DLA awarded for my son - Finally!

I got a letter on Saturday telling me my claim on behalf of my son was succesful. We were awarded middle rate for care and lower rate for mobility. It has been backdated and the award is for 3 years.
We have not had a diagnosis of his problems, but he has learning difficulties, and possibly Dyspraxia (he's 8)
I first applied for it in April of 2009, but thanks to an unhelpful doctors report, and a downright dishonest report from the school headteacher it was denied. I appealed and eventually went to a tribunal early this year, but they upheld their original decision.
I applied again in June, using the download from this site to help me complete the form this time, answering the questions in much more depth. Ive also changed doctors, and the one I have now is much more supportive.
I cannot express how grateful I am to have found this site and the inforamtion and help I have received from it.
I do feel really angry though, that the situation with my son is no different to when I applied last year, but the outcome is different.
I'm tempted to ask to see the report that the school submitted, as I went to war with the Head over what she had written in the last one, but I'm worried it will rock the boat.
Has anyone else been in the same situation?

Hi Cullen,

Congratulations on the award for your son and your dogged persistence in getting it.

Sadly, an awful lot of people have their children's claims entirely undermined by what is written by teachers and headteachers.

Sometimes this is because the child's behaviour is different at school to anywhere else, perhaps because they spend their time at school being exhaustingly hypervigilant and then respond very differently when in an environment where they feel safe to be themselves.

Other times it's because of ignorant, judgemental or simply can't be bothered teaching staff.

There does seem to be a very small element of risk that, if you ask for a copy of the evidence, this may result in a different deceision maker looking at the award again. This shouldn't ever happen, but it certainly seems to have to some posters on this site.

Good luck,

Steve

hi, i'm not sure if this applies to your son but when my son was FINALLY diagnosed by a private undisputed authority in the field of educational psychologists, it completely flew in the face of what the school and LEA ed. psych had to say. we EVENTUALLY received a very belated apology from said LEA educational psych who bowed to our private ed. psych's authority, knowledge and experience - altho the school never did. i had to take my son out of the school system as they refused to either acknowledge his problems nor deal with the daily physical, mental or emotional abuse that took place and they threatened to sue ME for pointing out they weren't doing their job properly and for DARING to critisize them.

our claim for DLA completely bypassed the school and LEA ed. psych and instead we sent the private report and received HRM and HRC indefinitely at the first attempt.

the moral of this is look for the highest authority, even if you have to pay through the nose for it - their report will be worth its weight in gold - and hold much more weight than those of lazy/clueless local staff who can't be bothered.
I wouldn't even be bothered with what the Head wrote and simply get a real experts opinion and send her a copy for her information

I think I will just leave it, he got awarded and thats the main thing. We still dont have a diagnosis though, the school referred him to the ed psych, he was on the waiting list for a year, then finally had an assesment with him last december. there was a follow up meeting in March when I was invited along, and was told by the ed psych that he would come back again in dec when it had been a year, so he could see what changes there had been. I'm not happy, and have been considering to go private but I dont know where to start. I have had good support from the school nurse, who has now set up a CAF. we've had 2 meetings, and all agencies involved were inbited (OT, ed psych, CAMHS, parent support, class teacher, SENCO, School doctor and Speech and Language) yet there was only myself and the school nurse that turned up. He is in year 4 at school now, and was put on the special needs list at school in year 1. I feel like Im constantly banging my head against a brick wall.

IMO decent ed psych's never work for education departments they know what they are worth and are in private practice making a living

education department ed psychs like the easy hours and the long holidays

how many parents find out at the start of the school holidays they need a report for a SEN for moving onto secondary school and the deparments closed for ten weeks

as a matter of interest, this is who we saw: John McKeown www.jmassociates.co.uk/educational-psychology.asp