they were doing and if I'd have known then what I know know, I would never have put the school down on the form. But like so many other people, I thought we had to.

morledge142

i took my 8 year old out of school last year as he hated it and was really anxious,m got cnostipated etc and just hated going out.

sensory issues with clothes, food, touching stuff etc, baths - so thought he was best at home.

he couldn't read at 7 had an appointment with ed psch when he was 6 and never had a follow up - at xmas all the other school kids from reception to year 1 his year wear reading stuff out in church and it broke my heart.

we had meeting saying do you think he might had autism/aspergers/dyslexia at least. and they thought he was fine because he could count to 10.

i took him and looked through some of his books and realised he never did any work never mind finish copying the date off the board.. didn;t anyone notice!!!!!!!!!!

when he started he tried dinners and within a week asked to go on packed lunch - i now realise he did not want to have contact wsith dinner ladies etc.

i applied dla got the usual no first time - asked them to loook at again - sent copies of his school work from school and with me and wrote about our everyday life and how it affected him and our family.

we got awarded mrc and lrm - i was gobsmacked.

i have tried for the past 9 months to get it for me as i am unable to walk at times and have only received lrc.

:T:T:T
take them on yourself you know your own child.

i had a phone call from dla last week asking - when you say his other problems started in pre school is that when his care issues started. i said yest used that as a benchmark when he had contact with others. she didn;t tell me then we had been successful but said that was fine and we got oour award backdated to october.

good luck just tell them how it is . i sent a dairy in detail of our typcial day including all the nasty bits - not having a bath, having his hair cut front, back then sides etc and we got it.

at preschool his teacher asked one winter if i could bring a more suitable coat in as he only wore a fleece - i said you'll be lucky he wont wear one - she replied leave it with me - as if i was a rubbish mother, i thought your;ll be lucky....

he has worn the same clothes for the past 3 years winter, spring ,summer etc we hav epicutes of him on holiday and in the middle of winter in same stuff sun or snow.......:eek::eek:

i found preschool reports saying "he sits quietly on his own playing"
"will play happily with toys whilst other children play"

year after year. they don;t like to do anythign aat school then its not their probel.

Indie_Kid

You say that you child comes home with slips relating to having accidents, etc. at school. Do you still have these?

clair_witch

Thank you for your replies.

Morledge, yes we have similar issues with clothing (she gets a few favourites and refuses to wear anything else, complaining it itches or irritates) she HATES getting her hair cut and it is now so long it's at the bottom of her back. Luckily as she's a girl I can tie it up, but she'd really get upset at regular haircuts if she was a boy.

Sh, yes I should still have those slips. I tend to keep anything sent home from the school. I never thought to use those as further evidence before.

She's had a fair few bumps here and she's only been in the school a matter of months. Dd tends to misjudge things, or she concertrates on going from A to B and doesn't see the obstacles in the way. When she's walking down the street with me I am constantly saying be careful there's a lamp post, be careful there's a rubbish bag in your path. She just doesn't see these things and so tends to stumble and fall more than others.

I started noticing more when I had her younger sister. There were things I'd put down to just being her and a little clumsy, but the difference between middle dd to my youngest and eldest is immense.

Breast_Cancer_Survivor

Does she not have a diagnosis?

It sounds like she may have dyspraxia & possibly be on the autistic spectrum.

My middle son has dyspraxia & asd and gets mrc/lrm which was awarded without any hassle perhaps due to having a proper diagnosis.

clair_witch

No, we don't have a diagnosis as yet. She was referred by her previous school in September 2009. It took until July 2010 to get an appointment with the paedicatrician. We seen her and she referred us to a podiatrist, occupational therapist and physiotherapist. They arranged bloods, which all came back clear apart from a slight vitamin d deficiency.

The physio appointment came through pretty quick, but she couldn't help due to the rigidness on her foot, but after talknig to dd for a while she mentioned possibly some 'attention disorder'. She then referred her on to the orthotics department for splints and to the trauma and orthopaedics for serial casting.

Unfortunately dd was poorly the night before the occupational therapy assessment and I had to cancel, if I'd have known how long I would be awaiting a new appointment I would have taken her being ill or not.

We are now waiting for that appointmento come through and my consultant says that is the most important assessment of all, and that she will address any sensory issues. She is very very sensitive to loud noises and smells, hates public transport and travelling in cars and in the past she's had a few absences too. She fainted a few years ago and they ran an ecg (all clear) and an eeg too, nothing showed up, but she'll still occasionally say she 'feels funny' and needs to lie down or she'd fall.

Serial casting I've been told is a 32 week wait. Which takes us up until around May and they'll be going on just in time for high school.

Breast_Cancer_Survivor

Hopefully you won't have to wait too much longer for a new appointment.

Although DLA is for care/moblity needs it does seem to help if you have a firm diagnosis.

Fingers crossed you win your tribunal as it sounds like your daughter definately has care/mobility needs.

Good luck.

celbelle

morledge142 wrote: »

at preschool his teacher asked one winter if i could bring a more suitable coat in as he only wore a fleece - i said you'll be lucky he wont wear one - she replied leave it with me - as if i was a rubbish mother, i thought your;ll be lucky....

he has worn the same clothes for the past 3 years winter, spring ,summer etc we hav epicutes of him on holiday and in the middle of winter in same stuff sun or snow.......:eek::eek:

.

My just turned 6 year old son also has an aversion to wearing certain clothes. He will only wear soft jogging bottoms (at a push) as he prefers to wear shorts all year round and it's extremely difficult to get him to wear a coat. I heard a snidey comment in the school playground the other day when he ran past this other mum. She said to all the other mums, "no wonder he's running as he hasn't got a coat on." He runs everywhere! It's not because he's cold, he refused to wear a coat!:mad: It's not the first time she's commented about my supposed bad parenting. It makes me feel terrible.:(

He is due to have a Dr. at school assess him on 24th March as his school think that he could be on the autistic spectrum, possibly Asperger's. He has other issues as well, bad anxiety, lack of confidence, doesn't like pictures with eyes on eg. Lightning McQueen from Cars, won't reply or say hello to anyone, won't join in activities etc. Can anyone tell me what they do whilst assessing and how long it lasts? I'm going to be there as well. Also did you advise your child before hand what was going to happen?

Thanks in advance.

clair_witch

I'm just resurrecting this thread from the dead. We went for the appeal yesterday and while I'd say the medical side of things went well, I really took quite a grilling over the incorrect school report. At the end of the hearing the chairman mentioned the different rates of mobility to me, not sure if that's a good sign or not. Anyway, I'm waiting again. Now waiting for the decision letter to come through the post.

I took the occupational therapy report in with me and that highlighted her sensory problems and difficulty with balance/coordination. I have finally got an appointment through to see the orthopaedic team, though typically it's the first week she starts high school.

During the tribunal they said they can only really look at evidence that was available at the time the decision was made and that's what grinds me. Can they ignore the consultant's report and just go with the incorrect head's report? They assessed the original DLA claim very quickly, within weeks and didn't wait for a medical report.

Cpt.Scarlet

clair_witch wrote: »

I'm just resurrecting this thread from the dead. We went for the appeal yesterday and while I'd say the medical side of things went well, I really took quite a grilling over the incorrect school report. At the end of the hearing the chairman mentioned the different rates of mobility to me, not sure if that's a good sign or not. Anyway, I'm waiting again. Now waiting for the decision letter to come through the post.

I took the occupational therapy report in with me and that highlighted her sensory problems and difficulty with balance/coordination. I have finally got an appointment through to see the orthopaedic team, though typically it's the first week she starts high school.

During the tribunal they said they can only really look at evidence that was available at the time the decision was made and that's what grinds me. Can they ignore the consultant's report and just go with the incorrect head's report? They assessed the original DLA claim very quickly, within weeks and didn't wait for a medical report.

Yes, they can only look at evidence that pertains to the date of the decsion you appealed, however, that does not mean that the evidence had to be available at that time. You can still supply evidence that was produced after the original decision as long as it is clear that it referes to your condition as it was at the time of the decision. What you can't do is include evidence about a new condition or a deterioration in your current condition that ocurred after the decision was made.

clair_witch

Thank you for clearing that up Cpt.Scarlet. I did wonder why they held onto our OT report if it was irrelevant.