Scrapping ehcp 's for children in mainstream school

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I can't do a link on my tablet but contact a family have said on their Facebook page about ehcp's being scrapped for children in mainstream school. Not sure if it happening or just being discussed.

I have 2 dc in mainstream school with an ehcp. Dc4 has learning disabilities and is thriving with support. Dc5 has autism and is emotionally like a toddler at age 11. He wouldn't be safe at school without his ehcp. There are loads of children who are like them in mainstream school who would have been in special needs school when I was young.

I know they’re not doing that, I was being ironic!

This about saving money, same with the 5 billion pound cuts to pip and the winter fuel allowance.

Yes it's a charity, not some random persons thoughts.

Not necessarily they came for the elderly they came for the disabled who is next do you reckon?

A lot of academies in my local area simply refuse to carry out EHCPs claiming they can't and it goes against policy. They then proceed to get Early Help to access other local schools and make referrals. I think this is a cost cutting exercise.
I do however see a lot of parents saying their children need EHCPs when they don't for our local primary school because they do meet their needs in the local offer. That is only because over a third of their primary school have SEND pupils. The real issue is that secondary schools won't be able to accommodate these students when they reach Year 7. Our secondary schools here are all inadequate for neurotypical children with no SEN provisions. Parents are panicking wanting plans in place now for the next couple of years considering how long it takes for an EHCP to be established properly and work efficiently.

The thing that has got people concerned is this part of the interview with Dame Christine Lenehan.

The Schools Week article included, "Asked whether this would involve narrowing EHCPs to only apply to children in special schools and whether they had any place in mainstream, Lenehan said: “I think, to be honest, that’s the conversation we’re in the middle of.”

There were obviously other things she said but this was the standout. As the parent of a chikd with an EHCP in a mainstream school and a primary school teacher in a school that has far more children with additional needs than we can cope with with the current levels of support, the idea of removing EHCPs from children in mainstream.schools is very worrying.

I do agree that they need reforming. Many are not worth the paper they are written on. Local authorities press EPs and other professionals to be vague in their recommendations. If you do get a decent report with specific recommendations the LAs often refuse to put the wording in the EHCP unless they are taken to tribunal.

As an example, I have a child in my KS1 class who is non-verbal, working developmentally around the age of 1-2 so cannot access anything from the curriculum and runs off out of the classroom at the drop of a hat (this is not unusual, we have several childrem with similar needs at the school). The EP told us durung the assessment thay the LA doesn't like it if they recommend 1-1 support so he doesn't have the funding for that. His parents want him to have a place in specialist provision but they have been told no. Every year we are getting more and more children starting with a high level of need, yet the funding and support available to schools is less than it ever was. Removing EHCPs is not the answer. If the DfE wants most children to be educated in mainstream schools they need to make EHCP provision better, more specific and properly funded. The way things are at the moment is detrimental to all pupils.

My DD, on the other hand, could probably have managed without an EHCP if the mainstream system were more supportive of ND students. She has no cognitive difficulties but cannot cope with the school environment. I hear this time and time again from other parents of autistic children. The way many secondary schools are run now with incredibly rigid rules to put fear into children, lack of pastoral support, ignoring of the quietly anxious means that children who coped ok at primary fall apart when they get to secondary school. With the numbers of children diagnosed with autism and ADHD increasing, there does need to be more thought into how their needs can be met in a school setting.

The latest an election can be held is 15th August 2029, so four years away. I don't think Labour can possibly unpick the system that started in 2014 (when the EHCP system took over from statements) in that time. There would be legal cases surely? And a massive backlog of tribunal cases (a lot of parents, including myself, have to take their LA to tribunal, once to get them to assess for EHCP, a second time to get them to issue a plan, and sometimes a third time to force them to name a suitable placement). The powers that be are talking of taking tribunal rights for parents away but surely they couldn't cancel cases already in the system?

The private school fees issue affected a relatively small number of people,, but this goes wider, so crowd funded legal challenges are surely likely.

Saying la la la we can't hear you, what SEN needs? Does not constitute a workable policy.

As the VAT on school fees shows, this government doesn't care about workable policies. That policy disproportionately impacts SEND kids but I suppose you didn't care about them cos they were a "relatively small number"?
The fact Labour could have exempted SEND kids in independent schools but chose not to because then they wouldn't raise enough money, tells you everything.

There is an SEND crisis in state schools so of course the obvious answer is to limit EHCPs and then they can claim that they have "solved" the crisis.

Don't be naive about what Labour are willing to do in order to communicate crappy soundbites!

Of course I care about them. My DC could have been one of them and I contributed to the crowd funder. Did you? It was, objectively, a much smaller number of people affected than would be affected by the current proposals.

I am saying that administratively it will be a problem to do it in the time they've got.

I read that schools week interview and was quite concerned about that line too.

I don't actually think the ehcp has worked as intended and I think a lot are poorly written anyway so improvements are needed.

But I do think there needs to be some mechanism to force a thorough assessment of children by professionals to see what they need, and some mechanism of writing down what they need and how that will be provided for, that is enforceable. Because currently that's the only way a lot of us find out what's wrong, what helps and get help.

ECHPS haven't worked. They put too much on the classroom teacher, causing ridiculous workload, stress and burnout. They should have come with proper funding, but now most don't. They are woolly words without specific strategies.

The whole system is broken.

I contributed both my time and money into the court case, was there at court etc.
Administratively it's fairly easy, just stop anyone new applications from X date. Of course there will be legal challenges, and there should be, but that won't stop them doing it.

I wonder if the system was originally designed to force the NHS to work in partnership with education better. That part's definitely failed. The systems still exist as parallel silos. There are so few paediatricians and they're so backed up. We're just next month getting a medication review of a medication prescribed 5 years ago. I've got a friend with kids in another European country. Her kids see the paediatrician once a year, every year, for a checkup. Imagine that here! (And yes she pays plenty into a state organised insurance system).

I have seen good EHCPs. I managed to get hold of a couple when I was trying to do something with my LA's hot mess. But there's no incentive for an LA to write a good one and plenty of incentive for them to write a vague, waffley, unenforceable one.

If anything surely you need to keep ehcps in mainstream (where they supposedly provide the tweaks required to keep a child functioning there) and not bother in special schools once the child has been assessed as requiring a place (where you’d like to think the whole set-up would be more nurturing and accommodating by default, the staff all fully trained in both ‘mild’ and profound SEN etc).

I feel like they will expect parents to home school or accept a reduced timetable long term. We had a child in my nursery with Autism that was reception age because no school would accept him as his needs were too high. His parents were taking the LA to court. If your child has high needs they don’t seem to care about their attendance.

That does make a lot more sense @BestZebbie!

And/or, you know, actually consult the parents in the system about what works and what doesn't.

At the very least, the EHCP means the child can attend a school they don't meet distance criteria for, which is vital when schools vary so much in their SEN offer and experience and some areas have got a monoculture of particular academy chains.

The words not fit for purpose and reducing requirements sounds like the preamble to welfare cuts and cuts generally.

People think it won’t happen to what they do care about, it doesn’t mean Labour won’t go for it.

This government is so stupid and short termist. They bang on about skills shortages and then pursue educational policies that put mothers out of work (because if your child can't go to school, how can you earn reliably?) never mind the future workers who could have got an education. While at the same time driving teachers out of the profession. Then they wonder why there's no growth and the tax take is disappointing.

I think it will happen in some form but my experience of talking to parents and teaching colleagues not in the position of having SEN DC isn't encouraging.

Even my child's own grandparents think we're making a fuss over nothing. It's very disheartening.

Agree with this, the system is failing everyone currently.

exactly my point, the happy to end the warm discount for elderly and had them freezing now they want to make changes to disability benefits making it harder for you to actually receive them, the disability benefits green paper looks like mental health won’t be included in that, who is next cause all I can see is children and disabled children that are next… I agree with the EHCP do you need a little rearranging as the car part of the plan isn’t really recognised in schools or in general it’s just more of the education part of the plan that they are interested in. But who will be after that I wonder maybe in middle class workers?

For the most part EHCPs mean absolutely nothing without sufficient staffing in schools. Why will no government actual tackle this massive issue?

Middle class workers are already being hammered!

Even with the cuts to welfare and pensioners people are not concerned enough about similar to children’s support. That faith is strong but may be misplaced.