Urgent SEND advice please!

[Starlightstargazer]

My daughter had an educational psychologist assessment a year ago, which was done when she was in between 2 schools and without any classroom observations.
The ehcp draft took 9 months to appear, by which time her needs - educational and health had significantly changed.

The LA would like to name a school which is wholly unsuitable, misrepresenting her needs due to out of date and unsuitable EP report.

Is there a law or guidance to state when an EP report should be redone?

is there a law about the LA misrepresenting and misleading placement schools, by not giving vital info about the child?

thanks so much for any help!!

There is a group of fb called 'SEND Rights EHCP/SEND support goup'. It is so helpful. I don't know the answer but regularly see questions similar to this posted and replies etc

You can try contacting IPSEA for advice.

i don’t think there’s any legal rules with how often EP reports should be done. Guidance is that one is done at key transition points (going to secondary, moving to post 16 etc) but my son had one at reception and didn’t get another until 16 and only when I really insisted.

Thank you, I’ll look it up.

It says they should carry out a new EP report when significant changes happen. I’m just trying to find out if there is a legal basis for that. Thanks for replying

I think, that for the purposes of arrangements for exams etc, the requirement is for reports to be no more than two years old. I imagine, if there are significant and impactful changes, they would need to be acknowledged and incorporated in any review.

My problem is that as there were no classroom observations and she wasn’t in school at the time, the EP report is totally inaccurate.
during the 9 months they took to even do a draft, her whole health and education had completely changed.

Tbh you will probably get nowhere arguing the toss so should ask for the EHCP to be finalised and register an appeal. LA's know that by naming an unsuitable placement and forcing a parent to appeal saves them money with the wait for Tribunal being a year or so now. If you spend time negotiating or arguing before the appeal is submitted it just lengthens the wait for the end game so stick in the appeal first and LA should be more receptive to your discussions.

^This. Push the LA to finalise ASAP then appeal. If you need independent assessment but can’t afford them and are not eligible for legal aid contact Parents in Need who can sometimes help.

If the plan is finalised you can call an early review and request a new assessment.

I’m absolutely devastated. The council have sent a finalised ehcp with the unsuitable school named. We’ll have to go to appeal. She’s going into her GCSE years!
Do they still have to provide tutoring or other form of education while we appeal?

The letter should state how you can appeal, start the process now.

If they have named a setting they would not fund tutoring.

If you can get CAMHS for instance to write to LA to state she is too unwell to attend the named school then you can ask them to make provision under section 19. That's what I did and the LA supplied tutors.
Have the named school said they can meet needs?You willneed to appeal sections B,F and I to get the best chance of securing a different school.

The LA must ensure any provision detailed, specified and quantified in F is received. However, the wording of many EHCPs is vague and woolly so you may find there isn’t anything enforceable in F.

As @hiredandsqueak posted, if DD is unable to attend school, the LA must ensure she still receives a suitable full-time education under s19 of the Education Act 1996.

If DD is unable to attend school you can request the appeal hearing is expedited.

Thanks so much for all your replies. I’m just so utterly exhausted. Is it worth doing mediation?
I’ll ask Cahms to write and hopefully continue tutoring that way.
i have absolutely no idea how the school can meet need. A few weeks back they said no, then the council asked them to reconsider and they’ve said yes! Nothing has changed

What did the EP do to gather info?

Some are only able to work remotely now

Some services have very few eps

It's a mess

I wouldn’t bother with mediation, just get the certificate and submit to SENDIST. LAs use mediation as a delaying tactic. If they are going to concede they will do so regardless of whether you actively partake in mediation or just get the certificate.

Chances are that the school said no so that the LA would come back and say what do you need to meet her needs, school say funding, LA agrees. It's a dance that they play. Why is the school unsuitable?

Was CAMHS consulted as part of the EHCP process? They should have been.

Did you not receive a draft copy of the plan before the final? That would've been the time to say that it wasn't accurate.

Have you got updated reports that you can send to the LA to show that your dc's needs have changed? CAMHs or home tuition service.

This was a year ago now and my daughter had been off school and was waiting to start another. The assessment was done during that time, so she had no stress, no anxiety etc etc. There were no classroom observations as she wasn’t in a school. The evidence was really what Izzy was feeling at the time, her ASD reports and what the previous school said. It’s presented as a classic autism report.
Within 2 weeks of starting at the new school, everything went downhill very fast, plus new diagnosis of adhd and extremely severe mental heath. By this time though, the report had been concluded.
She hasn’t attended school since October 23.
The EP report bares no relation to how she is now.

The draft took so long. Agreement to issue made 28/3/23, not received until October 15th ‘23.
i asked them to redraft and they added a small amount of adhd related stuff and a small detail of Cahms. They basically said Cahms would sort out therapies etc but Cahms don’t have anything to offer due to waiting lists!
the school we wanted and for which she got an offer includes intensive support for mental health.

Yes but a long way into the process and was included at the second draft in a small paragraph. Council says they should do all the therapies needed but Cahms say they don’t have any due to wait list or resource limits. So I feel the LA have misrepresented her needs in order to get this other school to agree…

They said no as the SEMH school couldn’t meet need unless DD went into their intensive mental health unit. On that basis, they said they definitely couldn’t meet need. So we have this offer from specialist independent which meets all of her needs - great! Then the LA pops up yesterday saying ‘oh we’ve asked la school to reconsider and they have’
literally nothing has changed.
im so angry with the la school for saying they can meet need, but how?!

That was my instinct too.

Thank you very much - I’m just so upset that we have this placement offer which meets all her needs and was so hard to get, and now the LA pop up with this awful option. Do you know how long appeals are taking at the moment?