Page 2 | To ask you to sum up your council’s SEN provision in a sentence?

Starwomanwaiting · 2025-10-01T16:58:36+00:00

Hello all, Some very brief background: I have an autistic child, referred at 18 months, saw consultant before age 2, diagnosed age 3, extra funding at nursery for at least a year now. Nursery is applying for EHCP which will take 12 weeks. Have seen educational psychologist and looking to defer reception for a year. My question: it seems like we have been very lucky with our experience so far (except for speech therapy provision, which has had to be private). However we can’t stay in the city forever and need to buy a house/want a garden. So we need to find somewhere that isn’t going to be total shite for SEND. If you are outside London and have had a good experience please tell me! I know each case is unique but it would help me do more research. Equally if your experience has been awful and you’d like to warn me off please do so. I want to do right by my kid, but in a SEND crisis it’s hard to know where to start. Thanks x

kpopmum04 · 03/10/2025 00:06

Starwomanwaiting · 02/10/2025 18:48

Where are you? X

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South west London - our borough has been amazing with my DC.

primary - they hired a 1-1 by the la instead of from school dedicated to her who attended school with her but also come home to tutor when couldn’t go to school for the day.
funded her laptop / her chair etc
then secondary school we got a place offer at an independent Sen school and they agreed funding with in 24 hours and funded her a av1 robot the same week for when she started.
no appeals or tribunals

DoubtfulCat · 02/10/2025 20:59

Starwomanwaiting · 02/10/2025 19:57

I know lots of you have had appalling experiences. Maybe our family’s will be, too. But this thread isn’t about my local authority’s way of doing ECHPs, the nursery’s involvement, or any of that other stuff. I’m not worried about that and if I’m deluded then that’s on me to sort it out. I will be watching them like a hawk btw. Just because I’m not leading the process doesn’t mean I am not involved. Our children’s services here have an outstanding rating and just today I had several phone conversations with people (having contacted them only today) so I’m feeling positive.

This thread is more about where we can go once we have an ECHP in place! Though I have to say we don’t seem to have many options 😢 it seems we have already been very lucky in our experience

If you have a good experience with your LA I would be tempted to stay, to be honest. London has better educational outcomes in general than non-London areas and so many places nationally have a really terrible reputation.

A few years back I worked with a kid who’d moved in the June of Y6 from Bracknell to Gloucestershire with a statement (as it was then) of 15 hours TA support a week. On the basis of a single meeting with this kid at the primary school he attended for less than a month, Gloucestershire LA saw fit to downgrade his statement to five hours a week, just as he went into secondary school. I don’t believe that things have improved since then in terms of funding and support for SEND in the county.

Tonianlilly · 02/10/2025 20:56

Kingston and Richmond AFC
EhCp within 20 weeks
Draft "lost" some of our private reports so not included
Did nothing between granting NA and issuing EHCP.. we did it all for them privately
Incompetent at best
We are appealing wordingmore cost and time for us.

There is no suitable SEN schools in borough

Geneticsbunny · 02/10/2025 20:50

You can have one word... Inadequate.

mumofsixfluffs · 02/10/2025 20:48

We have a specialist school in the London borough that I live in for autistic kids with an EHCP. When speaking to the school they said not a single child that goes there lives in the borough and that thus borough deliberately avoids giving out an ehcp which was the issue I had and caused me to contact the school in the first place. My child has seriously been let down by the mainstream school he attended, the council and so called professionals.

newusernamex1000 · 02/10/2025 20:46

My council has gone into debt because of the amount of cash it’s costing. Mainly transportation reasons taking kids out of the area.

We had numerous SEND schools and even units attached to main scream schools but they were all closed under Blair’s Labour apart from one. I have no idea why.

So now numerous children are without education in my area. My friend has 5 SEND kids and she has managed to get 4 of them into different schools but one is left at home. It’s a sad situation.

This is the Northwest area

Original poster

Starwomanwaiting · 02/10/2025 19:58

DemBonesDemBones · 02/10/2025 17:37

Scottish Borders. No such thing as an EHCP here, one special school which could be filled 3 times over and out of area placements cancelled at the start of this academic year.

I’m so sorry to hear this

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Original poster

Starwomanwaiting · 02/10/2025 19:57

I know lots of you have had appalling experiences. Maybe our family’s will be, too. But this thread isn’t about my local authority’s way of doing ECHPs, the nursery’s involvement, or any of that other stuff. I’m not worried about that and if I’m deluded then that’s on me to sort it out. I will be watching them like a hawk btw. Just because I’m not leading the process doesn’t mean I am not involved. Our children’s services here have an outstanding rating and just today I had several phone conversations with people (having contacted them only today) so I’m feeling positive.

This thread is more about where we can go once we have an ECHP in place! Though I have to say we don’t seem to have many options 😢 it seems we have already been very lucky in our experience

OP posts:

Original poster

Starwomanwaiting · 02/10/2025 19:52

LlamaNoDrama · 02/10/2025 19:27

I wouldn't have too much faith in an LA that are clearly clueless about send law op

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I think I made a mistake and they said 20 weeks but they usually do it in 12!

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LlamaNoDrama · 02/10/2025 19:27

Starwomanwaiting · 02/10/2025 11:01

I have a sibling who was in private, but paid for by the local authority. We took them to tribunal but in those days you got a free lawyer. How times have changed.

Private is not an option for us at the moment. However again we are very lucky in that we will likely have the ECHP in place by early next year. The deadline here is 12 weeks and it actually takes that long. To give some insight into how different some london boroughs are, people in the council keep telling me it’s illegal to go past 12 weeks and that it never happens.

Again, so unfair and unequal nationally,

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I wouldn't have too much faith in an LA that are clearly clueless about send law op

LlamaNoDrama · 02/10/2025 19:25

Where is this magical LA that completes ehcna in 12 weeks? Asking for a few thousand parents

CleverButScatty · 02/10/2025 19:18

CopperWhite · 01/10/2025 20:19

The problem with asking this question is that people will give you answers based on their experience over the last ten or so years. It’s only in the last couple of years that things seem to have changed significantly for the worse, and it’s only now that funding is truly hitting the bottom of the pit. It might be worth bearing that in mind if you have choices to make.

This is a really good point. It's a different landscape completely post pandemic

ThreePointOneFourOneFiveNine · 02/10/2025 18:56

Surrey have moved beyond negligent into actively harmful.

flawlessflipper · 02/10/2025 18:54

Arran2024 · 02/10/2025 18:01

Someone from nursery would normally attend the meeting to discuss the draft plan, or don't they hold those any more? They did when I was working on ehc plans.

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All parents have the right to request a meeting if they want one. Sometimes the current setting attends, sometimes not.

Some nurseries/settings offer to ‘help’ the parents with drafts. How helpful this ‘help’ is varies. Not all understand SEN law and the importance of wording.

Original poster

Starwomanwaiting · 02/10/2025 18:48

kpopmum04 · 02/10/2025 18:37

Incredible - to be fair - we are lucky !

Where are you? X

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kpopmum04 · 02/10/2025 18:37

Incredible - to be fair - we are lucky !

Plist · 02/10/2025 18:28

Arran2024 · 02/10/2025 18:01

Someone from nursery would normally attend the meeting to discuss the draft plan, or don't they hold those any more? They did when I was working on ehc plans.

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Not in my county when I have applied for them (in a school). Perhaps it is different elsewhere.

Arran2024 · 02/10/2025 18:01

Plist · 02/10/2025 17:24

I agree it needs to be specific but think it's unfair to say 'leave it to the...nursery'. The nursery just provides information, same as all the other services. They don't write it, and crucially don't get a say on the draft EHCP, whether they agree with the way it is written or not.

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Someone from nursery would normally attend the meeting to discuss the draft plan, or don't they hold those any more? They did when I was working on ehc plans.

DemBonesDemBones · 02/10/2025 17:37

Scottish Borders. No such thing as an EHCP here, one special school which could be filled 3 times over and out of area placements cancelled at the start of this academic year.

Dontbugmemalone · 02/10/2025 17:35

Leicestershire here, absolutely terrible.
Gaslighted, ableist bullshit.

Primary and secondary school both said, dont apply for an EHCP as it will get refused, etc. More gaslighting from school.

Did it myself. Refused an assessment for an EHCP from County. Their response to the appeal was denying autism (in a diagnostic report confirming autism) and saying absolutely nonsense.

Mumofsend · 02/10/2025 17:34

Health is the biggest issue in our area, not the LA. CAMHs, SALT and paediatrics are absolutely diabolical

Original poster

Starwomanwaiting · 02/10/2025 17:25

Motherofalittledragon · 02/10/2025 16:26

Solihull awful. 27 months for my ds to get his asd assessment, 2 years waiting list for speech therapy.

I am so sorry to hear this. We have heard similar about Warwickshire

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Plist · 02/10/2025 17:24

Arran2024 · 02/10/2025 16:56

I would strongly suggest you get advice on the draft ehc at least.

I used to work in a sendiass team supporting parents to get an ehc plan.

One of the biggest problems is that the specialists they consult eg Speech and Language write reports that say things like "X would benefit from...." and the case worker copies and pastes BUT this sort of wording does not give you any entitlement to a service.

The ehc has to state clearly what is to be provided. So, instead of saying "Charlie would benefit from a weekly session with a speech and language therapist" it must say "Charlie will receive a weekly session of 45 minutes from a speech and language therapist".

And if you leave it to the LA and nursery, the chances are you will get the cut and paste EHC, and you will think you have a legal right to something, and you might even get it at first, but then the therapist leaves or you move to an LA and they say "ah yes, he would indeed really benefit from that but we can't do it, sorry" and you are absolutely stuck.

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I agree it needs to be specific but think it's unfair to say 'leave it to the...nursery'. The nursery just provides information, same as all the other services. They don't write it, and crucially don't get a say on the draft EHCP, whether they agree with the way it is written or not.

Original poster

Starwomanwaiting · 02/10/2025 17:24

Arran2024 · 02/10/2025 16:56

I would strongly suggest you get advice on the draft ehc at least.

I used to work in a sendiass team supporting parents to get an ehc plan.

One of the biggest problems is that the specialists they consult eg Speech and Language write reports that say things like "X would benefit from...." and the case worker copies and pastes BUT this sort of wording does not give you any entitlement to a service.

The ehc has to state clearly what is to be provided. So, instead of saying "Charlie would benefit from a weekly session with a speech and language therapist" it must say "Charlie will receive a weekly session of 45 minutes from a speech and language therapist".

And if you leave it to the LA and nursery, the chances are you will get the cut and paste EHC, and you will think you have a legal right to something, and you might even get it at first, but then the therapist leaves or you move to an LA and they say "ah yes, he would indeed really benefit from that but we can't do it, sorry" and you are absolutely stuck.

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Thanks! Don’t worry, I am going to read and sign everything. I’m involved I just mean that it’s very much a guided and supported process as opposed to me doing it all if that makes sense

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Arran2024 · 02/10/2025 16:56

Starwomanwaiting · 02/10/2025 15:16

Hi without wanting to get sidetracked on it, it’s done a bit differently here because of the way services are integrated. They basically do it all for you. I will need to add my voice, yes, but I don’t do the paperwork. I have full confidence in them!

Show quote history

I would strongly suggest you get advice on the draft ehc at least.

I used to work in a sendiass team supporting parents to get an ehc plan.

One of the biggest problems is that the specialists they consult eg Speech and Language write reports that say things like "X would benefit from...." and the case worker copies and pastes BUT this sort of wording does not give you any entitlement to a service.

The ehc has to state clearly what is to be provided. So, instead of saying "Charlie would benefit from a weekly session with a speech and language therapist" it must say "Charlie will receive a weekly session of 45 minutes from a speech and language therapist".

And if you leave it to the LA and nursery, the chances are you will get the cut and paste EHC, and you will think you have a legal right to something, and you might even get it at first, but then the therapist leaves or you move to an LA and they say "ah yes, he would indeed really benefit from that but we can't do it, sorry" and you are absolutely stuck.