[senco-forum] SEN Criteria

I ( and the forum ) have been round the needs vs resources led models of 
allocating children to School Action Plus several times before.
The legality vs practicality of opposing your LEAs blanket policies has 
also been a thread.
I'm not complaining about repetition, new people will read the posts and 
contribute, and the situation is always changing ..
I think Brendan's post emphasising the importance of knowing EXACTLY 
where all your SEN funding is going is very important. It has not been 
practice in my school for the SENCo to know where the budget is going, 
so it is difficult to ask without appearing a meglamaniac! My advice to 
primary Sencos is to tell their Head(at a particularly busy moment) that 
they are now required to fill in a long and complicated form, which 
your'e sure they wont want to bother with and is it ok if you get the 
figures directly from the finance manager/secretary!(My LEA genuinly aks 
for a budget now). Obviously if you have a good relationship with your 
head you could just show them Brendan's post!
I am now working part of the time in other schools as an AST. I have 
already been faced with questions like this " The LEA advisor says I 
must take these children off the register because they dont meet the 
criteria (audit levels in our LEA) or are not having outside input(very 
patchy in our LEA)
What do I say? (I am quite liking my new job and in the middle of an 
expensive house extension!)
I know there are other ASTs/Advisors out there, what do you do when you 
know the line of your LEA is technically wrong? Does anyone know a 
perfect LEA (at least for SEN) or do I refuse to be part of the system 
althogether?
Kate