EHCP support thread no. 6

You should avoid a school move during the application for EHCP. Does the alternative school have in year places?

@Leafywool
Thank you, I will do it.

She has been complaining that her school is too strict which has stressed her out a bit and wants to move to a school where some of her friends are. Ideally I want her to stay but not
sure how much her current school will help yet.

Forgot to say my dd struggles with anxiety too and it became much worse in Y7, to the point she now hasn’t been in school for almost a year. Not saying this will happen for your dd too (i genuinely hope she’s doing well in secondary!) but I think it’s good to be prepared, considering her needs.

Definitely do it. My dd did not struggle much in primary school but has done massively since starting secondary last year and I wish I’d done it much sooner. She is autistic and was on the SEN register, but the fact she had no EHCP made it much more difficult for us to unlock support for her. You can apply for a needs assessment yourself - you don’t have to wait for the school to do it. I applied in January and DD’s EHCP was finalised in July.

Hi, I need some advice please
as I feel clueless in this area.
my child is in year 7 and has an SEN plan from primary school. I enquired about applying for an EHCP while she was still in primary but the school put me off, they said it will be declined as there are children in the school more severe needs than mine and did not get one. I also contacted the private assessor we had and she also said my child won’t get one and not to waste my time.

after reading that most EHCPs are given after appeals I am feeling that I made a mistake not trying.
And certainly annoyed with myself.

will it be harder now my child’s in secondary school?

DC has dyslexia, low processing speed and anxiety.

Thanks for replying it’s a total joke isn’t it, school backs the EP that the provision is needed, all the evidence does, they have used the report to write an amended draft plan so they accept the needs are there they just don’t want to pay for it.

@RareAzureBee LAs do not need to ratify independent reports, conduct quality assurance/quality control on independent reports or have them signed off in any way. The LA doesn’t need to reassess either.

If it has been ‘many months’, the LA is in breach of the AR timescales. The AR process should have been as follows:

1. Updated advice and information should have been circulated at least 2 weeks prior to the AR meeting.
2. The AR meeting.
3. Within 2 weeks of the AR meeting, a report should have been circulated.
4. Within 4 weeks of the AR meeting, the LA should have informed you if they proposed to amend or not. If they do, they should have sent the amendment notice/draft/notice of amendment/proposed amendments (whatever you/the LA wants to call it) at the same time and you should have been given at least 15 days to comment on the amendments and state your preferred placement. Your representations can include proposed amendments from independent reports.
5. Then if the LA is going to amend, they should have finalised within 8 weeks of sending the proposed amendments, so max of 12 weeks from the AR meeting.

I would be pushing the LA to finalise, then appeal. The LA is trying delaying tactics when you already know they are going to force you to appeal. The LA can always concede if they are inclined to agree to the amendments required. The LA may well seek up to date evidence during the appeal, anyway. Once in appeal, I would see if the EP who did the assessment for you would be willing to do an addendum.

You can’t force the LA to provide the provision at the moment.

After some advice, as part of AR we submitted a private EP report, LA kept saying their own EP service would need to consider it and give advice as to whether they agreed with the provision but after many months it seems the EP service have declined to do so, LA are now saying they need to send out their EP service to do a whole new assessment as they don’t have an accurate and up-to-date picture of his needs. Our report was completed within School within the past year it is completely accurate and up-to-date they just don’t like what it suggests. The other option they have given is the sign off the final plan to give me my tribunal rights. I know they were planning to force me to tribunal anyway and agree the one to one at the working document stage because I did a subject access request which uncovered this written in supervision notes from a couple of months ago. They are trying to sell the new EP involvement as a possible early intervention service to avoid tribunal but given what I’ve seen, I’m obviously highly suspicious of this. Wonder if others have had experience of this tactic and whether it is worth pursuing in the hope they might actually agree to something or whether I should just go straight to Tribunal? At the moment they have no evidence the recommended provision is not needed but I guess there is no way to force them to pay in the interim?

Thank you. On the plus side, we have nothing now, so nothing to lose.

Sorry wrong thread.

If the provision in F isn’t being provided and the LA is ignoring you, a pre-action letter is the right way to go. I just wanted to let you know what some LAs are doing.

Thank you. We have spoken to sos sen and a solicitor, but obviously the solicitor would be 10-20 times the cost, so it's a balancing act. The local authority are ignoring everything from us and kid has been out of education for over two years. Not really sure we have much in the way of possibilities other than pre action letter. They have agreed eotis, they just aren't actually providing it.

@ThaneOfGlamis it depends on how complex the case is, but it will be at least a few weeks, possibly longer.

So you are aware some LAs are ignoring pre-action letters unless they are written by someone with a legal aid contract. They know if they ignore, you still have to find someone with a legal aid contract with capacity to take on the case, which can take perseverance at the moment, and when you find someone, they will sometimes want to send another pre-action letter via them. So some LAs are sometimes taking the chance of kicking the can down the road.

Does anyone know what sort of turn around time sos sen would have for a pre action letter? They say they can't give timescale, which is fair enough, just wondering if anyone has used them recently.

I wouldn’t recommend the case being heard on the papers for an EOTIS hearing.

Although the WD process can, and should, still be part of the appeal for a paper hearing.

@KeepItSpinning Thanks. Yes, I'm requesting an expedited hearing.

Would a hearing on the papers ever be advisable if the professional reports are strong and detailed, specified, quantified? That would help move the date up but my concern would be around the WD and how that would be finalised.

At our last tribunal, the LA didn't respond to the WD until half an hour before the hearing began and a large part of the hearing focused on agreeing changes. Seemed a ridiculous use of a judge's / panelists' time.

I meant to say, if you have appealed, the LGO won’t touch the case citing section 26(6) of the Local Government Act 1974.

A phase transfer review must still be held. DS not being in school doesn’t change that. Neither does the early AR.

It’s not impossible, but it is unlikely that the LA will resolve all the disputed content during the phase transfer process.

When there is a live appeal, it is quite common for LAs to direct communication to the person/team dealing with the appeal. If there is anything detailed, specified and quantified in F that isn’t being provided and they continue to stall and ignore you about that or a suitable full-time education, you can go down the pre-action letter route.

Have you requested an expedited hearing?

EOTAS was agreed for my now Y11 child at the AR in May. The LA still has not provided any provision and ignores my emails. They also ignored all the professional reports in the AR and the resulting EHCP is rubbish. Appeal lodged -- HD March 2028. The LA has also ignored y request for s19 provision. Dir of Children's Svcs, local councillors and MP all cc'd.

Questions:

1. As DS is in Y11, should we still expect a Phase Transfer Review even if the AR just happened (EHCP issued in early August)? DS will not be moving on to Sixth Form -- we plan for him to do whatever GCSEs he wants and feels able to do over two years, as the EP recommended.

I don't suppose there's any chance of convincing the LA to fix the EHCP provision as part of the Phase Transfer Review?

2. I've been chasing the EOTAS provision and the LA has told me that I now need to speak with the "Appeals Team" bc we'd lodged an appeal. The "Appeals Team" they told me to contact is a nasty barrister who was a nightmare at our last Tribunal hearing. They seem to be saying that since we're in appeal, they don't have to coordinate provision ... or they're paying a barrister to do it, which I doubt. Suggestions on how to handle this?

They are just so, so awful, it's mind-boggling.

DS and DH are both lobbying me to just stop fighting and manage things on our own, but I don't want to have to fund everything ourselves even though what DS is able to access ATM isn't much. It's also the principle of the matter. I'm keeping records and receipts and plan to try to get reimbursement through the complaints/LGO process, but I'm exhausted and the thought of not having to deal with this is so appealing.

@CatBusStop propose any amendments that are required. You can do this without getting drawn into a prolonged back and forth. You don’t need to say you accept the EHCP, the LA doesn’t need your agreement to finalise. The LA may well have already started consulting. They don’t always wait for parents to make representations and state their preferred placement. That is why it is a good idea to contact any placements who may be consulted so that they have a full and accurate picture.

If you didn’t email the Director of Children’s Services about AP, do that. If you did, you could look for someone with capacity for a pre-action letter.

Hello, I have finally had the draft ehcp. They’ve not updated B, C, E or F despite new evidence including a LA EP report. They are already well out of time. I don’t want to get into endless redraft tennis. I will say I accept it solely to get schools consulted and the final ehcp and then appeal. Does that sound like a pragmatic approach?
I did directly ask for s19 provision but this hasn’t even been acknowledged.

Just back from the school meeting, it is the small group teaching elements that they have said they will be going to SENAR and saying they cannot meet this provision.

Other parts of the EHCP can only be done if my daughter attends extra curricular such as breakfast club and after school. Which me and the school know it will be a miracle of we even get my daughter in the building never mind being there any longer.

I do like the SENCo and my youngest daughter has just started the school. But my youngest daughter is a different child to my older child.

I have been clear and said I will be going to tribunal, that obviously I will work with the school to try and get my daughter to attend. But we all know the battle that has been, and they also said alot of the provisionnis changing environment, which as a 9 form entry mainstream they cannot adapt the environment as much as is needed

Make sure you appeal B&F as well as I. The wording definitely needs improving and the placement named in section I is the logical conclusion of B&F. B+F=I. Although they shouldn’t, it is also common for LAs to write B&F to fit the placement they want to name in I.

Unfortunately, schools that are not wholly independent can be named even if they object and directed to admit.

Ah it's daily 1 hour teaching in a small group no more than 6. Then 2 30 minute teaching sessions daily with 4-6 peers.

I am going for a meeting with the school shortly and I sent then 11 pages of questions on Friday. Basically asking about wvery provision and how they will provide it.

The school SENCo and attendance seem genuinely surprised they have been named, I believe they said they cant meet need (thry said they would anyway). I have asked case worker for all consultation responses to help with evidence for tribunal. But I will ask current school if they could hive me a copy of there's. As the case worker is shockingly bad at responding

@rainbow9713 I know you will have paraphrased to post here, but from that wording, I can see why mainstream has been named. It is poor wording. Not exhaustive, but for example, what is ‘small’? Small group isn’t the same as small class. What ‘key adult’? Depending on the exact wording, the check ins may well be able to be fulfilled by the class teacher. ‘Throughout the day’ doesn’t mean throughout the whole school day.