Q:

We have Mediation on Monday for refusal to assess, for my 12 year old daughter who is in Y8 and really struggling. Parental request. LA have ...

We have Mediation on Monday for refusal to assess, for my 12 year old daughter who is in Y8 and really struggling. Parental request.

LA have clearly accepted she has SEN in their refusal letter, so that’s the first hurdle.

Refusal letter from LA:
-the evidence presented felt contradictory in that **** has shared she does not feel anxious about school but parents have shared that **** can mask
-limited evidence from school to support parents view that **** is struggling in school
-information from school reference academic information very limited
-panel felt that whilst **** clearly has some additional needs, there seems to be a breakdown in communication between home and school

The CAMHS report evidenced clearly states her level of anxieties reported many times from my daughter, however the LA felt it was contradictory despite a letter from CAMHS. Nonsense. The first sentence in her ADOS report states ‘**** was contradictory about high school, she said it’s better than primary school as it’s bigger however constantly having to move around for different lessons is very difficult. She denies she is anxious about going INTO school but she dislikes all the people in her form’…

My daughters CAMHS worker is attending the mediation meeting also.

I’ve printed every email I’ve sent to school, and 9 times out of 10 not had a response. They really do not care and have also not fed any of these issues to the LA when they have requested information from them.

Looking for any advice for Monday, I’m well aware it’ll most likely be a fail but I just try. I’ve got a tribunal in January for my other daughter, not quite sure I have it in me to go through to all again 😞

KH

K Houghton
Parent
19 Nov 2022

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A: SenseCheck

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  • 11 Dec 2022
  • Yes

    Simple

    I appreciate that mediation may have concluded, but it may be worth repeating the test that needs to be applied when a request is made to determine whether to commence an EHC needs assessment. This is found in section 36(3) The Children and Families Act 2014:

    When a request is made to a local authority under subsection (1), or a local authority otherwise becomes responsible for a child or young person, the authority must determine whether it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made for the child or young person in accordance with an EHC plan. [my emphasis]

    Hence the test is MAY BE and not IS. This would also be applied by the SEND Tribunal. Roughly speaking it is the IS test which is applied after the EHC needs assessment has been carried out.

    In your case, it now comes down to the evidence and this is what you, and any other parent or young person, must analyse in such situations.  In simple this means looking to see if the evidence supports the conclusion. With regards to evidence (which is a big topic), and you clearly have a sense for this. Some things you may wish to look at is:  

    1. Accuracy -  roughly how close is the evidence  put forward is to its true value E.g. King Charles is 25 feet tall in clearly not accurate.
    2. Inconsistencies – This relates to differences in measures about the same thing E.g. there are clearly inconsistencies between two measurements, one of which says King Charles is 25 feet tall and the other which says King Charles is 5 feet 10 inches tall
    3. Bias – there are many type of bias which can result in higher than expected errors.  One type of bias is self-serving bias, albeit I am not suggesting for one moment that this is operating in your case. 

    Best wishes.

    Sean Kennedy

    Sean Kennedy
    Talem Law