Source: http://www.senlegal.co.uk/useful_information.html
Timestamp: 2014-04-17 04:34:00
Document Index: 492606683

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SEN Legal - Leading experts in Education Law | Useful Information
A Statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN) is a legally binding document drawn up by a Local Authority that sets out in detail a child's Special Educational Needs and the required educational provision relating to those needs. The purpose is to ensure that the child receives an adequate level of educational provision in support of his or her needs. Parents like Statements of Special Educational Needs because if drafted properly it ring fences a child's provision. A Statement comprises of the following parts:
Part 1 gives general information about your child including your name and address(there is no right of appeal in relation to this section), but can be modified by writing to the Local Authority.
Part 2 gives details of your child's needs and functioning.
Part 3 describes the support (provision) that you child will receive. This section should be specific, detailed and quantified (although often it is not). This section is legally enforceable against the Local Authority (as opposed to the school or NHS Trust).
Part 4 names the school that your child will go to, and the named school must be capable of providing the support set out in Part 3. Therefore, any appeal against Part 4 should be made in conjunction with Parts 2 and 3 - the Parts are interrelated.
Part 5 describes any non-educational needs you child may have (there is no right of appeal against this section);
Part 6 describes the help that your child needs to be given for the non-educational needs. (There is no right of appeal against this section) and provision is not legally enforceable.
Whilst many parents come to us seeking help in obtaining a Statement, we can also help those who have an unsatisfactory Statement and need help appealing to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal to seek an amendment. Often, the main bone of contention is that the Statement specifies a school which the parents are not happy with. However, other issues can arise such as the amount and type of support for the child being specified in the Statement, e.g. relating to Speech Therapy or specialist Dyslexia teaching; ASD Advisory teacher input; Occupational Therapy or Physiotherapy or input from a Specialist Teacher of the Deaf or Visually Impaired. SEN Legal has considerable experience in dealing with the variety of situations that can arise when the content of Statement is disputed. How can I get a Statement of Special Educational Needs for my child, and how long does it take?
This is essentially a two-stage process: First, a request is made by either the parent or the school to the Local Authority, which will then decide whether to make an Statutory Assessment;
Second, if a Statutory Assessment is completed, the Local Authority will decide whether to draw up a Statement of Special Educational Needs.
A statutory timetable is provided by the Education (Special Educational Needs) (England) (Consolidation) Regulations SI 2001 No. 3455 which is as follows:
After having received a referral, the Local Authority has 6 weeks to decide whether it will undertake a Statutory Assessment.
If the Local Authority decides not to undertake a Statutory Assessment, it is possible to appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST). The Local Authority must tell the parents of their right of appeal.
If the Local Authority decides to undertake a Statutory Assessment, then from the date on which the Assessment begins the Local Authority has 10 weeks to complete this task.
Once the Statutory Assessment is completed, the Local Authority will then decide whether a Statement of Special Educational Needs is necessary. If the outcome is negative and the Local Authority decides not to finalise a Statement of Special Educational Needs, but instead issue a Note in Lieu (which confers no provision or legal rights), parents are entitled to make an appeal to the SENDIST(and parents must be informed of their right of appeal).
If the Local Authority decides to make a Statement, a Proposed Statement will be drawn up within 2 weeks of this decision.
Parents are then asked to submit their comments on the Proposed Statement within 15 days.
Within 8 weeks of issuing the Proposed Statement, the Local Authority must provide parents with the final Statement. This includes time devoted to negotiations between the parents and the Local Authority about what the Statement should include.
In total, the process should be completed within 26 weeks. However, it is not uncommon for Local Authorities to overrun statutory time limits and occasionally legal assistance is required in order to secure finalisation of the Statement. If parents are unhappy with the content then they may exercise their right of appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Discrimination Tribunal. It is not possible to appeal unless the Statement is finalised.
Local Authorities are painfully slow and tend not to comply with statutory time limits.
In the criminal courts, there is a maxim "Justice delayed is Justice denied". In the SEN context, provision delayed is provision denied.
"Working Toge