AUTISM SEN Statement ABA

[twinswithautism]

Hi

First time poster, so please bear with me.
My wife and I are currently engaged with my local LA with regards to funding for my twin sons (3 yrs) who are on a aba home programme.
We requested a statutory assessment in Jan 2013 and were denied, after not simply going away, we continued to persist with the LA and got our MP involved, they agreed to assess my sons in May.

Before the draft statement was due we went to meet the SEN case worker, the plan was to try and convince her that aba was working for my boys and was the best option. After our discussion and viewing a ten minute timeline video of the boys, which showed their progress, the case worker said "I will support your request for aba".
We were delighted, but did not wanna get ahead of ourselves.

The draft statements arrived Friday last week (16 Aug 2013), nowhere in the draft is aba mentioned, only in the cover letter. Also in the cover letter it states as the boys are not yet 4, they are only entitled 15 hours of education a week!

To be fair the case worker did say after the draft statement she will want our feedback and then ammend the statement, just not sure how to ask appropriately for 35 hours a week for 48 weeks etc

The case worker has also asked for a breakdown of costs and file evidence of progress - she said she would then submit this all to a review panel who then decide with regards to funding.

I am just a little sceptical and am scared the LA might use the feedback and evidence I submit now against my boys case if it ends up going to tribunal.

If anyone can offer any advice I will be grateful, if you pm me with an email address I can send the draft statement for you to view if that helps. I might not be asking the right questions, so please feel free to offer any advice that you think may be helpful.

Many thanks

[sickofsocalledexperts]

You can certainly ask for more ABA funding , but expect to be turned down or to compromise - or risk going to tribunal. The two best things to try and get into the statement are - "the child is responding very well and making progress using ABA" and "1-to-1 ABA is showing good results and it is hoped that it will ready the child(ren) for mainstream inclusion, with ABA support'. The LAs like to feel the ABA is leading somewhere, rather than just being open-ended.

I never got 40 hours paid for, only ever about £15k ABA funding per year, but on the other hand I never went to tribunal. A lot depends on how ABA-friendly your particular LA is.

Tbh, even if you can just get the letters "ABA" nipped into your draft statement somewhere, or "1-to-1", it will stand you in good stead fo the future.

So far, it sounds like they are being quite reasonable, so try and keep it friendly for now.

My only other tips are: if they are able to, mainstream inclusion with an ABA-trained LSA can be fantastic. If not, ABA schools like Treetops, Rainbow or Jigsaw can be great.

[salondon]

This is very typical Farooq. They acknowledge that ABA is working, but dont put any provision in the statement unless you fight for it. We are pushing them to finalise the statement so that I can appeal for it.

I would advise getting professionals to review your twins' progress and comment on what education will work for them (and if they agree, they should sayu say x hrs/ 1:1 ABA etc etc).

[Marmalada]

As your children are not of statutory school age I don't think that the Local Authority have to provide any more than 15 hours a week for 39 weeks a year (school term time). However I am not 100% sure of that. I would suggest calling IPSEA on their helpline as they are very good at the legalities and also at getting a quantified, specified statement. There is case law about this I believe. You can find them here.

[salondon]

Marmalada - That isnt the case actually. My daughter isnt school age either, and they are happy to provide crap support for 25hrs/week.

If a child needs early intervention, it should be provided

[StarlightMcKenzie]

What LA?

There are some out there who just at the mention of their name we can advise to simply go straight to tribunal as they will be stringing you along to collect evidence against you.

Others are a bit more reasonable, though practically all will avoid funding ABA if they can help it.

[KissMyChuddies]

You might want to remove personal details(your name) from here as it can be very easy to identify.
If you report your post and ask MNHQ to remove your name, they will be able to do that.

[salondon]

Star, how is Barking & Dagenham?

[twinswithautism]

Thank you all for your comments so far.

@sickofsocalled - I agree, we are trying to engage and be as friendly as possible, even previously we always tried to maintain a professional approach.

@starlight - It is a south London LA, though they have previously funded home programmes and are currently sending kids to aba schools, they haven't funded anyone under 4 and generally are very anti aba - as are most LAs I guess.

@kissmychuddies - thanks - sent an email to MNHQ, hopefully they can help

Would anyone be able to advise, with regards to the aba costing I need to send to the LA, what sort of format should it be?
Something like:

Tutor - £X/hour - 35hours per week for 48 weeks
Supervisor - £Y/hour - 3 hours per week for 48 weeks
Consultant - £Z/hour - 4 hours per year

If anyone is able to, could you remove the personal details and show me what an aba statement actually looks like?
Thank you all for your help so far, really appreciate it

[StarlightMcKenzie]

B&D have been accommodating but don't like to use the word ABA. So Behavioural intervention or Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention, or even 'Play Therapy' if it is clear that you have control over the tutors etc. will be okay.

No-one likes the term ABA, so unless you're going to tribunal, you can compromise with the LA by agreeing to call it something else so that FOI requests don't show it up and they can fulfil their illegal blanket policies of NEVER funding ABA iyswim.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

www.whatdotheyknow.com/

If you go to this site above and put in your LA and either ABA or Applied Behaviour Analysis you will get some information that could help.

You could put in your own request.

There is one other piece of information to ask for that I think could help you form a picture but I will have to PM it to you as I don't want to help LAs form a defence to it.

[salondon]

Star - Yes I was given that URL here earlier and there were two cases apparantly.

They have added 'TEACHH or ABA' in my statement. I know they dont like the term. I need it there because I need to use my own tutors. I keep reminding them how important intensive early intervention is.

twins - Apologies for highjacking the thread. I would do exactly the format you have

Tutor - £X/hour - 35hours per week for 48 weeks
Supervisor - £Y/hour - 3 hours per week for 48 weeks
Consultant - £Z/hour - 4 hours per year

You can quote Tutors at 12-18/hr and give the supervisor and consultant cost at whatever you are changed. I wish my statement had all this, I would share with you. Fighting for it

[AgnesDiPesto]

The 15 hours is the legal entitlement for a child without sen to access mainstream nursery. For a child who has sen the provision should meet need its entirely possible (and likely) a child with asd will need more education to meet their needs than their peers because they need more direct teaching and it takes longer to learn things. There is an argument typical developing children learn all day every day from their environment and just absorb learning so not just 15 hours. Children with asd often need everything specifically taught. There is also the argument intensive intervention early on pay dividends later on. Where is their evidence 15 hours is enough? what evidence of good outcomes from 15 hours?we won 35 hours 48 weeks but had to go to tribunal. Be sure everything you say or write is something you are happy a tribunal to see. If the officer has not said ABA is working in writing then you should follow up meetings with an email or letter to confirm what was said as they may deny it later.

See Ed Act 324(3)(b). SEN code practice 8.3. Provision must meet every identified need of every individual child. The legal entitlement to a free nursery place has no relevance to your situation. If this was enough they wouldn't have needed a stat assessment.

[AgnesDiPesto]

If you pm me your email address I'll send you our statement which was written by tribunal when ds was 3.11. I can't check yours as I'm about to go away but ipsea or NAS can check it for you.

[twinswithautism]

Thanks Agnes, sent you a pm - really appreciate it.