Moving county with ECHP for 4yr old

[tink1983]

Okay so me and my husband have split. The house is being sold and I'll not be able to afford to stay local as I'm priced out really.

My son starts reception in September 2017. He is set to go up from his preschool to the main school. Which was ideal as he has friends and is settled and they understand his issues.

He has severe speech delay and being assessed for autism.
He is currently having a ECHP/ sen put in place ready for reception.
So I'm really worried about moving to next county along and moving him to another school.
I could drive him 30mins to drop off each morning, but that isn't realistic long term.
Should I rent to keep him in school?
Or will his ECHP move with him?
I guess moving now before reception is best time for him.
But it's all such a worry. Want him to get the support he needs and I'm so worried it'll all get messed up cause my marriage has broken down.

Sorry to ramble. I'm having slight crisis here. ! Thanks so much xx

[BackforGood]

Didn't want to leave your question unanswered, and hopefully I will bump for someone who knows more about the legalities, but from what I know, his EHC Plan will go with him.
The paperwork is slightly different in each Local Authority, but only in the design of it - every LA has had to include the same things in the same way on their EHC Plans. Most LAs would be likely to use the information that's already there for them, but if they chose to reassess you'd have a very good legal argument if they then offered anything less.

[wowbutter]

The ehcp moves with him.
If you do not drive, he may be able to get transport. I am pretty drunk just now but will try and respond when I am sober as this is my area of expertise.

[tink1983]

Thanks ladies xx

[LadyConstanceDeCoverlet]

Ideally you should wait till you get a finalised EHCP before moving, as otherwise there will be a delay whilst the new council gets up to speed, and it's just possible they could refuse to issue an EHCP.

When you know you are moving, contact the SEN department in your new area to talk to them about this and alert them, and confirm it to them as soon as you have moved; also tell the current council and ask them to send the file to the new one. The new council has to consider the EHCP and decide whether to adopt it or whether to carry out its own review and amend it. Presumably it will have to amend it anyway to name the new school, and the chances are the new LA will have a different template so they'll need to adapt for that anyway.

If you need to appeal against the EHCP, you can start your appeal against the old council and the new one will have to take over and decide whether to continue defending the appeal. I'd strongly advise getting your EHCP checked by someone like SOS SEN, LAs rarely seem to produce EHCPs that actually comply with the law and are helpful to the child.