Uk- anyone have dealings with LA/independent school?

[LoraLoo]

Might be an essay sorry but desperate for advice.

I removed my 11 yr old adhd Son from mainstream secondary school around 8 weeks ago.

I rang the LA and informed them Id be home educating him until we found suitable education.

Found the perfect school for him 40 mins away. It's a soecialist school that is specifically for kids with adhd and autism. The school has the provisions he needs. School advised me to phone ipsea.

Rang ipsea who informed me he would need a statement (school said they didn't) and that to assess him they'd want him in mainstream school. I said it wasn't happening,

Rang local authority and asked about the school 'oh it's expensive there- were not offering places any more and actually pulling children out and putting them back into mainstream school' - Id only been to view the school the week before so knew this wasn't the case.

Contacted Camhs, they upped sons meds and wrote to my gp explaining he no longer has a school place.

Applied for said school through council website, got a reply saying they don't deal with admissions as it's an independent school.

Rang school who said LA are lying, it's the only way to apply for a place.

Rang LA.. Again. Didn't have a clue, told me she's had no dealings with that school and its a residential school (it is, but it's also a day school) told me to ring school direct. Told her Id just got off phone to them and that's what they'd said! Told her that my son does not have a school place and that it needs sorting. She said she would forward my application to school and copy me into email. As of yet- no email.
She have me the local number for SEN/statements.

Rang straight away- engaged. Rang back 5 mins later and LA had already been on to them (why?) said they're all in a meeting today someone will call me this week?

Rang camhs again, rang ipsea, still waiting on calls back.

I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall and I have nobody to help me. I could cry, im stressed, frustrated, and want him in a school for September. Please can somebody help me?

 

[Wannabe Mommy]

It may be worth finding out when your MP is next doing constituent sessions and asking them to investigate on your behalf. Take notes of everyone you have called and when and copies of any correspondence.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Hi, yes any specialist SEN school will require a statement (now being called an ehcp) you can actually apply for this yourself but can taketake about 6m xx

 

[smurff]

My daughter has just got in to a specialist school which we couldn't apply for until she had an EHCP, you can't apply for a place the way you would apply for mainstream school.
It took 4mths to get her EHCP. It's in 2 stages, firstly we had my daughters speech therapist fill in a form Aswell as her nursery and the lady looking after my daughters case load Aswell as a peaditrition. If you get past stage 1 you then go onto stagev2 which is very indepth, we had a mountain of forms to go through and lots of medical reports to get and send off then she had to have an educational medical. Once we received the EHCP then and only then could we go and put our names down for the school.
Unfortunately EHCP is very hard to get now. Only last year the government cut the funding and lots of children are bring turned down now. I hope all works out for you. It's a long 4/6 mth wait but worth it in the end

 

[LoraLoo]

The statement should have been done years ago, even his primary school have admitted that. Perhsps all this upset could have been avoided then 😔

Ive just done the letter to request assessment, but the thought of another 4-6 months or more of having him at home is unbearable.
I know that sounds awful but the baby is due in sept and I don't know how im going to cope with a newborn and Ollie being at home still. My stress levels are through the roof at the minute

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

It doesnt sound awful at all
Xxx

 

[smurff]

The statement should have been done years ago, even his primary school have admitted that. Perhsps all this upset could have been avoided then 😔

Ive just done the letter to request assessment, but the thought of another 4-6 months or more of having him at home is unbearable.
I know that sounds awful but the baby is due in sept and I don't know how im going to cope with a newborn and Ollie being at home still. My stress levels are through the roof at the minute

I can't believe your son's primary school didn't start an assessment earlier. My daughter went to mainstream nursery and it was the speech therapist there who referred her to a child development clinic. That was where we started our EHCP. My daughters assessment and EHCP where started when she was 3.
I was constantly told not to get my hopes up of getting the EHCP as for reasons I said earlier so I was fully prepared to home school. All I can say is the mountain of paperwork is horrendous, I think we had reports from her hv, special needs teacher who's also incharge of her case load, speech therapist, nursery school teacher, educational psychologist, and peaditrition.

 

[smurff]

Thinking about it now I'm pretty sure it takes a little longer than 6mths. I remember panicking because like yourself I wanted my daughter to start school in September Aswell. There was 1 place available in the specialist school and 3 children trying to get it, plus we had just over 4mths to get the EHCP and school placement sorted before schools shut up for summer. Luckily enough our EHCP application went through very quick and so did the application for the school. We did it with 10 days to spare before the school closes so we're now in the middle of transition days.

I won't patronise you and say oh don't worry, keep calm everything will be OK cause honestly it was the most stressful 4mths of my life, but those 4/6 mths will soon go and fingers crossed you get the outcome your son needs.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Doing th3 statement became a full time job for me. No lie. Was horrific x

 

[LoraLoo]

See that's what worries me, im always stressed having him home full time and then im going to have the baby in sept, alice will still be home but least William will be full time then.
I guess I just have to stick it out- im hoping we have snough back up with Camhs reports, hv etc as he obviously doesn't have any teachers to write statements etc. I'm sure primary school would help me but not sure if they'd take that into acc as he's not been there 12 months.
Guess I just sit right and wait and try and not kill anyone in the meantime 😳

 

[smurff]

Sounds to me that you have been very let down by the system, and someone should answer for that,
The best piece of advice I can give you is to take each day as it comes. Don't think of all the forms and medical reports to do, just concentrate on one thing at a time.
Also don't think about what school he'll go to or what you'll do if you don't get EHCP. Worry about that when the time comes.
The one thing I did was after I filled out all the forms I photo copied the lot, I also got copies of all medical reports sent. Basically anything the was sent off I had a copy off. That way if something got lost I had a copy to send off, plus I found I was answering the same questions over and over. So instead of constantly thinking of how to word or phrase something I just looked back on paperwork and Id have the answer straight there.

 

[smurff]

And don't forget, if you get stressed upset or just want to rant and rave about something. There's always someone on hear who's gone through an EHCP and knows how your feeling x