What an extraordinary performance.....sometimes I really do think it's a plot to drive us mad.

The day after receiving application forms for the coming academic year's Home Tuition Grant I had them duly completed with the requisite up-to-date assessment of my son attached. Learning from previous experience I didn't put them in the post to the area SENO but rang to make sure she was actually in post. The phone rang and rang until I eventually got a messsage saying that she would not be back in her office until September 6th......way too late for form-signing. I then rang the regional office.....well, you've guessed it the phone rang and rang until I eventually got a message that said the message box was full so I couldn't leave a message. I  then rang a few contacts to try and find out what was going on only to be told that the office had previously been closed entirely due to.....yes, staff holidays !!!!

Being a basically optimistic kind of person I rang NCSE Mission Control. Now, at risk of boring you I have to say the phone rang and rang......and I eventually left a message. As the day wore on no-one replied so I rang back again, this time being able to explain my problem to a real human being who said she would consult and that someone would get back to me.....who never did.

I then decided to contact my son's psychologist at our service provider as I knew that she often liased with the SENOs and thought she may have some more direct contact, their premises being almost adjacent. Our service provider is now ensconced in a fabulous new, and very expensive, state of the art building, along with part of the HSE...known in its entirety as the Child Services Centre. Where better to go for help with my child's services?!

Oh Dear Reader, I have to disapppoint you yet again.....yes, you've guessed it.....the phone in reception at Starship Services rang and rang but hang on a minute, we have a bit of variation here....this time it nearly blew my ear off by suddenly shrilling out a ghastly fax tone. I thought that maybe I had the new number wrong so I consulted Directory Enquiries. No, the number was correct so I tried again...and again...and again. By now, deaf in one ear and with a crazed desperation overtaking me, I rang the psychologist's work mobile number, expecting her to be trapped incommunicado  somewhere on the control deck. The mobile rang and rang but she did answer which was actually extremely kind of her because she was, in fact, on holiday. She also informed me that the reason I couldn't get through on the main line was because the receptionist was....aaah....on holiday and there was no cover for her, rendering communication with anyone inside this splendid edifice impossible unless you had their direct line, which of course you need to ask the receptionist for.  You know, the one who's on holiday.

Now, please don't get me wrong here...I don't for one minute begrudge anyone else their holidays...as a full-time carer I'd quite like one myself but the fact that society is not arranged in such a way that folks like me get holidays is not the fault of those that do...well, not all of them. But some people somewhere in the management structures of this bizarre saga do get paid both for holidays and for skills of which there is precious little evidence.

But I digress, I apologised for interrupting our psychologist's free time but this was not a problem to her and she listened with increasing  sympathy and incredulity ( and I think maybe some disgust ) to my tale, promising to do whatever she could to help once back at work in a few days time.

By now, most of a day had been wasted making these interminable calls so I gave up and took my son to the beach. I began again with renewed fervour the next day, ringing NCSE headquarters to point out that no-one had ever responded to my calls.  A nice, helpful man said he would contact a SENO temporarily assigned to our area and that she would call me asap. Wow, she did ! But, of course, being temporary she knew nothing at all about either my son or the nature of local educational provision  and so was full of reservations about her ability to sign his form which made me wonder exactly why she had been put there at all. My son's psychologist had said that I should ask the SENO to ring her direct so I requested that she did, giving her the direct mobi line in case the receptionist was still on holiday.

Later that day she rang me back to say she had consulted the psychologist who confirmed that there was no way in the world that my son would cope in the educational provision available in our area and that she was recommending a continuation of his grant. Our psychologist had also specifically requested a better system of SENO coverage at this time of year to avoid the appalling stress that this kind of performance places on parents. BUT despite this the SENO said that because she wasn't familiar with either my son or the educational provision she still couldn't sign the form !

She then went on to say that the absent SENO had decided to return next week instead of in September and that she had liased with the Home Tuition section of the Dof E who had agreed not to deduct anything from my son's grant due to delay IF it was sanctioned. She concluded this with.....'Now that's tremendous news isn't it !?'

Yes...tremendous, absolutely tremendous....watch this space for...

                                            Part 3: Return of the SENO.