Keep it short, clear and include a call to action. These headings might help…

Who am I? - I am Charlie-James’s mum Michelle.

Summary - I am having to go to tribunal against my Local authority to fight for a suitable specialist provision for my son Charlie. He has been out of education 2 years so far.

Call to action - Charlie has had a tough life right from birth due to complex respiratory problems & infections due to severe gastrointestinal reflux disorder and aspiration into his right lung, he missed a lot of nursery & reception year of school and also some of year 1 in primary school, he was under community paediatrician from the age of 2 years old as the health visitor along with speech & language Team concerned charlie had a lot of autistic traits and development delay.

His school was not very supportive and blamed his non attendance to school causing these delays & issues, charlie often had high anxiety around school & often school refused which caused aggressive behaviours or meltdowns i prefer to use, I had to persevere and get him to school even in pajammas I would take him. He would often scream and cry as teachers would pull him away from me, but once in school he masked his feelings as he had trust issues as he just couldn’t understand “ changes” especially every school holiday returning back to school would trigger meltdowns at home. He would often mention to school about him not feeling very well but school didn’t listen to how charlie was communicating and often when I would pick him up from school his breathing would be laboured and ended up in a life threatening situation needing urgent hospital attention. Charlie had issues describing his condition and would often say “tummy ache” when in fact his chest would be tight, we now know charlie has life threatening allergies but we aren’t sure what is triggering these allergy attacks even though he has had allergy testing so I have to carry an epipen & antihistamines.

 We had to move to a new home in April 2019 as the home we lived in was making all of us unwell, we moved to Orpington from beckenham which meant having to change schools to a new school, there was a period of 6 weeks that the children were without a school. When allocated a new school Charlie really changed with his behaviours and anxiety levels were so unstable worse than I’ve ever seen before, I had huge concerns and spoke to his psychologist who works alongside his medical team, she was regularly seeing charlie for his procedural anxiety. I tried to speak to the new school about his behaviours and anxiety but they said he was “fine” once in school.
One afternoon I was unwell myself to pick him up so his step-dad picked all the children up from school and because he took them to the school park Charlie’s anxiety become worse as he wanted to come home to mummy, he hit his step dad very hard with his bag, kicked him and bit him and then said he wanted to “die” when charlie come home from the Park his dad was fixing some shelves and charlie grabbed a screwdriver putting it to his neck screaming he wanted to kill himself.. that he couldn’t go back to the new school and if we make him he will kill himself.. I managed to hold him til he became calm and dad took the screwdriver away and then he told me he had been strangled by another pupil at school & charlie told me that this boy has made him live in hell and always will if charlie goes back to the new school, I did speak to school about this but they weren’t very supportive and threatened me with the educational welfare officer if he doesn’t attend school, we had already spoke to his psychologist who did an urgent referral to the children’s mental health team.
Charlie kept saying that if we take him back to that school he will kill himself, he started hiding under my kitchen table as I still had to get my other children to school, he would make them late for school but he even would hide behind the trees by the school gates as he was terrified of being pulled away from me, but that’s what the teachers did and he managed to escape from the teachers and run out into the road and was almost hit by a van. I took him to the hospital for urgent mental health treatment and enough is enough I do not want my child to become another statistic to suicide. The school offered no support and called social services on me who contacted me who didn’t want to get involved as I had done nothing wrong.

Charlie had to wait 6 months for an URGENT children’s mental health assessment. But his Mental Health Social Worker is amazing and actually fought to get him Hospital home school tuition, I started the ball rolling for his EHCP in January 2020 which the LA Bromley accepted him for.

Charlie’s assessments were carried out during the coronavirus pandemic which were via telephone call with myself or a video call with myself and charlie. But charlie did struggle with the video calls especially because of his social communication difficulties but also as it’s with strangers he had never met before. The educational psychologist assessment there was no Cognitive assessment carried out on Charlie as the EP said it cannot be done via video call and it would be done in person once it was safe to do so from the pandemic restrictions being lifted.

The LA (Bromley) come to the decision to grant charlie an EHCP and that he required a specialist provision. So I started the process of looking for schools for charlie and to our shock & disbelief 6 schools refused charlie based on his current EHCP so that caused a huge concern for myself. Which is why I contacted a solicitor for some advice and help. Due to Charlie’s high level of anxiety & his social communication difficulties & the length of time he has been out of full time education we were advised by the LA’s complex needs teacher that Charlie would need a specialist provision school that has both PRIMARY & SECONDARY schools in one place to make it easier TRANSITIONING for charlie

The LA (Bromley) refused to reconsult with my first choice school RIVERSIDE  after we had a report of his academic attainment from his home tutor which marked him below year 1 level he is currently Year 5 and goes into year 6 in September 2021.

Bromley ignored my request & named Trinity C of E primary school as final placement on his Ehcp. Trinity C of E School is primary school only with an additional specialist needs unit within the school itself. The school is 5.2 miles from where we currently live & I do not drive and due to coronavirus & Charlies complex medical needs he cannot go by school transport as he had to shield. But also if he becomes severely unwell I wouldn’t be able to get to him as it would take me 2 buses to get to school.

I also had concerns about it only being up to year 6 and how it would affect Charlie’s mental health and having to transition into trinity after 2 YEARS out of education to only be there for a short period of time to then have to transition again into a secondary placement but Bromley didn’t wanna listen to me.

Bromley told me that Riverside school couldn’t meet Charlie’s needs, Riverside school is a 10 minute walk from my home.
Charlie has recently had 3 independent assessments by an  Occupational Therapist, Speech and Language Therapist & a Educational Psychologist assessment who carried out a Cognitive assessment.

The Educational Psychologist spoke to both schools and both schools can meet Charlie’s needs, but the EP has said Riverside school would be the best provision for Charlie as it can meet his SEN needs and also it has both primary & secondary schools in one place which would mean ONE transitional period for Charlie. But Riverside school is over Subscribed and only Bromley can make that decision to place him at Riverside.

This is where I need help to have a solicitor at the tribunal hearing against Bromley but my legal aid doesn’t cover the Tribunal hearing at all which is why I am here at crowdjustice asking for your help.

Thank you for taking the time reading, it really means so much for your help.

What are we trying to achieve? - I am trying to get my son the right level of support and access to the education he is entitled too. Trying to achieve charlie returning to full time education & help with his autism. Charlie has been isolated for 2 years not mixing with anyone outside of our home life, with your help this could help him achieve all these milestones he is missing out on.

What is the next step in the case? - currently through legal aid charlie has had independent assessments to help improve his Ehcp, Charlie’s solicitor is working on producing a working document and we have just had a date through for tribunal for October 2021

How much we are raising and why? I am trying to raise- £2500 as my legal aid doesn’t cover the cost for a solicitor to come to the tribunal only up to the tribunal, I also need to cover the cost of the solicitors travel and other costs the solicitor may have on the day of tribunal. I feel it would benefit Charlie’s case further to have a solicitor representing our case against the local authorities & their representatives rather than me stand there on my own. I’d be forever grateful for all your help

Thank you 

Michelle & Charlie-James