Can anyone help? Parental views of dds sen for SA

[armani]

I provided LEA with a written report outling all of my dds difficulties with my req for SA. Now they have agreed to assess they have written to me asking for my views on dds sen. Any ideas of what I should include? I'm worried as most of it will just be repeating what I have already provided them with. Thanks.

[lougle]

Statutory assessment procedures - guidelines for writing a parental contribution: advice on my child is a really good guide by Hampshire LA.

I used that to write my report for DD1.

[armani]

Brilliant thanks lougle :)

[TOWIELA]

When you write your views, remember that one day that document may end up as part of an evidence bundle in front of a judge in a Tribunal. Before I wrote mine (nearly a year ago), my solicitor advised me that judges don't like surprises and they don't like parents suddenly saying something that hadnt been stated before

So I wrote mine with that totally in mind. Mine was about 15 pages long. Very factual - related it back to various indie reports I had by then. I also included a lot of anedectol views (eg daily behaviour). I was very thorough and included everything and related as much as possible back to reports or school or other documents

Yesterday, in front of a judge I was able to go back through specific areas of my views and repeat it again orally. There was no surprise so the judge took them fully onboard

The LA, on the other hand, tried to introduce new evidence orally and the judge told them to shut-up

Do not under estimate the importance of your document.

[TOWIELA]

Oh i forgot to say. Your views will now become part of your DC's Statement. Your original views won't be. So you must repeat everything but more thoroughly because your original views will never be shown to a judge

[armani]

Thank you towiela that's exactly what I needed to hear. I put a huge amount of effort into my req for SA I didn't know if I needed to repeat my views or just add to them, but I can see now that I will repeat them.
Is it ok to quote from reports?
Thanks

[TOWIELA]

Quote from reports but makes sure you fully reference them eg Dr Smith said on page xx para yy that DC is blah blah (or however you want to do it - I went for full academic style of referencing lol)

[SallyBear]

I wrote mine from birth to date. Focused on the areas of difficulty/dx and then wrote about how it affected DS from birth to date, but more importantly in school. I then ended it with the following statements.

"In summary, DS has fallen significantly behind his peers. All the evidence to date shows that unless DS is given a FULL TIME Teaching Assistant then he will be unable to access the curriculum." This was all in bold and then I closed with this line "We fear that if DS does not get the full time support in secondary school, that he so obviously and urgently needs to help him achieve his ambitions, then we have all failed him."

Huge chunks of my report and the Ed Psych's report make up his statement.

[TOWIELA]

Another tip is that the LA has probably given you document with specific questions for you to complete eg 'how is dc at school', 'how is dc at home' etc etc. I used their document as a sort-of framework so I could write answers to their questions, but then I added in my own questions.

For example, because my DC was out of school and needed a school named, at the part where the LA had written "what school", I added the questions "what type of school" and "reason for type of school" and "reason for xxx school".

So if your's is framed like a questions and answers report - make up your own questions too!

[armani]

Thank you for all of the brilliant advice. They have sent me a questionnaire asking about how dds needs affect our family, the early years etc , nothing relating her needs to education .

[SallyBear]

I ignored the questionnaire and wrote my report. They have to include it. I made sure that I put their "form number" on the top so that there was no confusion.

[TOWIELA]

Ha ha - I did the 'form number' too! So absolutely and utterly no confusion whatsoever that this was YOUR parental views! And I made sure both myself and my DH signed/dated it (he's not on any other paperwork) so I made sure they were under no doubt that it was both of our views.

[SallyBear]

We both signed it too! LA - don't mess with me. This is toooooo important as it concerns my DS.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Some LA forms are too heavily weighted on getting you to write about things that have little relevance. Perhaps they are relevant for some but they are standard forms.

I was not prepared to waffle on about my pregnancy or birth, nor certain questions about our relationship. It waters down the key points.

[SallyBear]

I wrote a report that was birth to date for each of my three DC who all have statements. My LA are more report driven and have never really used bullet points. I think that it depends on LA, but the Parental Views as a report has always worked for me, and we've never been asked about personal relationships.

[jocook]

I wrote mine asif I it was being read by someone from mars who had never met a child before let alone my SEN DD!!! Keep this in mind and it helps to avoid not outlining all the things that have become so part of your day to day life that you dont even realise its not what all families do anymore. Best of luck btw....remember the stress well!

[Flappingandflying]

Key phrases are 'pxxxxx sen means he has significant barriers to his learning when compared to his peer group'. What you can do is put the reality on the reports. So Dr x states that xcv's anxiety levels are high. Mrs , class teacher, has, in several meetings with us, noted thar xcv picks his skin on his thumb until it bleeds. During term time this is a problem and the level of bleeding can require bandaging. This increases at stress trigger points such as sports day, leavers assembly and christmas play. During the summer holiday, this clears up.

Remember everthing you put will go towards writing his statement and will stay there for ever more. In my professional experience leas do not change statements much. They do it at transition but they didn't do Flyingboy's two years ago when there were targets that could off!

[SallyBear]

I think in truth I've been lucky with my LA and the relationship that I've had with them. We've had bits re-worded or removed or stuff put back in over the years for DD, the two DS's are more ASD based so there's been a certain emphasis on those difficulties. I've been very lucky, I know and I'm grateful for that.

[armani]

Thanks for all of your fab advice :) I'm just about to starting drafting it up!