Mary Robertson

It with deepest regret that we inform you that after a very long fight with cancer, Mary Robertson died Sunday 18th July at 5am. Many will know Mary as an Educational Psychologist 'extrordinaire' - she was truly a very capable and knowledgeable professional who has helped countless families through difficult times of education provision.
A full tribute will follow on this page at a later date

SOS!SEN Need an Administrator

SOS!SEN are seeking a part-time Administrator to assume responsibility for the smooth running, and further development, of the Charity’s activities that support its aims. This is a paid position. For more details, click HERE

Children, Families and Schools Act 2010

A new Bill has been passed and is now law which amends the Education Act 1996. There are a number of changes, including the right of parents and carers to appeal directly to SEND Tribunal if, after an Annual Review, the Local Authority review and decide not to change a statement.
Local Authorities are required by law to review statements every 12 months (see Education Act 1996, para 328 5b) regardless of whether that have attended the Annual Review. There is no set time when the review takes place, but if they do not inform Parents/Carers within a reasonable time period, they can be deemed to be acting unreasonably (and clearly not in the child's interest) and as such can be taken to High Court. (Prior to this amendment, the only recourse was to start from scratch with a new request to the LA to conduct a Statutory Re-Assessment). Further advice can be found by telephoning the SOS!SEN Helpline.
Click HERE to read the amendments - Children, Schools and Families Act 2010
Click HERE to read the Education Act 1996 (section 328 para 5b)

SOS!SEN Helps Parents of Triplets

SOS!SEN is proud to announce its major role in helping the parents of identical triplets William, Christian and Dominic obtain statements. The statements have finally led to accurate "diagnoses" of the boys’ special educational needs and appropriate placements for all three. It all took 14 months - but what a success story!

How SOS!SEN became involved

In August 2008 we picked up a "cry for help" from the parents of the triplets. They were arguing against Surrey LEA’s refusal to carry out a statutory assessment on any of the boys. We were able to help the parents by preparing appeals to the SEN tribunal. Surrey eventually gave in and assessments of each boy took place. They were quite inadequate and, inevitably, so were the proposed statements that followed. SOS!SEN prepared all the documentation for a tribunal appeal against the boys’ final statements, based on the evidence provided by excellent independent professionals - an educational psychologist, a speech and language therapist, and an occupational therapist. We remained with the cases up to and beyond the point when Surrey finally agreed to name the appropriate school, Southlands, for able boys with Asperger’s Syndrome.  The involvement of a well-known Lambeth firm of specialist solicitors proved invaluable in helping to resolve the remaining issues surrounding Parts 2 and 3 of the statements, and the three tribunal hearings scheduled for 17, 18, and 19 November were thankfully avoided, together with a lot of additional cost.

Triplets appear on Channel 4 TV

A TV programme featuring the family was broadcast on Channel 4 on 27 October. Unfortunately, viewers would not have known of SOS!SEN's involvement, since all mention of us was left out by the presenters - despite the very kind efforts of the parents to include us! We would have liked a mention because it would have drawn the attention of more parents to the fact that there are organizations able to lend a hand when they feel that there is no help available.

Parent power

Although SOS!SEN is proud to have been so actively involved in this case, its success was above all due to the determination and hard work of the parents. Many of you know just how much writing, checking, school visiting, photocopying, and so on is involved in preparing an appeal for just one child (particularly with the new tribunal regulations). It is not too difficult to realise that, for three boys, the work was astronomical. And yet it was all done to perfection - and very parent empowering too!

We wish the boys every success in their new school and look forward to keeping in touch with all the family.

A Channel 4 news report has highlighted their case and can be viewed by clicking HERE.

Please note that SOS!SEN has no control over how long this video will be available on the internet. (If a broken link appears, then please use your browser's 'back' button to return to the SOS!SEN website.)

Roar like a Lamb?

It is unfortunate - to say the least - that the Lamb Report on SEN and Parental Confidence, which took 20 months to produce and was very late, should creep on to the scene at a time when parents are caught up with Christmas preparations and end-of-term activities. We can only guess at the reason. The time lag between announcing its imminent publication and its actual publication meant that the media had lost interest in it before it even appeared! In any case, with a General Election so close, will its fate be any better than that of the excellent Sheerman report and the Bercow one?

Our initial view is that all it has done is propose ways of tinkering with a thoroughly bad system rather than produce proposals for total reform, including sanctions against those local authorities that attempt to avoid their legal responsibilities. We are fascinated by the suggestion that there should be a National Helpline. Who will run it? What will be its remit? How will its independence be assured? And how will it be funded? If all we are to get is an extension of the Parent Partnership Worker level of advice and information, it will be not only a waste of money but also a political tool.

Rather than respond in a rush, we propose to study the document with care and publish our more detailed views after the Christmas period.

Competition Result

The "guess the LA competition", opened in the late Spring, was won by a parent who had clearly had years of experience of the particular authority. They receive a bottle of champagne.
The LA responsible was SURREY (the winner even named the actual office responsible). The parent found over 40 examples of grammatical errors and, as they put it, "inelegancies" plus 10 errors of law or fact. For reasons obvious to all the name of the lucky winner cannot be revealed.
Other local authorities who were named several times in the applications and were clearly worthy of note were Southwark, Merton, Hampshire & Kingston

It would be interesting to know whether Surrey ever noticed our competition; certainly there are no signs at present of any ability or desire to do better.........We live in hope!!!