UK Statement SEN mechanism for banding?

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I have just been told that my son is only entitled to 15hrs LA provision. Great some of you may think and yes I am one of the fortunate ones whose son actually has a Statement. BUT how come the school are needing to put in an extra 10hrs and at his assessement we ask that LA help out a bit...............answer .............my son does not meet the criteria, what? What criteria, what is 4zero banding? How do we move categorys? What are the categories?

And lastly who sits on these SEN panels? Are we allowed to know? Actually are we allowed to know anything.

I have searched on the net but have no idea of where to find it!

Hi

As I understand it....the SEN panel are a group of people at your local council/Local Education Authority. The SEN panel ultimately decide how much 1:1 help your child will be funded for on the statement. Our local SEN panel consists of about 4/5 people as far as I can make out. From my experience, the LEA are very reluctant to offer much funding for help at school for ASD kids. If it is help at school due to learning difficulties they seem to be stingy (as told to me by local parents of other ASD kids). In our case, our son was having behavioural problems due to anxiety and was hitting teachers, and trying to escape from school (plus other stuff). So he gets full time 31 hrs funding mainly due to health and safety. We had to push to get full time funding though. They originally offered just 10 hours funding. To be honest, I think the SEN panel try their luck. They offer 10/11 hours. But if you fight for it, you can get the number of hours increased if you have good reason for it.

I don't know what zero banding is. I am not aware of any category system. Have you signed the form that says you agree with the proposed statement? If not, write a letter explaining all the reasons why you think it is wrong and that you do not agree with the proposed statement. Back up from the school is crucial. You need the school to explain in writing to the LEA that they are putting in extra hours to help your child and that they need extra funding to cover this. The school unfortunately really need to lay it on thick about the difficulties your child is having at school. If you have already agreed to the statement, still write a letter. You could always ring the LEA up. I found our LEA very approachable and understanding and willing to explain anything you do not understand.

I don't know what your circumstances are, but I truly sympathise. It took us a year to get full time funding. Mega stress!

Hi Collywobble, thanks so much for your post. I am interested in WHAT forumla these panels use for their banding mechanism. My son is 4.0 but could be elevated to 3.0 which would give him more hours! Trouble is noone will tell me what or who is eligible for what criteria! Apparently they use different criteria for different areas. So it is a postcode lottery! AAAGaaaghhh, I have done this now 4times and every time it gets harder.

I am soooo glad collywobble that you too have problems with this. I am screaming at the top of my voice and those in other countries seem to think we in the UK have it easier than maybe other places!! !! DOOOOHHHHHH noooooooooooooo! THE UK IS DREADFUL.

The NATIONAL HEALTH SYSTEM is broken! NO spectrum experts..........none that deal with the WHOLE spectrum anyway. NOOOOO services, nooooo provision and NOOOOOOOO help especially for the ones who have an IQ of above 70! If you are lower then you get everything!! Grrrrrrrrrr, I know the way to fix it but noone listens.........how autistic is that! I have come to the conclusion that the fat cat managers in high places are actually on the damm spectrum themselves only with a huge dollop of ODD and CD!

Anyone else having UK troubles. Ere Collywobble you had any luck with the NAS?? I am spending soooo much time referring people AWAY from them!? What are your experiences like? MAYBE we should have a new thread???

But thanks so much for replying. I have found some weird banding info and how it is worked out from Essex and Birmingham but they are PDF's so if you would like them, do pm me and I will email you with them.

I agree that the UK seems to be pretty awful in supporting parents and ASD children. Our frustration is that our son is bright but has behavioural problems due to anxiety, etc. All the special schools in our area cater for asd kids with learning difficulties but the bright ones are in no mans land. They have to struggle at mainstream school, where the teachers seem to have little tolerance and understanding of their behaviour. You have to fight for support at school. When they are diagnosed why don't they have some automatic system for helping these kids. Why do parents have to fight for everything!? Nobody told us about OT or Cog. Beh. Therapy. I found out about these on this web site!

We are members of the NAS. They have been useful for telling us our legal rights. My main grudge with them is that if you need help with anything you have to wait for someone to call you back. I appreciate they may be busy, but I didn't get a call back for 3 weeks! In that time I had struggled to find my own answers. What's the point in being a member if you can't get help when you need it!?

Keep "screaming" for what you want. It seems the same with everything in life these days....unless you make a fuss and scream and shout you don't get anything. It doesn't pay to be nice any more! You have to be pushy. We threatened legal action with our LEA as they were only offering 10 hours support. As our son was escaping from school we pointed out that they knew this was a problem and if he escaped from school again and he got run over etc we would sue the a**e off them, as they were being negligent and ignoring the problem and not doing enough to ensure his safety etc at school. They soon bumped up the funding to full time then!

Good luck mate!

Collywobble I have pm'd you. LOOKS like we are singing from the same hymn sheet.

As for the NAS! oOOH to be honest they are as useless as a chocolate teapot! I have had NOOOOO joy with them even though I have the answers to many of their problems.

Aaaaghhhh, check our your pms collywobble!