Statement appeal tribunal next week

teabag29

Ive been working on my summary and here is the new revised version. Also as some of you may know by following my story my dd has had a terrible start to life, she was sent to live with my mother for best part of a year because her father shook her brother (my son) as a baby and refused to admit it until last minute, she was 18 mths old. Then when she was 7 she was physically abused by her step father who broker her arm, she has moved schools alot due to all of this disruption too. Do you think after ive read the summary out I should say a few words from the heart very briefly, highlighting what a rubbish start shes had to life and how she needs to take priority and also remind the panel of her age and that we dont have time on our side and that a statement will help to give her a decent shot at life...or should i leave it at just the written summary?

[FONT=&quot]***** is a girl who has a range of complex and long standing difficulties with learning and social communication as highlighted by the diagnosing Doctor at the ENC Nottingham. She is a vulnerable child with a high level of emotional need and her profile is not straight forward. To date she has received diagnosis for PDA, SPD, ADHD, Dyslexia, and significant learning difficulties. The complex nature of her personality is highlighted by the degree of time taken to reach diagnosis for her. Attributable to her complex profile, ***** is often misinterpreted by those around her.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Whilst I am sure that *****’s school are doing everything in their power to help my daughter, they are unable to meet *****’s emotional and educational needs at this time as these needs are not clear and a statement of SEN will help the school to better understand and meet her needs.[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot][/FONT] [FONT=&quot]***** has always found all aspects of secondary school extremely difficult which has led to high levels of anxiety and disruptive behaviour. Her learning levels have been impacted by this and she is not making adequate progress as evidenced by tests results and her reading/ spelling age. Her mental state has also been adversely affected resulting in suicide attempts and more recently self harming in school.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Every child has the right to access the curriculum and a statement of special educational needs is necessary for ***** to ensure that all of her needs are clearly identified so she can access the curriculum and make adequate progress. A statement is a legal document and therefore would travel with ***** to ensure early intervention so that any new teachers or schools would have a clear picture of ***** and her needs before she arrived, reducing the risk of relationships breaking down whilst information was gathered and teachers were trying to understand *****’s needs.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]The statement of special educational needs clarifies Monitoring of progress which would allow *****’s progress to be monitored on a regular basis. As progress is monitored externally the same system will be used allowing for consistency and clarification on how much progress ***** is making. Additionally if progress is slow it will be clearer on which agencies to involve enabling ***** to move forward. There have been some discrepancies in advice and the recording of academic results along with recommendations which have failed to be actioned upon which I believe are the result of *****'s needs not being properly understood. A statement of SEN would make *****'s needs clear to all those involved in her education, enabling them to forward plan as a cohesive team decreasing *****'s anxiety around schooling and therefore, by reason of her anxiety reducing, allowing her to access education without damage to her mental health.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Although ***** has received help and support on school action plus for around 2 years her progress has been very slow and the gap between ***** and her peers is widening. A lack of understanding and support for her emotional needs and complex profile would account for this lack of progress. ***** has yet to reach her potential. If a child is not in the right place emotionally and suffering anxiety they cannot access the full curriculum as they are in an anxious state of mind which then impairs on their learning.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
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[FONT=&quot]*****'s emotional needs and excessively high levels of anxiety are clearly affecting her progress, it was evident both at home and at ****** **** hospital school that when her anxiety was reduced she was able to learn at a faster pace and was happier in herself. A statement to clearly identify *****’s very complex needs would enable the correct strategies to be put in place to reduce her anxieties and enable her to make better progress whilst also narrowing the gap between her and her peers.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]If ***** is denied a statement of special educational needs and does not receive the right support to access education then she will continue to feel unsupported and extremely anxious which will be detrimental to her mental health. Without the support of a statement, ***** is at high risk of entering the criminal justice system and will cost the economy more money in the future. A statement would therefore be an efficient use of resources to enable early identification of difficulties.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The decision whether or not to issue ***** a statement of special educational needs is an extremely important one and will ultimately impact upon her whole future. [/FONT]

pandora205

Are you appealing against a 'no to assess' decision or the LA refusing to issue a statement? These are different and the evidence the Tribunal considers will reflect this.

If it is a 'no to assess' decision, then the LA will have detailed why they think your daughter's needs can be met in her present school. This is likely to include the support that the school should have in place (including additional funding that has been delegated for SEN). It will also consider whether your daughter's needs are severe and complex, which will be judged about their criteria (likely to be levels of attainment).

If you are appealing about this decision, then there are two aspects to focus on:

1. what support is being provided in school, does this match her needs and is it effective. The Tribunal will look at evidence from school, IEPs, etc. and consider this. The EP may also be asked about this (if they know the school).
2. severity and complexity of need - you have quite a lot of evidence for complexity (paediatrician and other reports). Whether the child is making progress across the curriculum will also be considered. The information that school assessments are contradictory and not matched by other evidence is relevant here. Any EP assessment will be considered as they are expected to be objective and ethical in their views.

I've attended several Tribunals and my experience is that they are very sympathetic to parents and listen very carefully. I think rather than giving a long speech it is worth making notes under specific headings, as it is unlikely that you will have the opportunity to read a long piece. It would be an idea to start with a summary with the key points.
The panel will have read all the reports in detail so there is no need to restate these.
The onus will be on the LA (and in directly the school) to show it is unreasonable to carry out an assessment.

If the Tribunal is to consider the LAs decision not to issue a statement after the statutory process has taken place, the type of evidence would be different, as the professionals will already have written their Advice.

Savvy_Sue

I think pandora has highlighted an important point here: what do you need to achieve with this statement.

(Also, my memory of your DD's story indicates that this school has actually NOT everything in their power: they seem rather to have been obstructive and unhelpful. I can understand why you might not want to say that, because atm you have to work with them ...)

teabag29

The tribunal is to appeal the decision not to issue a statement and what i need to achieve is for the school and agencies involved to understand dd better by having a clear picture of all of her needs because at present they just think shes a rude cheeky kid, shes not even doen as dyslexic,adhd or pda on the school files despite having been diagnosed up to a year ago. By them haing a clear picture of her problems i am hoping that they will then put together a support package tailored to meet her needs with recommendations taken into account and because its a legal document its much more likely that they will follow up on whats been said and not ignore advice as has previously been the case. Also statemented kids are prioritised and so we would have regular meetings to check if the strategies are working and what areas dd is progressing or lacking in and work from there.

I have been told the panel often ask parents what they want a statement for (i got that covered) but also what does this look like practically?
So if they ask me that would it be sufficient to say that i want the statement to clearly outline all her needs and as a result teachers are less likely to judge her as being rude and shout at her but instead show more understanding, then if they understand her need they can put in the right strategies to help her with her behaviour, emotional problems and learning needs. As a result of that she is far less likely to be anxious all of the time and therefore her disruptive behaviour will reduce and her mental state will improve. Advice from professionals should be followed up and training for staff if needed (on pda), she needs support with her memory and she needs either 1:1 or small group support.
Is that the sort of answer they are after? Thing is ive been told that statements dont name hours anymore or 1:1 support even though thats what she needs

teabag29

Arghhh todays the day...nervous

teabag29

Its over at last! Dont think it went so well, wasnt how i was expecting, I didnt get to say half of what I wanted i.e. discrepencies in the evidence as we didnt even go through the evidence. Senco and ep spoke alot and ep said the school contract is all thats needd, they said if she were to be issued a statement it would be very low level as there's not much more help they could give her. They criticised camhs alot and basically said they need to step up.

One thing did happen, not sure if it was good or not. Dd was diagnosed with adhd in December and I asked senco if she was put on adhd register at school senco replied yes. I ased when was this done and she said when she got the diagnosis in Decemer, I then said that ep told me last week that you (senco) told him that she was not on the adhd register at school as there was no diagnosis letter sent to her, after which i pulled out the dioagnosis letter sent in january clearly outlining that it was sent to school senco. I asked ep to repeat what he had told me and he said I can only tell you what I was told and that is that senco told him dd hasnt been placed on the adhd register as she hasnt been made aware of a diagnosis. Senco then got defensive and said she feels like shes being attacked and began to cry and walked out of the room. We were then all sent out for a break.

At the end they said you have left us with a difficult decision and we will discuss the situation now and we'll hear within 10 days. I dont hold out much hope, my witnesses let me down and local authority made there case sound good

daska

teabag, I'm so sorry I missed this thread until now, we went to tribunal over DS2's statement in January so I know how nervous you must have been feeling.

Please don't worry too much about them saying it's a difficult decision, what that implies is that it isn't cut and dried. It sounds as if the Tribunal heard very clearly that there have been problems with communication, with the relevant professionals not being made aware of all your daughters formal diagnoses and these being ignored as a result of both ignorance and prejudice. The Tribunal can't, unfortunately, order that the LA arrange for assessments that they trust for things such as the PDA but believe me, that doesn't mean the subject won't influence their thinking/decision or be excluded from the judgment itself. DS2's judgement is critical of the LA's failure to have him formally assessed for ASD despite him being awarded a place in the local unit!

And please don't worry about not having witnesses - in our experience this didn't go against us. Our only witness was a private diagnosis and written report from 18 months previously backed up with our verbal testimony. The LA brought in the NHS OT who had assessed him most recently. On the basis of our out of date report and our verbal description of DS2 we won him the right to have a therapy that isn't endorsed by the NHS and isn't available in our county.

I have everything crossed for you.

thegirlintheattic

As for levels changing, that it quite common if the school uses current attainment (which will be the result of the latest assessment). Some times kids do badly for whatever reason and get a low level, then on the next assessment get much higher.

concerned43

Just came across this thread - it always breaks my heart and makes me very angry when I hear of this type of thing. I have no advice as I have avoided tribunals, but u really wonder why these people work with children when the last thing on their mind is putting these children first before their careers/funding/politics etc ...I wish you well with your fight and hope everything works out.

mugwump79

HI there,

I dont often post, but felt I had to. My son has autism and was diagnosed at three.

When we decided to put him forward for a special needs school, they said they would need a statement for him. Its not easy when the local authority do everything they can to stop your child getting the support that they should have.

How I did it, honestly, I kicked up the biggest fuss I could, said if he wasnt going to get the support he needed, he would be staying at home with me until he did.

I got parent partnership involved who are very helpful.

I sent letters recorded delivery to departments I needed details from, I made no bones about the fact that I would go to my MP and get him involved and that I was not prepared to back down.

As one parent to another, do not give up if the tribunal does not give your daughter the support she needs. Make as much noise as you can to every single department, ring, ring and ring again, let them know this is not going to go away.

Best wishes