Please don’t apologise, I’m very grateful for your detailed reply and suggestions.
My older child (a boy, YR3) had the LA refuse to assess. They were forced to do so in December. They have recently, very belatedly, decided not to issue an EHCP for him despite detailed reports from two neurdevelopmental paediatricians, OT, two EPs (the LA one and a very thorough report from a private one), a thorough SALT report of almost 50 pages (again private, because the NHS SALT service refused even to assess him after two years on their waiting list because he can speak in sentences. They sent us around the houses claiming it wasn’t their remit and they only treat children who are non-verbal or can’t form a full sentence but his GP and I contacted the ICB and they stated the NHS SALT service is the correct commissioned service to see him so this is now also the subject of a formal complaint). He has reports from his ENT consultant (hearing issues), and his child psychologist who he sees weekly.
Via an SAR, because their refusal to issue with all of this evidence was inexplicable, I obtained documents which prove they ignored all of these reports and claimed there was no input. His “case officer” has refused to speak to me or my children’s advocate or SENDIAS at any point during the assessment process.
I’ve now lodged a tribunal case to get this decision overturned and been advised that the hearing won’t be until next spring. I am hoping - given the overwhelming amount of evidence - that it can be done as a paper hearing so perhaps this decision can be overturned sooner as it’s so obvious that they are deliberately obstructing much needed provision that all of his doctors and specialists have set out that he needs.
My concern is that they are trying to delay this as long as possible deliberately so that we’re not in a position at the start of YR5 to start looking for an appropriate secondary place for him, with an EHCP in place (just over a year away). No doubt even when they’re forced to issue, they won’t draft it properly with the provision his doctors and specialists have said he needs and I’ll have to take them to tribunal a third time to get an appropriate EHCP in place, when the search for appropriate secondary places should be starting. It would be catastrophic for him, with his particular issues, if he doesn’t have a clear plan in place in YR6 for where he is going and isn’t able to start at the start of YR7 along with his cohort, in an appropriate school. Mainstream secondary absolutely will not be an option. These “units” are totally inappropriate because again that is a choice between EITHER being in class learning OR having an appropriate environment for your autism, so missing much learning and unable to learn in the environment when he is in class because of the teaching methods and too many people. It’s simply not appropriate, especially with different children and different teachers in different classrooms all day, the disruption and noise caused by many pupils in these secondary schools, the total lack of enforcement of the rules. He needs a quiet, calm, academic environment in a small school with class sizes of 15 maximum and appropriate, calm behaviour from others throughout the school so he can just focus on learning.
I think perhaps the only place this exists is in small, private mainstream schools where disruptive behaviour or bullying wouldn’t be tolerated, and the learning is much faster, the teachers and other pupils well-known, proper behaviour management, and a far faster pace of learning.
Do I try to make these points at the upcoming tribunal about issuing his EHCP in the first place, or do I have to do this tribunal (already the second one) just to get them to issue the EHCP, then a third to get them to draft it properly, then another one to try to get them to allocate him an appropriate secondary school, so four in total?
He was diagnosed with autism in Reception. How can it be that it’s this hard even to get an EHCP in place in time for SECONDARY school, despite reports from all of these different doctors and specialists all explicitly stating that he needs one?
I genuinely don’t know how these LA staff sleep at night, they are disgraceful excuses for human beings. The damage they have done will take us YEARS to repair, if we can at all, and primary school has been a write off: he’s learned what he could in 6 months in 4 years and his mental health has been trashed. I just need to know what to do now to stop them doing any more damage.
We live in mid-Sussex, near Haywards Heath. He would never cope with boarding or being away overnight, he’s extremely reliant on me. It would have to be somewhere commutable. There are some small independent private schools around us but I have no idea how to approach this with them. We receive no advice from the LA. I am autistic myself so I’m finding all of this, navigating it on top of the LA’s obstruction and gaslighting and refusal even to discuss the situation extremely difficult to cope with on top of being a lone parent and full time work to pay our mortgage, for the nannies they need outside school, for most of their medical treatment etc, so any advice would be very welcome. Ultimately in any school where he’s in classes of 30 or expected to deal with unpredictable behaviour or people or teachers he doesn’t know well or lots of noise, he will not cope. Yet he’s capable of understanding quite complex maths and physics already, IF someone sits with him and explains it visually to him rather than standing at the front of class speaking “at” him. He is also extremely kind and empathetic and sociable, but needs this to be in an environment with kind children like him who aren’t randomly violent or cruel. And not in a school - like most mainstream schools - where this is routinely allowed to go on all the time. Ultimately if state education resembled what it should be then he’d probably be able to cope fairly well but because it is such a disgraceful shambles, he can’t and it’s done so much damage.
I’m just really shocked tbh that in the face of all of this evidence from so many different medical professionals they could behave in this way to a vulnerable child knowing the damage it’s doing, obstruct things at every possible stage. They really have no conscience at all.
What you say about EOTAS is very interesting. Would you mind sharing a little more about what that can look like, what kind of provision can be put in place? How it works day to day? I really feel like I’m feeling my way in the dark here despite having tried my best to research it all. It’s the most complicated and opaque system. I’ve done everything that was advised - independent assessments and reports, challenged decisions through tribunals, but it seems never-ending and designed to try NOT to give children what they need.
Funnily enough, my brother, also autistic went to Great Ballard for a while 30+ years ago. I hadn’t thought of checking there. He didn’t enjoy it, and is similar in some ways to my son, but not in terms of his sociability. And of course it may have changed a lot in 30 years anyway! I just don’t even know how you approach a private school to ask them about this? The LA won’t help me investigate options - they won’t even speak to me - so I would have to somehow do this myself? I can look at Slindon, More House, Northease Manor etc as well - thanks so much.
I will reply separately about my daughter in a minute but thank you so much for your advice and sorry this is so long. I really just do not know what to do now, it’s like endlessly bashing your head on a wall. I am in total autistic burnout myself tbh seeing their distress and trying to deal with that, deal with my daughter out of school for months on end, deal with them both coming home in pieces, hold down a full time job, fight these disgraceful people from the Council, try to hold my health together. It’s been horrific and I still can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.