Advice on statement funding please

[Unfitmother]

Received DS's prposed statement today which puts the funding provision at £9870 or Level 3A.
What does this mean? Is it good or bad?
He has (currently) undiagnosed ASD and has had 10hrs week classroom support through primary and moves to Year 6 this year

[Homsa]

As far as I know it is not illegal to specify a sum of money or a band of funding in the statement, BUT if it turns out that the help which has been specified turns out to cost more than that, the LEA still has to fund it.

Look up "R v Cumbria County Council ex parte P 1994", which states that specifying an amount of money does not, on its own, fulfil the LEA's duty in law to "specify" the actual provision the child should receive.

Are you happy with the 10 hours he is getting? Are they specified in part 3 of the statement? If not, make sure that they put this in!!!

[Unfitmother]

No, the statement (written in 2002) does not specify the number of hours support he receives.
I'm so confused by it all, think I should contact the Parent partnership office before I agree to anything.

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

A statement without specifying a number of hours is not worth the paper its written on. Has he had this same document since it was written in 2002?.

Would suggest you call IPSEA rather than PP (as they can often work too closely with the LEA).

www.ipsea.org.uk is the website you need to look at.

[Homsa]

I agree, PP may not be as impartial as they claim, IPSEA is better (hard to get through on their advice line, but not impossible!)

You should also ask for a meeting with the named LEA officer and discuss your concerns. You only have 15 days from receipt of the proposed statement to do this, so don't wait too long!

Tell him you have taken "informal legal advice" and quote the case law I mentioned regarding the duty to specify.

Point out that there is also a duty to "quantify" the support listed in part 3 of the statement:
L v Clarke and Somerset 1998 ELR 129 states that Part 3 should describe: where small group work and 1:1 work is involved, the size of the group, the length and frequency of the sessions.
Likewise for input from other professionals, such as sessions of speech therapy (R v Harrow ex parte M 1997 FCR 761).

[Unfitmother]

Attila and Homsa, thanks very much have had a good look at the IPSEA site and the test cases you mentioned.

DS' statement is not specific enougth and I have requested a meeting with the LEA.

I'll let you know how I get on.