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get current school to back you upa s to why tehy not coping and why putting in extra resources there would not help. get proposed school to say how they can emet his needs (or lsit your reaaons) visit otehr LEA schools in and out of bough and lsit why they not suitable (put in tabular format) then arrange an informal meeting with your LEA officer to lay it all out informally and calmly.

having informal face to face meetings with LEA officer can pave the way forward.and give you the lay of the land. so before the formal review meetings etc get all evidence together and ask for an informal meeting first to disucss openly and see where LA objectiosn might lie and what they proposing.

Natasha thank you. I love the idea of a tick list of pros and cons. The LEA case worker has been extremely supportive and we have had many deep discussions which she admits are not being addressed in my son's statement and need changing. Which so far has been very straight forward, as I have had SALT, consultants, social services and school's individual reports all to hand and copied over to LEA. The schools failure to meet my son's needs and action his statement is obvious. It's trying to explain to LEA that just because it's in the statement doesn't seem to have any power for the parents that the school HAVE to action it. Do I really want to prosecute a school because they are not giving OT, physio, SALT or actioning reviews correctly?

Hi Alistair. IPSEA have been very good at preparing me for a fight! They have armed me with the guidelines and set out my plan of attack. If the school admitted they were failing my son, I would have a better chance. But they have said, they are appropriate for his needs! Appropriate and good/right are miles apart!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi,

Sorry to hear of your struggles. We've been through this process.

Just to repeat what I put on my previous post to someone else about statements.

A child under the age of 18 is eligible for legal aid. If you can find a solicitor prepared to take the case on for you, then they will handle a lot of the leg work. Also, they bring with them experience and contacts.

We used Irwin Mitchell. They were excellent, but my understanding is that they don't always take these cases on. Depends on the solicitors they have available and workload.

There was no cost to us as the legal aid scheme covered the bills. In any case, we only needed 3 meetings with the solicitors and a couple of letters before the authorities started to come round.

One final thing, don't assume that the local authority is on your side. Unfortunately for their employees, they do have quotas and budgets and whilst you will be open with them, they will not always be open with you.

http://www.irwinmitchell.com/servicesforyou/adminpubliclaw/Disabilitylaw/Pages/default.aspx

Spell out every detail in the statement. Particularly the staffing ratios, specialised therapies and a detailed timetable, broken down into at most 15 minute chunks.

Also, speak to both schools. Again, don't assume the local authority school is on your side. They work closely with the LEA.

Your school of choice may have seen similar issues previously and may be able to advise, although they will be wary of upsetting the local authority as they have to maintain a working relationship with them.

Good luck

Wow I had never thought of legal aid assistance for our case! Brilliant advice, thank you! Things reached crisis point and we have had to withdraw our son from school on medical grounds, he had a nervous breakdown. LEA are now busy re-addressing every point as medical experts are giving them hell for not listening in the first place. So currently under going a full re-assessment and have reports coming out our ears. If LEA are still budget conscious I have MP already on side. Thank you for high lighting that point.