Ehcp issues

[spader1987]

Hi everyone,

Ds 8 has an ehcp in place which states under education provision a number of things relating to the school speech and language therapist. For example he is to have a weekly therapy session with her and a weekly group session also with her. The school therapist is also to give advice to class staff twice weekly. This had been working well until she went on maternity leave and the school replaced her with a teaching assistant who had worked with the school therapist for a few months before she went on maternity leave. A few months down the line and ds is struggling massively at school as the communication difference for him between what he gets at home and school is massive. We have been teaching him how to use his device by modeling. He is now able to independently make between 100-150 words/sentences a day. School don't understand what we mean by modeling even after sending literature in and explaining many times.

School have no advice from a professional, he is only seeing a ta who is doing 5 month old exercises which are no longer relevant and is getting no group therapy.

So my question is if on his ehcp a speech therapist is named and he is not receiving this what are our rights? Does anyone have experience of a school not enforcing an echp? (i suspect yes!)

Thanks for reading

[Miscible]

Does the EHCP specifically say it must be support from a qualified speech therapist? If so, you need to alert the local authority to what is happening and ask them to make urgent arrangements to put proper speech therapy provision in place because it is their statutory duty to ensure this. If they don't do it, tell them you will have to take judicial review proceedings to enforce your child's rights. There's some information about judicial review in the information sheet on SOS SEN's website - sossen.org.uk/information_sheets.php

[spader1987]

Thanks so much for your reply!
It is worded as the schools (uses the school name) speech and language therapist. Apparently you can't call yourself a therapist unless you are registered with the hcpc, which the replacement is not. Staff have not received any advice in class for months (supposed to be twice weekly).
Do you think this is enough to challenge?
Thanks for the link it is very helpful!

[Miscible]

Yes, it sounds as if you do have enough to challenge - the intention is clearly that your son should have a therapist, not a TA.