Form Filling Heartache

It was and is hard enough filling in forms for and about the boys.

Filling in forms with my son was a whole new gut-punch level of heartache ...

which I had to keep hidden from him.

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7 September 2016 at 10:11 ·

Last night I helped Thunderthighs fill in the enrolment form for Newcastle City Learning Centre.

There are two boxes on the form, one for 'learning problems' the other for 'emotional difficulties'.  

We went through his ECHP/Statement discussing and sorting out which were which.   

We rewrote and edited stuff and he wrote it all in.   

Some bits he insisted on leaving out.  

 He was quite affronted that someone had written "Organisation and planning is also an issue for Thunderthighs".  Until I explained that there is a difference between organising a bus/train/ferry trip and getting academic work done and in on time.  He agreed - but magically there was insufficient room to write it in.

I thought it was bad enough when I had to write down all his problems and difficulties.  

Getting him to copy stuff from his Statement was not nice.  

But I kept the facade of ‘this is all normal’, and a smile. 

 

And while we're at it.  Why are there never guide lines for people to handwrite neatly in these boxes? It's hard enough for us oldies who were taught 'joined up writing' at the age of 7, but for Thunderthighs who still prints it was nigh on impossible.  I ended up pencilling lines in with a ruler.

 

Anyway his first two days have gone ok.

 

The next task is to take him to the Haymarket Travel Centre to get a travel pass sorted. Depending on which bus/metro he gets it can cost £3.50 or £7 a day

Erica  Ben, I think you can get the bus passes from the travel shop at Four Lane Ends if it saves you a trip.  You need photo for anything over a week .
We’re starting the PIP process!
Take care.

Bentonbag  They've closed it down.  Good luck with PIP

Mrs Delune  Can he drive?  I don't know about where you are, but here if someone can't drive for medical / disability reasons (understanding, processing, in my son's case fainting), we get a free bus pass.

Bentonbag  We get a free companion card bus pass for Ferretfingers because he is vulnerable. Thunderthighs has encyclopaedic knowledge of public transport and knows all the different ways of getting there from here (hence £3.50 to £7 depending on the company).  He can't drive and I'm not sure with his personality and concentration I'd like him to.  I'm certainly glad his father doesn't drive.  Keep death off the road!

ECHP = Education Care & Health Plan, it replaced Statement of Special Needs and was supposed to enable the various bodies involved to work together more efficiently.

PIP = Personal Independence Payments