Parental Application for Statutory Assessment
NOTE: In this case, the word 'Parent' includes anyone who has legal custody or guardianship of a child.
Applications for a statutory assessment made by a school or parents, may not lead to one being carried out. The Local Authority assesses all applications through the Statutory Assessment Moderation Panel (SAMP) who’s members decide whether the set criteria of evidence is or is not met for a Statutory Assessment to be carried out. If an assessment is completed, it then may not lead to a statement of special educational needs being issued. In these circumstances a ‘Note in Lieu’ of a statement of Special Educational Needs may be issued.
How to Proceed
Before any applications are made, parents should arrange a meeting with their child's school to discuss thier concerns with the class teacher and the Schools Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) whenever possible.
At or following the meeting parents can make a decision to:
- continue to follow procedures and recommendations made by the school and review progress of child on regular basis; or
- make a parental application for statutory assessment to the Local Authority
If the latter course is chosen, the parents need to send a letter to Pupil Services Department, as their formal application for a statutory assessment of their child to be carried out. The Local Authority is legally obliged to provide parents with an answer to their application within 6 weeks of them receiving it. There may be occasions however when the Local Authority may ask parents for their permission to extend this period so an application can go to a SAMP meeting with information that otherwise may not be included.
The Local Authority will send an acknowledgement of receipt of the application letter to the parents. The Pupil Service Officer from the Local Authority then contacts the parents and arranges a meeting at the school to discuss the application.
Once notified of the date and time of the meeting, parents should start to make a writen note (in ‘bullet points’) of the main reasons for making the request for the Statutory Assessment. Parents should include their concerns and reasons why they feel their child needs an assessment and what such an assessment will result in happening. Making such notes is valuable if done over a period of time before the meeting to help parents put their points across when attending the meeting rather than rely on memory.
At the meeting
The officer from the Local Authority (Pupil Services) will normally chair the meeting.
Parents may take someone with them to offer support if they wish. Others who may be attending could include - School staff (Head Teacher, Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator, class teacher, head of year, classroom support assistant ) and members of the Additional Educational Needs support team (AEN or QEST members) from the Local Authority as well as staff from the Primary Care Trust, Children with Disabilities Team and Social Care staff.
If parents feel someone who has had involvement with their child should attend the meeting, they may wish to ask the Pupil Services officer to invite them or make the invitation to them direct.
The Pupil Services officer will start by asking the parents to outline their reasons to the meeting for making the application. The school will then be asked to give their opinion about the needs of the child in question and the question of Statutory Assessment.
At the conclusion of the meeting, parents may be asked to make a decision to either :
- withdraw their application and continue to follow procedures and recommendations made by the school and/or the Local Authority; or
- continue with their application for the Statutory Assessment to go ahead to the moderation panel for decision.
Parents do not have to make this decision right away. They can ask for time to consider their options and if necessary consult others such as the Parent Partnership Service. If the parents decide not to continue with their application, the Local Authority will ask them to sign a letter formally withdrawing from the process.
If the parents choose to continue they are asked to provide a covering letter containing information they feel may help their application. This letter can then be based on the notes taken to the meeting.
The Pupil Service Officer will call for information relating to the child from the school and others who have had involvement with them.
The completed SAMP application file (or a copy) is made available to the parents. Parental agreement to proceed is sought by the Local Authority at this time.
The Pupil Service Officer then arranges for the submission of the file to the next available SAMP meeting. If necessary, to stay within statutory time limits, the application may submitted for an executive decision to be made by a designated officer from the Local Authority.
Applicants are notified by the Local Authority of the decision SAMP meeting by letter.
Parents may wish to challenge unsucessful applications through the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST) Further information about this is available by clicking on this link.
If parents decide to register an appeal with SENDIST, parents need to be able to send them a copy of the decision letter they received from the Local Authority when registering their appeal.