This blog post was written on 3/4/2020

So, it’s official, we’re going to appeal, possibly tribunal and we are going to fight this placement! The wonder that is Mrs H has given me the tools and advice to help give us the best shot we can have at appealing this. The wonderful lady at SENDIASS too has been a fountain of knowledge also.

So far, I have downloaded and printed off the appeal paperwork, been in touch with Global Mediation (a necessary step) and retrieved a certificate from them and we are pretty much ready to launch the appeal. I have no idea how long it will take. But, you have 2 months from the date of the letter or 1 month from the date of the mediation certificate. Our mediation certificate was 26th March, so I have until the 26th April 2020. There is currently no way of knowing how long it will take to from appeal to the actual tribunal, if one is needed.

Luckily the school I want Charlie to be in, have a fantastic success rate for appeals and are happy to support me, which is great. Definitely, one less worry knowing that we are fully supported, as I have chosen to do this without legal representatives. It is a personal choice, I feel that our case is strong enough and that I have enough guidance to help me through this process. I do feel that I am vocal too, and I use my voice not only for Charlie but for all the SEN children that struggle and parents and carers that also find it hard to navigate through the SEN world.

I have also had a phone call off the community consultant paediatrician’s secretary to inform me we will have a telephone consultation on Monday. This will be good, we currently only see the community paediatrician every 6 months for reviews since diagnosis. And that honestly doesn’t feel as if it is enough. We have no other support from a health perspective, not CAMHS, Clinical Psychology or Occupational Therapy. We do have support off speech and language therapy, which is developed through school.

The PRU currently ring twice a week, to check up on us and ensure we’re still safe, however, I do feel that the Easter Holidays (which begins today) is possibly going to be very isolating (excuse the pun) and lonely. I have reactivated my Facebook to ensure I don’t drive myself crazy!! Speaking of social media, I am still posting, albeit sporadically, on the pages and hopeful that this site will be up and running as soon as I am able too.

It would of been nice to get the site up and running yesterday, as it was World Autism Acceptance Day, however, life has a way of getting in the way! And I was stuck on the phone gathering taxi quotes to use as evidence in the upcoming appeal. I do need an admin day, but that is hard because right now we’re just surviving day by day, doing what’s needed and figuring out stuff along the way. COVID-19 is a scary time, and I’m sure many families are like ours, just taking everything a day at a time and trying to survive. Hopefully, I’ll share some fun stuff soon, that would be nice and reassuring. But, we have got to get through a lot of hard stuff before that unfortunately.

Stay safe all

Georgina x