Autistic Spectrum Disorder

The only reason I have become so knowledgable is because of this site and just throwing questions out there to you all. Thanks Battling On as always for your invaluable information, I am glad that you said about the next step, that I can just ask for another meeting if I am still not happy. The Parent Partnership person did explain all that to me that morning but I had forgotten it by the time the meeting was over!

I must have come across as knowledgable as the SEN manager asked me if I was a teacher! I think for any of us if we feel strongly enough and are able to argue the corner reasonably for our children really there is no reason why they should not listen. I just feel for all the people out there who are not able to do that for themselves.... however I did share all my notes and info after the meeting with someone I know who works in a secondary school and they will now be taking on this job for the less able parents and checking statements more closely against the assessment reports to make sure everything is on there that should be. Up until now they confessed that all they did was briefly look through the proposed statement - look for how many hours and leave it at that so I was pleased that my meeting caused other people in the system to realise they need to be more watchful.

Thank you everyone :.)colors

Hi Caroline

Magnificent work!

I have six weeks to go before I get a proposed Statement or 'In-Lieu'.

You WILL be hearing from me!

Hi everyone

Sorry I haven't been on the board for ages - too tied up. Hope to speak to more of you soon.

Up until now they confessed that all they did was briefly look through the proposed statement - look for how many hours and leave it at that so I was pleased that my meeting caused other people in the system to realise they need to be more watchful.

I wish I had not read that :{pale as I asked school to check if they were happy with what was on J's proposed statement, now I am a little concerned, but having said that they do go that extra mile to help J so maybe I should not worry

Hi Maria, I can't sleep so decided to have a look on here...

I can see why you wished you had not read that, I must admit I did not for one minute think that you would have left it to the school to check J's statement alone (that is not meant to read how it sounded! - honestly). I would not worry at this stage now, J got 17 hours and for you the absolute key is that the school do actually know exactly what he needs and I and you know that they will use the 17 hours wisely and absolutely for his benefit. If I were you I would run the check yourself now anyway even though there is nothing you can do to change it at this stage (for general info, I know you know this - you have to have asked for LEA for ammendments during the 15 days you are given from the date of receiving the proposed statement, plus if you do not ask for ammendments at this stage you can not take the process to appeal).

Maria, if you do the check of his statement against the reports then you can be aware of any missing information you consider vital in time for his annual review, which should be done just before Easter I would expect. In the mean time you can also judge for yourself how well the Statement J has for now is serving him. As you will be involved in an annual reveiw of his statement where you can put anything right, if you think there is a need, then.

I only went through it with all with a fine tooth comb because there are some areas of M's statement that were blinding in their vagueness and I knew the school would not take certain things as a "given" as I was told they should by the LEA!!!

We have just got the new proposed statement back, I am dissapointed that there are some things they have still not changed and I will be writing to them to ask why (they are going to be so sick of me!). But there are other things that they have changed and I am really pleased about that as overall the statement is better and more informative.

I really would not worry Maria, once you have checked the statement you could always call the school at the begining of term, if you find there is anything missed off that you want them to do anyway, I know you have that sort of good relationship with them and that they would listen to you.

I am having ex-husband trouble which is why I can not sleep, I shall now set about writing a letter to him to get a few things off my chest... :$angry

Hi Caroline
It took me several re-drafts of the Statement to start getting the LEA to include what I wanted. Each version would come back with some but not all of my requested amendments. It was just such a grudging exercise. Eventually I ended up in their offices with 5 thick binder files and all the rpeorts I had and went through each of my requested amendments in turn - whipping out the speciaist reports etc that I had with me and forcing them to read and include the words. Even then I found that they had not included all that they actually agreed to at that meeting but it wasn't worth forcing the remainder. Arggh
As for ex-husbands - I just ignore mine totally. :0 cheers :0 cheers

Thank you so much for telling me that, I do not feel like the only one now who has been caught up in this petty process - I am in the dilema where I have to decide whether the bits they have left off are worth the fight or not, as generally the whole thing is so much better.

As for ex-husbands, I wish I could ignore mine!! I felt alot better after writing the letter and went back to bed at 5:30 am - so as you can tell it was long - tell you what though I have become a much better and more forceful arguer (if there is such a word) since doing all this LEA Statment stuff.

I am in the dilema where I have to decide whether the bits they have left off are worth the fight or not, as generally the whole thing is so much better.

I think you have to consider how much you trust the school (from previous posts I would say not much) and only then can you make that decision, if you are not happy with what's written then I would go back until you are happy as you said to me once it's written you can't change it until the review, you will regret it later once your concerns are starting to happen and you had the opportunity to do something and you chose not to.

I really would not worry Maria, once you have checked the statement you could always call the school at the begining of term, if you find there is anything missed off that you want them to do anyway, I know you have that sort of good relationship with them and that they would listen to you.

Thankfully I do have comfort that J's school will do all they can for him which is why when I asked them were they happy with the proposed statement when they said yes I did not question it, sadly not everyone is a luckly as we are to have a school and staff who care.

Hope you sort out the ex-hubby

Hi Caroline
There could be 2 different reasons for the LEA leaving something out
1) too minor to worry about or
2) too major that it may cost them extra

I suppose its a matter of going through each thing they have faled to include and deciding which category.

I know what you mean about this process ;toughening' you up. I was an absolute wimp before I got started with SEN issues. When I look back at some of the things I've done and said in order to get son support I cringe - but sod it.

Caroline how is your son getting on with his hours?

Hi, thanks for asking.

Hmm - well, the extra support only got put into place this week. In my now usual fashion I asked for a meeting with the head and the SENCO last week as I was distressed to hear from his teacher that his extra support had not begun. So I set off immediately to find out what an earth was going on... Eventually got support outlined to me and at the moment it is not ammounting to a huge difference in the classroom (be assured I will be keeping on their backs). The extra help is being used for subjects like science and geography, in some ways I am just biding my time and waiting to see how much difference it makes.

At least the Statement is finlised - took two more sets of ammendments though!!!

And - after appealing we have DLA finally awarded for Personal Care, BUT nothing the Mobility - I ordered the appropriate form from the DWP today to lodge my second appeal against that decision... so it goes on... {:shaking

Hi Caroline,

I'd be interested to hear the nitty gritty on the school help. Like what help is he being given compared to what's written on the statement. I know it's early days, and there's no rush - perhaps you could pm me some time.

On the DWP side of things - I've just been liasing with our local Money Advice Unit regarding our 4th attempt!! However, this is DLA for myself so a bit different, but it is yet another battle that we parents get ourselves into. Have you thought about using the MAU yourself? They deal with DLA applications every day so might be able to give you a few tips or help you appeal.

Have you thought about using the MAU yourself?

Nikki do you have any links to them please? I have never heard of them

Hi Marie

The Money Advice Unit is a department within our local Council. I imagine that each council has the same advice on offer but might call it something else, like Money Advice Service or Welfare Advice? Just phone your Council and ask if they have a service that helps people fill in a DLA form.

For other benefits you may be entitled to:-

Here's a couple of links which enable you to download a 'what benefits are there? form:-

http://www.bigissuelists.co.uk/product. ... CtgID=1013

http://www.clsdirect.org.uk/legalhelp/l ... sp?lang=en

http://www.moneybasics.co.uk/

Department of Work and Pensions deal with Disability Living Allowance:-

You can call the DWP for confidential advice:-

Call the Benefit Enquiry Line
This is a confidential freephone service for disabled people and carers. You can call the Benefit Enquiry Line and ask them to send you a claim pack. They can send you the claim pack in an alternative format if required - for example, Braille.

They can also arrange for someone to help you fill out the form if required. Please note that the person you speak to may need to arrange for someone to phone you back.

Telephone: 0800 88 22 00

Textphone: 0800 24 33 55

You can also use the RNID Typetalk service.

The Benefit Enquiry Line is open 8.30 am to 6.30 pm Monday to Friday and 9.00 am to 1.00 pm Saturday.

Here's a link for more info on DLA :-

http://www.direct.gov.uk/DisabledPeople ... chk=OmqOfJ

Hi everyone

I am hopefully getting a proposed statement in the post tomorrow. I am slightly nervous because school has been against us and has been really negative and stated that most autistic children do not get statements and if they do they will not be additionally funded so my son won't get a teaching assistant to support him. The statement should have been posted over a week ago but the LEA was waiting for the medical reports.

I won't be able to get school to check it because they haven't been much help as of yet and I work there and the SENCO is my boss, so it is quite difficult. I will have to check it myself and if I am not happy will have to contact the LEA to do any ammendments.

The staff are not trained with autistic children and it is a constant battle trying to get them to understand, even the homework content. My son was given a homework task to do and it was to design a poster and he had to write down 100 jobs that could be done at Disneyland. How unrealistic is that, even for children without disabilities. It annoyed me even more when I found out that another autistic child who has a teaching assistant had hers differentiated and only had to do 30 jobs and my son got 100. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE SCHOOLS !

Anyway I am anxious but excited at the same time to see what is on the proposed statement. I will let you all know the outcome.