EHCPs and respite care

[firecracker123]

Does anyone know if you can include a request for respite care in an EHCP. I am looking at secondaries for my ASD/ADHD son and i am partly interested in schools that may offer flexi boarding as to be honest I need a break from him sometimes! So I wondered if the new EHCP plans could cover this as they now include care and from what I understand I should be entitled to respite foster care anyway? I am talking about 2 nights per month

[senvet]

Well yes. You can put it in the care sections....

BUT... Only the educational part of an EHCP is enforceable, so if, by any chance, your dc needs to learn independence skills that you are not really able to teach then try to see if the boarding department of your chosen school will offer training for these. Your argument is especially good if your dc needs to learn skills that are not really taught in the day, eg how to remember to take all your wash bag and towel to the shower

OR if he needs help learning to generalise skills learned in one place to another, - does he learn to do eg, washing, dressing, getting breakfast etc at home and then it all gets forgotten when he goes to a different place?
If so, you may be able to squeak them into the educational sections as needing to learn to generalise these skills

There is a case that helps you:
www.ipsea.org.uk/news/2014/haining-v-warrington

The result of that case is that the cost of your respite can be taken into account when balancing the cost of the LA's choice of school against your choice of school.

I hope this helps

[firecracker123]

Thank you that's very helpful. I think where we are I will have difficulty getting him into a boarding school as we have a new ASD unit attached to a mainstream or an independent but we live close enough that he could travel there daily. That said, we might move to another area before secondary

As such, we would definitely have a case for respite on cost grounds because the respite plus place at the ASD unit is massively cheaper than the place at independent.

I guess I am a bit embarrassed about asking for respite in case it reflects badly on me as a parent

[senvet]

Nope, it doesn't reflect badly on you as a parent.

if you don't ask you won't get,
and respite for you and your family is what you may all need to keep up the quality of care and home-learning that dc needs in the large majority of time that dc spends with you at home.

Also dc may need to experience different environments apart from home and school,