Help with ds ehcp again/amended ehcp

[Imagoodperson999]

So the LA have made changes to ds ehcp. They are not clear to me . I don't get it and i don't even know if it makes a difference. And i can't see if it helps with choosing a secondary school.

Anyway im going to copy and paste the new ehcp just section F on this post. Then im going to find the older section F and post that on my 2nd post.

I was hoping someone can help me compare them. Please bare in mind that I have learning difficulties as well . So things that seem clear to others may not be to me.

So from amended EHCP section F

(F) Special Educational Provision above quality first teaching.
Provision

· Max will join a speech and language group run by the speech and language therapist for a block of therapy to work on language, speech and communication skills. Outcomes and recommendations should also be implemented by school.
· Lego therapy would be a good way to help Max in his communication with peers in a structured session. This builds on his love of Lego.

Strategies

Max needs an appropriately differentiated curriculum. Present and give information at a language level he can understand. For example:
12 / 18
· Break down instructions into small, manageable parts or chunks.
· Before giving instructions to Max, call his name, and make sure you have his full attention and that he is looking at you.
· Model/demonstrate what Max has to do before he starts a task.
· Use short, simple instructions, and slow down when talking to Max. Try to break down instructions into short, manageable chunks (rather than “Do x, then do y”, just give one part at a time).
· Allow processing time. Then repeat instructions to Max if needed, making sure you repeat the instruction the same each time
· Use visual support (e.g. natural gesture, facial expression, pictures, symbols, written word) alongside instructions and conversations.

Vocabulary
· Develop a basic communication board with the words he needs to ask for items in class, e.g. pencil sharpener, rubber, toilet, drink, help, finished, break. Have it on the desk and point to it when communicating with Max to encourage him to use it too.

· Pre-teach key or topic vocabulary before Max comes across the words in the lesson.
· Use a consistent structure to explore word meanings and sounds. Think about the first sound of the word, how many syllables, a word it rhymes with, an action for the word, a picture or drawing for the word, use it in a sentence, and give some information about its meaning. For example, a mind map or “Word Wizard” (Word Aware programme).
· When Max has difficulties retrieving a word, prompt him using these categories that he has already covered, e.g. give him the first sound of the word, or ask him to act it out.
· Review the words that have been provided by putting them in a “word pot” or “word bank” on Max’s table, on a word wall in the classroom, or in a vocabulary book.
· Where possible present vocabulary to Max using a multi- sensory approach. Using pictures, symbols, demonstrations.
· Have Max think about words in categories. Play word association games in a small group (e.g. each person has to name something that relates to cars or has to identify the ‘odd one out’ for a list of three).
· Encourage Max to say when he does not understand a word. He can tell the teaching assistant, who can note the word down. Max can collect words that he has ‘captured’ to help expand his vocabulary knowledge.

Asking for help
· Encourage Max to ask for help if he does not know what to do. Max could be provided with a visual to help him know how to make specific requests for help. Encourage and praise asking for help in the whole class.

Access to small group work to practise Max’s social communication and conversation skills.
· Encourage small group work or naturally occurring small groups when possible in lessons, or in the playground of no more than 3 children in a group, where Max has to engage with his peers to complete the task, e.g. with opportunities to engage in “role specific” play, for example Lego Therapy, where children are either an “architect”, “engineer” or “builder”. The use of roles encourages children to interact with each other to achieve a shared goal.
· Play games at home that encourage interaction such as passing on objects, exploring together, snap or lotto.
· Give Max visual cues of good conversational skills and refer to them during 1:1 conversation, e.g. “eye contact”, or “talk about the same thing”, asking a question, saying something about what the person he is talking with has said, taking turns in conversation.
· Talkabout” or a social skills intervention may be helpful.
13 / 18
· Play games or activities which develop Max’s abilities to stay on topic during conversation, e.g. category games where you take it in turns to pick an object in the same category.
· Give Max a visual prompt you can use to show him when he goes “off topic” when answering a question. For example, a picture of a train and a track. The train can move along the track whilst you are talking or playing a game, and when Max gives an irrelevant answer or goes off topic, use the visual support to take the train off the track.
· For Max to use visual support (e.g. a narrative or talking prompt) to help him structure his news clearly e.g. to explain what he has done at the weekend or in the holidays. A talking prompt could also be used in talk partner work in class to help Max talk with a peer about a question the class is discussing

Beginning to develop Max’s explaining skills

· Read lots of stories with Max – these can be both with or without visuals and ask him questions based on the story after this, such as ‘who’ ‘what happened’ ’where’ ‘how’ and ‘what can the characters do? what is going to happen next?’ and ‘why’.
· Encourage Max to expand on his answers in conversation, by using open-ended questions, such as “tell me more”, or by giving him more time to add information.
· Use sets of pictures of familiar sequences (e.g. getting ready for school, growing a flower): put the pictures in order and talk about what happens ‘first, next, last’. Support Max work towards using this structure and vocabulary to talk about real events or to share his news and ask him what he thinks might happen next in the story.
· Try using visual support such as Black sheep press ‘Why, because’ cards to help Max explain his reasoning when answering simple ‘why?’ questions.
· Discuss different real-life scenarios using pictures and objects in a 1:1 or small group setting. Think about what might happen, why and what if. Max may benefit from structured intervention to target this, for example “Mr Goodguess” or Talkabout School/Home ( Black Sheep Press resources).
· School will give Max a piece of work/picture/item to take home to talk about with his Mum. This will help Max to generate ideas and remember an event in school.

Speech
· Provide Max with clear production of words he finds it hard to say, ensuring that he is able to see the mouth of the speaker to help him produce the sounds correctly and with slight emphasis on the word e.g. “I want soo” yes “you want two”. Can you hear that ”t” sound? Praise Max if he tries to copy the correct production or correct himself.

Arrangements for review and evaluation

Max can be re-referred to the Speech & Language service for review once these outcomes have been achieved.

Old section F will be added to my 2nd post

Original EHCP secret F

(F) Special Educational Provision quality first teaching.
Provision
• Max will require support over and above that which is typically available within a mainstream classroom in order to make academic progress.
• Max needs further curriculum based assessment to establish a baseline of key skills in both Maths and Literacy to support personalised targeted interventions that build upon his knowledge base. These should be based on detailed ongoing assessment and monitoring and should use a cumulative learning approach. This involves teaching a small number of spellings / numbers or calculations to automaticity, then adding in one or two new items to those he is secure with and continuing to practice them all together. Precision Teaching is an intervention which would do this appropriately.
• Targeted interventions to build Max’s skills in the core subjects should be delivered by an LSA for periods of 15 minutes daily for both Maths and English. Max to recall key learning points (3-5 minutes) at least 3 times a day with breaks in between.
• Staff will need to plan carefully to ensure that Max’s work is differentiated to take account of his language needs, level of independence and current level of attainment. Max will need work to be broken down into small achievable parts.
• Staff will also need to consider the pace when introducing new learning goals to ensure that Max has had sufficient opportunity to consolidate his skills.
• Max will require a high level of support for his understanding which can be provided through visual materials, demonstrations and practical activities. Staff should ensure that he is familiar with subject specific vocabulary when new topics are introduced. Max will build his understanding of new topics by talking about his learning in a small group supported by an LSA.
• Max will also require simplified personal explanations throughout the day. All staff who interact with Max to be made aware of his language needs so that they can respond to him appropriately (simple language, repetition, allowing time for him to process information, checking his understanding).
• An LSA will need to be available in the classroom to monitor Max and provide frequent prompts when he is completing learning activities.
• Max requires errorless learning approaches so that he is always successful in his learning activities as a result of extremely close differentiation, and his skill and confidence levels increase.

• Posture and positioning are important to support the development of handwriting. Max may need a slope or a cushion.
Strategies
The following approaches should be used when teaching Max:
• Distributed Practice (little and often, daily short practice sessions) to enhance acquisition and retention of learning.
• Mastery Learning (to automaticity) of a very small amount of new material (e.g. 1 new word).
• Cumulative learning to improve retention: words/numbers/skills are learnt to fluency, then a small number of new items to learn are added which are taught alongside the previously acquired ones – new words/skills are always combined with the old.
• Teach one skill at a time.

• Instructional Hierarchy (structured, systematic teaching of increasingly complex skills). This kind of approach will help to identify and fill the gaps in Max’s learning.
• Max needs regular practice to develop his handwriting skills in order to record his work with greater fluency. Explore different pencil grips to see if he finds writing easier with those supports
• Reduce the amount of copying he is required to do in class
• Use visually explicit support materials, such as vocabulary mats, tasks sheets, sentence starters and colour coding etc. that do not have too much information on them
• Use plenty of visual examples and show Max what a good finished piece of work looks like.
• Always try to make learning concrete for Max. Think about relating any subject to his current knowledge and experience.
• Vocabulary boards can be made to support new topics and language.

• Max requires structured approaches such as writing frames and story boards to support him in recording his work
• Max needs to be able to form his letters in the right way as this will make writing easier for him. Use a multi-sensory approach. He will need to start with forming letter from plasticine, large painting activities, air writing, children forming letters on each other’s backs to guess the letter etc. before being expected to write them down on paper. Begin by focussing on the letters in his own name.
• Max needs to manipulate real objects to help with counting and Maths problems.

• Max requires all learning tasks to be delivered in short achievable tasks in order to experience success, (e.g. to learn to spell 2 new given words) set through discussion with Max on the basis of very close, daily assessment and monitoring of his skills.

• Max requires overlearning to support his retention of information and enable him to consolidate new skills. Pre-teach new topic work in 1:1 sessions to build confidence, so he can feel more secure in the classroom.

• Max needs to discuss his work in a small group (up to 6 children) to build his understanding. Staff will need to allow time for him to process questions and then check his understanding of the content.
• Give plenty of reassurance and positive feedback making comments specific and meaningful.

Just bumping.

Im going to go to a drop in next week.

I have had a quick look, and the original seems more specific to me, which means they have made it more woolly.

If I were doing this for my DD I would:
. print each out then put them side by side
. then with felt tips I would mark 'similar' comments/sections with the same colour on each version. this could be underlining, or just putting a line in the margin down the side
. then I would compare each section of the same colour and see which is 'better' (by better I mean more specific and more what you agree your son needs). I would write comments on a third sheet of paper again marked with the same colour.

By the end I would have a list which would show when the original was better and when the new one was better.
I would then feedback, maybe sending photos to show the mark ups, but saying things like 'original says lego for 30mins once per week, new say 'some lego may be helpful'. Original section is more specific and should be reverted to.

Can you get a friend to help?

May also depend on how old the original EHCP is, and to what extent your son has progressed since then.
eg if this was written when entering y1 and now entering y4 then some old strategies may no longer be required/relevant.

No one to help.

I actually dont understand it to be honest. It just looks like a bunch of words. with a few changes here and there. That dont feel like they are set up for ds.

Im reading the words but they are not sinking in to make sense for me.

The original was 2022.

I also dont understand how they can do this update without seeing and accessing DS again.

This is far too vague and woolly.

This is not an exhaustive list but to give you an idea:
What size ‘speech and language group’? How frequently, how long will each session be, how many sessions in the ‘block’?
Outcomes should be in E. What ‘recommendations’, who in the school, how often, how long for…
‘would be a good way’ doesn’t mean it will be provided. Even if it is, how often, how long for, who will deliver it…
‘needs’ isn’t must receive.
Who will pre-teach vocab? Will it be 1:1? Will it be daily or weekly or just once a year?
‘Where possible’ means it might not happen.
How often will max ‘play word association games’ and how long for? What is a ‘small group’? Who will deliver it?
‘Can’ and ‘could be provided’ doesn’t mean will.
‘when possible’ means it might never happen.
Unless the LA is going to fund someone at home ‘play games at home’ needs amending.
‘May be helpful’ doesn’t mean ‘Talkabout or a social skills intervention’ will happen, even if it is provided how often/how long will sessions be/by who…

Thank you. Im going tl try and see someone face to face and say then things.

I really feel like they just can't be arsed and are just humouring me. It also feels like they want to offer less help.

Questions to ask
. Has the Educational Psychologist done a new assessment?
. Has the school SENCO submitted an up to date report?
If not then how have the LA invented their new update?
If yes then have you received them? Can someone go through them with you?

Thank you so much. Im going to definitely say them things . As it doesn't make sense that they can do that.

The amendments will have been made (or proposed, you don’t say if these are proposed amendments or a finalised EHCP) in response to the information gathered as part of the annual review process. This will include information from the SENCO. In some situations, but far from all, it will include information from an EP. Full new assessments aren’t required before amendments happen. Most amendments to EHCPs happen without a full updated EP assessment.

First one you posted is crap. It isn’t ECHP level of support and is some thing a school could do as part of their existing offer. If Max is autistic then there are disablist and inappropriate targets in there. A lot of it is suggestions rather than points so it won’t be legally binding.

Its proposed amendments it says I can let them know if i dont agree.

The rest of the post confuses me. That is a me thing by the way not you.

So in a nut shell they are humouring me. Hoping to change a few words here and there to shut me up ?

I would suggest that you make contact with your local SENDIASS service who can take you through this, for free. You’ll receive legally sound advice. Either that or SOSSEN! But they will charge you. IPSEA can also advise you for free.

I tried sossen they spoken to me on the phone told me to fill in a form for them to look into the ehcp. Told me not to worry about the fee something can be sorted out gave lots of reassurance. Then turned something could not be sorted and they couldn't help unless I pay the fee.

Never heard of IPSEA I will look.

Im meant to be working with SENDIAS they are the ones that helped my trigger for the EHCP to be looked at again. But they are not returning my emails so i have no idea what's going on

If this is the proposed amendments, you now get the chance to comment on the changes. This is the where you point out what amendments are needed. You have at least 15 days. If you need more, ask the LA for more time.

SOSSEN don’t charge for all advice. They offer lots of free too. Even when there is normally a fee, they can sometimes waive that. Did you go back to SOSSEN and ask if they could help for free?

Be careful with SENDIASS. Some are good but too many repeat the LA’s unlawful policies.

I did go back to SOSSEN and they said they cant help unless I pay the fee.

I am worried about SENDIAS because they are the ones that helped me start this off but now they are not replying to my emails. So now im thinking they are going to repeat LA policies as you mention im also now worried hes going to get even less help than on his original EHCP.

All its done is worry me more than I was in the first place.

It makes me want to keep him home from year 7 until they have a clear plan for him.

The first one you posted if offering a much lower level of support.

Its madness. When u spoke to SENDIAS they said how's he going to manage if he reading at year 1 level. Thats when she started the ball rolling. And they come back with this.

Im going to tick i don't agree with the changes and add this:

I have the following comments: I do not agree with the changes to max ehcp. The amended ehcp seems to give max much less support than the original ehcp . If anything max needs more help and support Especially as he moves onto year 7. Im extremely worried about max not getting the help he needs this proposed EHCP seems to be offering him less help .

What is his condition?

DLD? Learning difficulties?

In my opinion there is too much suggestion of specific ways to teach that isn't very practical in a year 7 class, and not enough clarity in terms of what support and intervention he actually needs.

I wouldn’t keep DS at home. If you do that, the LA doesn’t have an incentive to place in a special school. Instead, if the LA doesn’t name your preferred placement for phase transfer, you will be able to appeal.

SENDIASS may be slower at replying because it is the summer holidays.

You need to go through each point and comment on the amendments and the amendments that are required but not included.

The current EHCP was also far too vague and woolly so you need proper amendments, not just the LA not making the proposed amendments.

If they are required, specific teaching methods absolutely need to be included, and included with better wording than the proposed amendments. OP’s preference is SS.

Max has been diagnosed with a moderate language disorder, alongside social communication difficulties in association with his diagnosis of ASD; Max is socially immature

With the keeping him home thing people had suggested that if I do that not to deregister him but keep hom home whilst I fight for his needs to be met ?

The reason for keeping him home until his needs are met would also be for his mental health and emotional reasons. I cant leave him in a school where he is possibly getting into trouble/punished for not beong able to do the work because his needs are not being met.

Also it feels impossible to choose a school because I don't know what help the school can offer him. And based on an ehcp that's no good to him

Ah I thought you meant electively home educate. Not deregistering him is the right thing to do even if DS can’t attend.

However, that shouldn’t be necessary. The LA must name the secondary placement by the 15th Feb 2026 at the latest. If the EHCP is poor and it doesn’t name your preferred school, you can then appeal. If you do this as soon as you can, the hearing will be heard before the start of secondary school because phase transfer appeals are prioritised. If you don’t appeal until later, it may not be heard by the start of term.

Deciding your preferred school can be hard, but make the decision on DS even if the EHCP is poor. If the content of the EHCP isn’t improved, you can appeal.