by Angela Hart
Mr Tripp told me he had plenty of volunteer parents and would make sure Lucy got some support at least, and he told me he would contact the LEA and see if they could provide some interim funding for a SEN classroom assistant, using the psychologist’s letter to ‘fight our corner’. I was delighted and told him I was very grateful. It was the first time I’d found an ally within the schools system who seemed to be on Lucy’s side and was prepared to put common sense above red tape and concerns about funding.
Lucy seemed very pleased when I gave her the news.
‘I don’t want to be horrible, but I’m bored.’
‘You’re not being horrible. It’s perfectly natural for you to feel that way. You should be in school like all the other girls and boys of your age. I’d have hated missing so much school when I was your age.’
This school – St Joseph’s – was a good half-hour car ride away from our house, which was not ideal. It meant that either Jonathan or I would have to take Maria to school and the other would have to drive Lucy: dropping Maria off en route was not possible, as at that time her school gates didn’t open until 8.30 and Lucy needed to be in the yard by 8.50 at the latest. In situations like this Social Services sometimes pay for a taxi, but I didn’t want to create any additional problems that might cause Lucy to lose any more days of her education. For the time being at least, I’d ask Barbara to open the shop up every day and Jonathan and I would do the two school runs.
Lucy embraced her new school life. She was up early every morning, getting herself ready, packing her book bag and helping me make her packed lunch. She always went off with a spring in her step, chattering away about what she might do that day and asking lots of questions. True to his word, Mr Tripp managed to secure some interim funding, from Social Services in Lucy’s home county, and before long Lucy benefited from having a SEN assistant to help her in the classroom. This was no mean feat without a statement, and considering she was living ‘out of county’. I was hugely grateful.
Lucy wanted to carry on seeing the horses and so we fixed up a few visits to the stables after school. By now we’d started to pay Diane as she was giving Lucy proper lessons as well as loaning her all the equipment.
Lucy seemed in her element. She was tired in the evenings and for a while we hardly saw any of her aggravating behaviour. We thought she was probably just too busy and worn out to bother getting involved in any silly tiffs with Maria, or to cause any scenes like the nail-biting and staring we’d had in the past.
She still phoned home regularly but Wendy hadn’t come on the phone since the birthday party. I’d mentioned to both Bella and Jess that Wendy had warned she couldn’t have Lucy over for a visit again but I’d heard no more from anybody about whether or not she was going to stick to this.
Lucy had asked me many times when she was next visiting her family and I had to be honest and say I didn’t know. Then one evening, after she called her dad, Lucy came running out to find me in the garden.
‘Guess what? Daddy said I can go and see him on Saturday!’
‘Really? Well that’s nice. I’ll give him a call.’
‘How many sleeps is that? Let me see . . . one, two! Just two sleeps. I miss Daddy. I want to show him my new uniform and my book bag.’
I left a message for Dean to call me back but had no reply.
When I dropped Lucy at school on the Friday morning she announced excitedly, ‘One more sleep until I see Daddy! Yipeeeeeee!’
I still hadn’t got hold of Dean and had a bad feeling about this. Unfortunately, when I got home there was a message on the answerphone from him, saying something about things being a ‘bit tricky’ for Saturday. Jonathan played it back to me and we both stared at the phone, feeling sorry for Lucy. Dean said he had to work and was very sorry but he wouldn’t be at home all day as he’d expected. He stuttered and stumbled over his words, and it sounded like he was making excuses. He ended the message saying perhaps it would be best to move it to another day, and then he’d get more time with Lucy.
‘Do you know what, I think we should just drive Lucy over as planned. She’ll be devastated if the visit is cancelled. Even if she has to wait to see her dad, or even if she can only see him for a short time and just show him her new uniform, that is going to be far preferable to cancelling completely.’
Jonathan agreed. We both hate it whenever parents cancel plans or change contact sessions or visits like this. It always seems so unfair. We played the message again and decided that it could be interpreted as Dean simply warning us he wouldn’t be around all day and suggesting we could move the date. We decided not to call back but take a chance and drive over anyway. If all else failed Lucy would see her siblings, and we’d just have to contend with Wendy. As Jonathan pointed out, at least Wendy wouldn’t have to ‘cope’ with Lucy for a whole day. Our decision was sealed when Lucy came home from school and showed us her homework. She was asked to write a page about her weekend, and she had already written the title: My Weekend With MY DADDY!
When we arrived at the house Dean answered the door. Lucy threw herself into his arms as we’d seen her do on the previous visit.
‘Hey, Lou-Lou! How are you, princess?’
‘I’m fine! I like my new school. I’ve brought my homework book to show you. And my new sweatshirt. You can have a look if you like?’
‘I’d love to,’ he said.
It sounded like he was trying his best to be enthusiastic but was actually on the back foot a little, and was having to make a bit of an effort.
‘You didn’t get my message then?’ he said, looking up at me.
‘Oh yes, you have to do some work and can’t be here the whole time? Yes. Got that. It’s no problem for us, we can collect Lucy any time you like, or are you planning to drive her back?’
‘Can you collect her? There’s no point in you driving home and back again, is there? I can only have her for a couple of hours.’
Lucy wasn’t worried about this; we’d already prepared her for the possibility it might be a short stay and that not everyone might be around. The fact her daddy was there, right in front of her, was all she cared about.
‘That’s fine,’ I said. ‘I was thinking we’d go and explore up at that big new shopping centre.’
‘Oh yes. Wendy loves it there.’
As Dean spoke Gemma appeared at the door.
‘Mummy’s got a new job in the wedding shop,’ she announced. ‘And did you know, when Mummy and Dean get married, she’ll get staff discount on her dress!’
Lucy’s jaw dropped and Dean looked shaken.
‘Er, we haven’t got any plans in place, not yet!’ He tried to laugh it off, but Gemma persisted. ‘You should go and see her if you’re going shopping. She can show you all the styles and the one she likes best. She’d like that. Her shop is the best!’
‘Sounds good,’ I said, not wanting to commit to calling in on Wendy. ‘We’ll come back in a couple of hours then. Have a good time, Lucy.’
Jonathan and I walked swiftly to our car and drove off before Dean could say anything else.
‘Do you know what I think?’ Jonathan said.
‘Yes. You’re thinking exactly the same as me. You’re thinking that Dean tried to cancel because Wendy wasn’t going to be there.’
‘Yes. And the reason for this?’
‘It’s not that Dean can’t cope. It’s that Wendy likes to be in control. I think she’s a bit of a control freak. I think she told him to cancel Lucy because she’s got this job and knew she wasn’t going to be there.’
Our instincts told us to steer clear of the wedding shop, so as not to alert Wendy to the fact we had brought Lucy over after all. Of course, we had no evidence to prove our suspicions and we would not have speculated like this with anybody else. But Jonathan and I were of the same opinion, and we both felt we were on the right track. We also wondered if perhaps Wendy was jealous of Lucy, because she and Dean had such a close bond. Again, we were only going on gut feelings, but it was
certainly something to bear in mind.
We decided to go for a walk and have a coffee in a garden centre instead of going to the shopping centre.
When we returned to collect Lucy she was in a great mood. She was holding her special pillow and her cuddly yellow bear, Honey, which she had finally retrieved. It seemed they’d been forgotten before because they’d been put out of sight, in a cupboard in Lucy’s old room. She found them when playing hide and seek, which made her day.
‘We had the best game EVER!’ she told me. Her brothers and Gemma all agreed: Milly was out at a dance class and ‘missed all the fun’, they said. They’d found some great new hiding places inside the house and in the garden, and Lucy had also helped her dad to set up a new potting table in his greenhouse. She asked him if she could show us their handiwork.
‘Of course,’ Dean said with a shrug. ‘If you want.’ He was such an easy-going man, and he led us through the house to the garden where he showed us not just the new potting table but gave us a tour of his vegetable patch and a rose bed he was particularly proud of. The kids had swings and a slide and there was a badminton net set up at the far end, tethered between two old trees. It all looked lovely – a perfect garden for the children to enjoy.
‘Guess what?’ Lucy said. ‘We’re going camping when I’m back! Did you know, we’ve got a ten-man tent? It’s GINORMOUS! Do you know how to put up a tent, Jonathan? I do.’
‘Hold your horses Lucy-lu!’ Dean said, before explaining to us that he was hoping to take the family on a camping trip at some point that year though nothing was yet organised.
Lucy gave everyone a hug when it was time for us to leave. Not surprisingly, her dad got the biggest hug of all, but even Gemma got quite a bear hug this time. There was a good vibe between the two girls and as we left Gemma asked when Lucy was visiting again.
We all looked at Dean. ‘Oh, I don’t know yet, but we won’t leave it too long, eh?’
‘Can I come next week?’ Lucy asked.
‘I’m not sure, princess. Let me talk to Mum and we’ll sort something out.’
As we drove away Lucy said, ‘Why does Daddy have to talk to Wendy? She’ll be at work again.’
Jonathan and I swapped glances. ‘I expect he just wants to make sure it fits in with everybody. He wouldn’t want to make a mistake and agree to a visit that wasn’t possible, because that would be disappointing, wouldn’t it?’
We had no idea if Dean was going to work later that day, when Wendy got home, or whether he’d just used his work as an excuse to try to put off Lucy’s visit in Wendy’s absence. He didn’t refer to it and we didn’t ask. The main thing was that Lucy had spent a couple of hours with her family, and her visit had been a success. Perhaps this was the way forward for the time being, limiting her visits to short slots?
Lucy sat quietly in the back of the car and after a few minutes I realised she was engrossed in filling in her homework book. Her writing was not neat at the best of times and I knew it would be even less tidy than usual if she worked on her knee in the back of the car, but I didn’t want to stop her. By the time we got home she’d filled the whole page of her news book with writing and added some lovely pictures around the border. It was messy and her spelling was very poor but I understood what she was trying to say. Overwhelmingly, Lucy’s words were happy and positive, and that is what stood out for me. Anyone reading her work would be able to tell she’d had a lovely time and packed in lots of fun and activities that morning. At the bottom of the page she’d drawn her dad as a tall stick man with a speech bubble coming from his mouth. ‘Where’s Lucy???’ he was saying. Next to him she’d drawn a tree with a small stick girl hiding behind it, who was shouting, ‘I’M HERE!!!’ Her mouth was disproportionately large to show a huge smile.
‘Well done,’ I praised. ‘Your teacher is going to be very pleased.’
In the middle of the following week I had a phone call from the school. My heart leaped and I wondered if Lucy had been in trouble. The office manager cut straight to the point, ‘I’m afraid it’s about the funding of Lucy’s support. Social Services has stopped paying, due to the legality of who should be responsible.’
This was terrible news. Thanks to Mr Tripp, Social Services in Lucy’s home county had agreed to pay for the support she needed, despite the fact it was not technically their responsibility, so what had gone wrong?
‘As you know,’ the office manager said, ‘money should normally come from the LEA, not Social Services, but because Lucy wasn’t statemented it meant neither county’s LEA was keen to foot the bill. Thanks to Mr Tripp’s intervention, Social Services across the border did agree to pay, but I’m afraid a senior manager over there has now decided to object to the arrangement, questioning the legality of it, particularly as Lucy is now living out of the area. He feels our LEA should be paying.’
I was upset and angry on Lucy’s behalf and expressed my disappointment.
‘Mr Tripp has asked me to invite you in for a meeting, at your earliest convenience.’
‘I can come in any time. I want this resolved without delay.’
The office manager said she’d get back to me as soon as possible, explaining that Mr Tripp wanted representatives from Social Services to be there, along with two teachers. She called back that afternoon to set a time and date the following week, when Jonathan and I would attend the meeting with Mr Tripp, Lucy’s form teacher, a special needs assistant, our social worker Jess and Lucy’s social worker Bella.
‘It’s quite a big meeting,’ I remarked to Jonathan. ‘I wonder how much it’s costing for all these people to attend? I don’t know why money gets wasted on red tape instead of being used on educating the children. It’s absolutely ridiculous!’
Jonathan nodded in agreement even though we both knew that my comments were unrealistic. Of course things had to be done legally and officially. Mr Tripp was doing everything correctly in order to help Lucy, but it was maddening that the system was so long-winded and difficult to navigate. Lucy wasn’t the first child in foster care to cross a county border, so why weren’t policies already in place that would help everyone concerned to deal more efficiently with scenarios like hers?
‘At least she’s in school,’ Jonathan reasoned. ‘They are not going to send her home, are they? I know it’s not ideal not having the help she needs in the classroom, but at least she’s still being educated, and she seems happy to be there.’
Jonathan was right. He’s always very good at pointing out the positives and helping keep my feet on the ground. I said I had a good mind to contact our local MP and that I’d write to the Prime Minister if need be, but Jonathan told me to calm down and wait to see what happened at the upcoming meeting.
Unfortunately, the school meeting was very disappointing. Despite Mr Tripp strongly objecting to their U-turn, Social Services in Lucy’s home county was still adamantly refusing to pay for the support she needed at St Joseph’s. The fact she didn’t have a statement was the root of the problem. As we already knew, nobody was taking responsibility for having her statemented, even though the psychologist recommended it and she clearly needed help in the classroom. It was so annoying, because if she had the statement the LEA would be forced to pay for Lucy wherever she went to school, and Social Services would not need to be involved. It was a catch-22 situation.
Mr Tripp kindly suggested that Lucy could continue being supported by parent volunteers now her SEN funding had been cut. He also said he was not giving up and would continue to fight Lucy’s case until she was statemented.
‘She can have two sessions a week with our reading volunteer, Mrs Ethel. She comes in on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and listens to children read. She’s a great asset to the school. Reading levels have risen across the school since she joined us last year.’
I agreed that this was better than nothing but said I was very concerned about the effect it would have on Lucy, to have no support on a day-to-day basis in the classroom. Mr Tripp was doing his best
, though, and I tried not to show how annoyed I was.
‘We’ll continue to support her at home,’ I added. ‘I’ll keep encouraging her to practise writing more neatly and I’ll take her to the library so she can choose some books. She likes horses. I’ll see if we can find a few books that capture her imagination.’
The special needs teacher said this was a good idea and the two social workers agreed to keep the school informed of any developments, and of any change to Lucy’s circumstances. Privately, I started to seriously think about contacting our local MP.
Lucy was brought in at the end of the meeting and had all of this explained to her. She didn’t seem bothered either way and just nodded.
Thankfully, once she was back in the classroom, Lucy didn’t complain about the lack of help and whenever I asked her how her work was going she said everything was fine. Her form teacher, Miss Heather, made a special effort to check in with me at the end of the week. She said Lucy seemed happy and engaged most of the time, although she’d recognised that when she wasn’t busy she had a habit of annoying the other pupils. Miss Heather had made her a ‘pet monitor’. This entailed looking after some mice kept in a cage in the classroom.
‘She’s much happier and better behaved when she’s busy and she’s a very willing helper. If I can see she is losing focus I give her extra jobs to do, like going to the staff room to fetch fresh water for the mice.’
I thanked the teacher and told her I deployed similar tactics at home. I also told her about Lucy’s progress with the extra reading and writing work I was still encouraging her to do, whenever I saw the opportunity.
‘I find her attention span is very short and she gets frustrated easily, but when she’s in the right mood and is looking for something to do she’s very keen and willing. She’s reading a book on transport at the moment. She likes books with lots of pictures and diagrams. I think she’s definitely going to do something practical when she’s older. She loves making things, working with her hands and is fascinated by machinery and building things. She loves being outdoors too.’
