talk about autism welcomes Brian Lamb for another Live Q&A
Posted by
Anna Marshall
on 25th February 2010
at 16:40
Just to add to this, I also wanted to highlight that the Children's Secretary Ed Balls and Schools Minister Diana Johnson published plans to implement all the recommendations from the Lamb Inquiry on parental confidence in special educational needs yesterday.
You can read about it in the TreeHouse News section of this website, or in full on the DCSF website.
Anna
TreeHouse Staff
Posted by
bumblebee
on 26th February 2010
at 08:25
Hi,
What great news! I read about this yesterday and one thing that really stood out was about distancing the EP's from the LA.....I think this will help the more vulnerable children and families and also the ones who dont understand how the statementing system works.....I will soon have 2 EP reports for Hollie, the assessments were carried out about 2 weeks apart, one by an independent EP and one by the LA's EP. The differences are immense.
If I didnt know how to fight this, I'd have gone with the LA's EP who wrote the most biased report I and many other professionals have seen and her statement (which is mainly based on this EP's initial report-which was equally as biased!) wouldnt even identify her needs correctly let alone include strategies to support her needs.....I am more than happy to provide these 2 reports to show to Brian Lamb as an example of how bad it can be!!!
One thing I would like to know though...in our LA a lot of the managerial roles in our LA have been filled by EP's. If the psychological service is seperated from the LA, will we as parents be in a situation where the higher ranking Local Authority EP overrides a lower ranking EP that is no longer connected to the LA in situations like tribunals and other appeals? Sorry to sound negative, I am all truly all for this, I just really want these changes to make a big difference not only to our children but also to the families that cant or dont know how to access the appeal process and to make this process fair....
Claire - Community Champion
Posted by
Yossarian
on 26th February 2010
at 10:23
Hello.
Long time lurker, first time poster!
Some questions for Mr Lamb:
Question 1:
The report suggested extending legal aid for tribunals via exceptional funding route. I raised this with a few solicitors just after the report came out. I was told an assessment would be based on a parents financial means not the childs which seems out of line with other civil cases where the child is the applicant. Also I could not find ANY solicitor willing to even fill out the forms as the exceptional funding route is considered such a long haul and so much work involved for Solicitor as to not be worthwhile. How does Brian Lamb seek to move the issue of legal aid for tribunals forward? Given Solicitors quote £10,000 per tribunal and the civil legal aid budget is actually being cut is this idea likely to see the light of day?
Question 2:
What monitoring of LA will there be and will this information be publicly available? Is the emphasis on parents to complain to LGO etc or will LA's be made to provide meaningful data from which their performance can be monitored eg in my area I would like to see data on what % requests for statutory assessment are refused first time around and have this broken into age group and SN - I can practically guarantee the figure for children under 5 with autism in my LA would be pretty near 100% rejection. In this way blanket policies could be exposed.
Question 3:
The most striking point that came from your report for me was that if the LA were following the rules already in place then much of your report would not be necessary. How can Local Authorities be made to comply? I say this as a parent who has been very happy with the statutory assessment (once I finally got one) - all of the professionals have identified my child's needs well and I agree with what they recommend (specialist autism specific intervention) - however my LA is not offering what has been recommended. So even after your report I having to go to Tribunal to get the LA to follow the advice of their own Ed Psych. Surely we need really tough sanctions if we are to stop this sort of thing. My son has lost a year of intervention with this game playing.
Question 4:
Do you think there is an argument for saying any pre school child with an ASD diagnosis should automatically meet the criteria of "severe and complex needs" and requires assessment thus avoiding at a stroke all the parents up and down the country arguing the same point at huge expense?
Posted by
Anna Marshall
on 26th February 2010
at 10:48
Hi Yossarian
Firstly, welcome to talk about autism! I hope that you have enjoyed reading and it's really great to have your questions now. I am writing to Brian Lamb today to let him that we have got the ball rolling in terms of questions, so I will certainly point all of yours out. I can't guarantee that he will be able to answer them all, but I will try my best!
Thanks again and it's great to have you here.
Anna
TreeHouse Staff
Posted by
Anna Marshall
on 26th February 2010
at 10:48
Hi Claire
Thanks for getting the breaking the ice with the questions for Brian Lamb!
Anna
TreeHouse Staff
Posted by
bumblebee
on 26th February 2010
at 13:48
Hi Anna,
No problem...I have loads more!!! I'll not be around to take part as I'll be at work so I'll post a couple of questions if that is ok incase there is some time for him to answer them.....
Claire - Community Champion
Posted by
Anna Marshall
on 26th February 2010
at 13:57
Please do - the more questions we get the better! And everyone is welcome to post some questions beforehand if you think you're not going to be able to make it on the day. The chat stays live after it is finished so anyone who is not able to be there on the day can view the conversation whenever it suits them best straight afterwards.
Thanks!
Anna
TreeHouse Staff
Posted by
damo73
on 1st March 2010
at 10:18
1. How is the continuum of provision between mainstream + specialist going to be improved?
2. How will specialist education deliver a wide variety of subject choice available in mainstream schools for those who cannot access the mainstream setting?
3. How is provision for FE going to be improved (as currently woeful!)?
4. When will SEN realise they must involve those with SEN in their decisions (+ training of teachers) and not just parents (rarely mentioned in documentation)?
5. How is training going to be improved (a days training on a PGCE + poorly presented CPD that one does not have to choose to sign up to - from personal experience, this is woefully inadequate)?
That should do for a start!
Posted by
Anna Marshall
on 1st March 2010
at 10:22
Great, thanks so much Damian! I will certainly ensure that Brian sees your questions and answers as many of them as possible.
Anna
TreeHouse Staff
![SiftGroups.com [opens in a new window]](sites/www.talkaboutautism.org.uk/themes/zen/treehouse/images/siftGroupsLogo.gif)
Posted by
Elena Goodrum
on 24th February 2010
at 16:45
I've just found out that Brian Lamb is coming back to visit us here at talk about autism once again. Very exciting!
On Thursday 11 March from 10-11 AM, Brian Lamb OBE will be here in the talk about autism
community to participate with all of us in a Live Q&A. He will be once again answer your questions (in real-time!) regarding the Lamb Inquiry.
In case you aren't aware, the inquiry has been looking into parental confidence in the SEN system. You can download the full report and take a look by viewing this PDF: The Lamb Inquiry Full Report.
We would love for all of you to come along and ask Brian all the questions you've had since the report was published and since the last Live Q&A.
What is a Live Q&A?
If you've never heard of a "Live Q&A" before, it works sort of like a chatroom does - only instead of everyone talking all at once, people type their questions and Brian types his response. You can see what I mean by taking a look at the last Live Q&A we held with Brian back in November. Click here to see it: Brian Lamb live chat 27.11.09 (If this still doesn't all quite make sense, leave a comment below and I'll be happy to explain more! Or you can email me if you wish to speak privately - elena@talkaboutautism.org.uk)
How to partcipate
To participate in the Live Q&A, all you have to do is visit the page below on 11 March at 10:00 AM. You can also visit the page right now and sign-up to receive a reminder email:
http://www.treehouse.org.uk/talk-autism/live-chat-brian-lamb/11-03-10
As you can imagine there will probably be quite a lot of questions for Brian to answer in the hour he’ll be with us, and he probably won’t be able to answer all of them - but we'll do our best to get as many of your questions answered as possible.
If you are not able to make the Live Q&A on the 11th, please do post some questions in advance and we will try and ensure he answers as many of the questions as he can.
Let's get started!
Have a think about what you might like to ask and start posting your questions below – then TreeHouse will randomly select some of these questions, and they’ll be given to Brian Lamb to kick off the Live Q&A!
Please comment below with your thoughts and questions - looking forward to seeing all of you in the Live Q&A on the 11th!