EHCPs - very quick question

[SinkGirl]

One of my twins’ proposed plans went to panel on Wednesday. I’d been led to believe that this panel is where they decide whether the recommended placement will be mainstream or specialist.

Do they decide there and then? Caseworker told me yesterday that results weren’t back yet and I’ve heard nothing today.

When are you supposed to hear?

Yes they usually will decide at the panel. The letter can take a while to come though and the panel can finish late in the day so the caseworker may not see the results until they’re on the system the next day. Ring again on Monday.

From personal experience it does take a few days to get an answer.

Did you specify/request a specific placement

I would ring first thing on Monday.

They will have to ensure that the paperwork and process is legally compliant. As others have said, phone again on Monday.

Thanks, will do. So they send a letter rather than calling? Based on the speed at which letters are sent out, I’ll be lucky to be see it this side of December if that’s the case.

We have asked for a specific setting to be named. If they’re given a specialist placement it won’t be decided which one at this stage, since the next specialist heads panel isn’t until early January. I’m just praying that they agree to a specialist placement generally although not holding my breath as the plans are pretty useless and it’s likely I’ll have to appeal the contents regardless. Although if they do get a specialist placement then that’s less of an issue (they’re only 3, we are trying to get them into an autism specific early years setting).

Currently going through and highlighting the giant holes in the proposed plans and meeting with them the week after next to go through it all.

We haven’t even been told that they are definitely issuing them, but I think it would be very bizarre if they didn’t as they know I’d appeal and that they’d lose based on the needs listed in the proposed plans.

Sigh. This whole process is absolutely bloody ridiculous.

In our authority they will send a letter, but you can also call and they’ll let you know faster.

They wouldn’t bother to write the plans if they weren’t going to let them have them, so I wouldn’t worry about that part of it all. It is a really frustrating process.

Apparently they have to write a draft plan after the assessment process and then they decide whether to issue it or not? Seems a a strange way to do it, but then all of it is just madness anyway.

I don’t really think they could get away with not issuing now - still in the back of my mind though!

Here, the Assessment request is sent in, everything compiled / collated and at that point it is taken to panel for them to decide if they are going to issue an EHCP.
At this point they write to you to tell you they are going ahead.
Then they write to everyone involved and ask for updated reports, and (after about 12 weeks, in theory, but not always to time) they ask for your preferred choice of schooling.
They then contact the school to ask if they can meet the child's needs.
Then they send out the draft for you to look over and challenge / amend / agree to.

Yeah, that’s a much more sensible structure. Sadly it’s not what happens here. And I would love for them to get updated reports at this stage but would frankly settle for them having got all the right reports in the first place (they forgot to request two crucial reports for one of the twins - it seems they forgot they are two separate people - and refused to get the assessments I very reasonably requested, including a Vision Support assessment for visually impaired DT2, which the code states is mandatory).

The whole thing has been an absolute mess and we actually have quite a clear cut case with very obvious needs which are all covered in the plan - they’ve just not bothered to get specific provisions set. I’m running around trying to arrange the missing reports and assessments myself when they could have just done it and saved themselves a lot of hassle.

I’m going to be spending my weekend filling in my tables of needs, outcomes and provisions and highlighting the gaping holes. How fun!