Our Story - C v Herts LA (June 2011)

"My son is 10 years old, has Asperger’s Syndrome and a speech and language disorder. He has an older sister, and when my son was 6, their mother died unexpectedly.

In 2004 when he was 4 years old, my son had a bad experience at the preparatory school he was attending and my late wife and I had no choice but to remove him. Fortunately, we were able to place him in a local school which we later realised was a fantastic move. It was while my son was at this school that the diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome was made, as well as the realisation of the extent of my son’s speech and language problems. The school strongly suggested we might consider applying for  a statement for my son.

It was a stressful time as my wife had just died so I had to deal with everything including the preparation for the statement. Being a solicitor and used to paperwork, I set about the process on my own and fortunately a few months later, Hampshire issued us with my son’s statement.

During this process, it became clear to me that my son needed to be in a school to meet his special needs and ability.

I met a lovely lady and in the summer of 2009 when my son was 8 years old, we moved to Hertfordshire. This was to be with my new partner and her children and so I had to move my son to a new school. However, this new school despite its best efforts  was neither able to provide the same support as his previous school in Hampshire nor meet the needs from the statement. 

A year on and it was abundantly clear that this mainstream school could not help my son. There was tacit encouragement to take the opportunity at my son’s next statement review to seek a placement for my son at a nearby different and appropriate school.  To our dismay Herts County rejected our application. It was our view that not one person who had been involved with my son understood why the LEA rejected him going to  the appropriate school we had found for him.

I was very disappointed and felt I had let my son down. The various professionals involved indicated to us that we could make a further application and steps were taken to implement this process and to try to address areas that Herts County had indicated needed to be covered before it would consider moving my son.. There were no guarantees we were going to be successful but I was prepared to fight for my son.

I decided to seek legal advice and through my own research found Douglas Silas Solicitors. Douglas explained to us  that we had the right of appeal to the tribunal. Following Douglas’ guidance and detailed advice  I knew we had a realistic case.  We decided to run an appeal to the tribunal and make a further application directly to County in tandem.

Once I found Douglas, I felt more confident and comfortable about what I was doing. I knew that we were in good hands with Douglas leading the way ably assisted by his team.

Our two main goals were to change my son’s school and amend his statement. We launched the appeals process  with Douglas’ advice. He recommended that we had independent Occupational Therapy, Educational Psychology and Speech and Language Therapy reports.  These turned  out to be invaluable and gave us a much stronger case.

Fortunately, we did not need to go to the Tribunal as Herts LEA settled the case in our favour once they’d examined our reports and documentation.

We had won the right for my son to attend the right school and we also obtained a tighter, detailed statement which bore little resemblance to the original one.

This result was fantastic and my son started school in June.

The whole process took about six months but my son is much happier. He loves his school which fully meets his needs. He’s gone from being on the ‘outside’ of a class of thirty children to one of nine children and he’s achieving so much more. Gone is the boy who was given the job of bell ringing at sports day in his previous school to the boy who came fourth in javelin in his new school at an inter-school sports day.

Douglas, together with his excellent team’s skills, depth of knowledge, experience and expertise is an irrepressible force. Anyone having to fight in any stage of this process must try and get this team involved to ensure they have the right professional guidance.

I wish I had instructed Douglas Silas Solicitors earlier."

Click here to read the SEND Tribunal decisions in this case

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