Should I apply for an EHCP or not?

[IfIHaveToTellYouAgain]

DS 5 received his report from clinical psychology today, with his cognitive profile scoring low/low average across the board. In the report they have highlighted that he is capable of much more but needs constant prompts to stay on task. They have recommended 1:1 support in school.

School, on the other hand, think he is doing well, and in some areas I’m inclined to agree, for example he is reading at Y2 level and receiving greater depth instruction in maths. His end of year report for reception was very positive and said despite being behind in some areas he is exceeding in others and is likely to continue developing well in Y1.

Personally I think he will struggle with the change of pace in Y1 and is unlikely to be able to fully engage with the whole class teaching and working element (his class have no TA, whereas in reception they had a class teacher and 2 TAs and did a lot of small group teaching). However, I currently have no evidence that this will be the case.

What should I do? Should I apply for EHCP now in anticipation that he will likely need the 1:1 support? Should I wait and see how he gets on in the first term, thereby potentially wiping out his first (or possibly even second) term of Y1? Or should I not apply at all on the basis that school will probably not support it since he’s ‘doing OK’? It’s just, to me, ‘doing OK’ is not good enough when he has the potential to do much better (that’s not to say that doing OK is not fine in general, just that for him, with 1:1 support he would achieve so much more).

An EHCP will allow you to name a chosen secondary school, a long way off I know, but it will be worth having it.

Schools have to fund the first £3k for children with ECHPs I think. They didn't used to. That could explain the reluctance to suggest one.

I have found the best source of help is parents who have been there done that, especially those who are under the same local authority.

@Sirzy, yes would agree with that as they are best placed to advise on the likely stunts LA will use, which schools they will name and all the reasons to make a good case against, which schools to avoid, who to complain to etc. I mod on an LA specific board and it really is a case of forewarned is forearmed.

@Sirzy

I have found the best source of help is parents who have been there done that, especially those who are under the same local authority.

Yep. I was supported through mine by a close friend who knew the law inside and out. Good that timeframes are back place.

It is absolutely not the case that high achievers can not get an EHCP.

But you are fighting with LA who do not want EHCPs and schools that don’t want them either.

My DCs school headteacher actually said to me ‘X is not SEN we don’t do SEN here else we would not have given X a place’ this at the time was one of the top ten primary schools in the U.K. She refused to believe it and went further and actual tried to derail the whole process. With support from my MP we got an assessment. The head sat there, the S and L therapist said there, his class teacher sat there and then the head of the S&L assessment (head of unit at county) who had done the assessment turned to me and said I’m very sorry to tell you X scored 4 % on the S & L assessment - what does that mean I said? He starts special s& l school next week after half term if you want - headteacher first looked stone faced then said ‘don’t worry about it x will be better at a special school’ the head of S and L at county turned to her and said ‘he’s not moving primary schools. He will have a long term placement but still come back here. X is very capable but has been failed on every level by the school glossing over his needs - she was furious’ that’s one of the top schools in the country. I’m so so glad that I applied for the EHCP got it and moved X out of harms way. And yes the school had done my child damage - selective mutism and they were crying on the mornings not wanting to go to school but happy to go to the SRB. I fought hard. But it is failing process. No one wants to help you are on your own. I didn’t need it in the end but I did have a recommendation for a company to fight for the EHCP and a friend look over the EHCP and correct it and make valuable suggestions.

Sen in the U.K. is in an awful state. People are ill equipped to give advice, funding is poor and the onus is on parents to appeal etc

Fortunately the EP that did my assessment for my child knew of me and was very much of the thought process that he was going to tie it up nicely and make sure an EHCP is in place and detailed in fact it has 23 separate points that the school and la must comply with

@hiredandsqueak

Agree that it's good manners to advise a school that you are making an EHC needs assessment request although no need to wait as school will have plenty of time to submit evidence. If school advise against it or tell you he's not bad enough they need two terms of evidence or to spend £6k smile and carry on regardless.

In my LA they will give you 2 weeks to submit evidence if parents make a request. It's more than good manners to advise a school that you are putting a request in. It will allow the school more time to gather the evidence making it a far stronger application.

@Teaandtonic Then you need to take it up with the LA then as they have six weeks to decide whether or not to make an assessment. There is nothing to stop them from alerting the school on receipt of EHCNA request. The process is lengthy enough especially when parents may well need to appeal at some or all stages without adding weeks onto the process before the request is in.

My biggest regret is not doing it when we were in the should we/shouldn't we stage. We suddenly found ourselves in the we need it and we need it NOW before we had even put it in.

The threshold for assessment is really low. My youngest DC has one now too and his needs are much much lower but I'd rather have it early to prevent problems than to end up in a mess again.

@MaryTalbot we have had a nightmare with a school allegedly amazing for SEN. They are great provided the child has the right sort of SEN otherwise they are horrific.

I feel for you OP.
We’ve just been through all this.
Similarly, we have a capable child when he is motivated and concentrating. This put us off for a while but we have now realised he is nowhere near expected for his age as he lacks ability to work independently and concentrate.

You’ve had good advice already but I will just say…

The need for an ehcp due to lack of focus/attention does not automatically mean ADHD diagnosis. This is a Separate medical assessment process. although can be added into ehcp application will likely come later, if at all.

The time flies and before you know it they’ve lost another year without the support they might have had.

It takes ages and can be a very complicated process, I would read up and look at the documents for your council and familiarise yourself with the language/terms used.

A private Ed psych report was the best money we ever spent. As well as identifying difficulties, it has pages and pages of solutions.

Your feelings about your child’s ability will change back and forth and you will doubt yourself. This is normal.

Teachers sometimes aren’t direct about issues and it can be hard to gauge. You can ask for termly tests they do (PIRA, PUMA, GAPPS) the kids don’t know this is being assessed I think they all do them. This gives something more objective to go off.

You are not alone

Wiggly unfortunately I think the process favours those parents educated enough to appeal and really fight for what their child deserves.

I agree. Sadly, DC whose parents know the LA's statutory duties, can navigate the system and advocate for their child get better support. If shouldn't be that way, but while ever LAs are allowed to break the law and spend £££ defending indefensible cases without repercussions it will continue. DS1 wouldn't have the package he does if we hadn't fought for it, and I doubt DS3 would even have an EHCP.

Goofer the bar for an EHCNA isn't as high as you state. As shown by case law - see this page. The only legal threshold is has or may have SEN, and may need SEN provision to be made via an EHCP. LAs who use any other criteria are acting unlawfully. Case law also shows an assessment may be necessary where there is insufficient awareness of the SEP a child needs - see C v Somerset CC HS/718/2015.

Punx Case law shows it is possible to get a needs assessment where a school could provide more but won't.

Soon you only have to look at MN to see many parents are told their DC won't get an EHCP yet when parents apply they do. Some schools and SENCOs are helpful but too many repeat myths. I don't have the figures to hand at the moment but SENDIST statistics are available to be public, the vast majority of appeals are upheld, especially for refusals to assess.

Absolutely what Teaandtonic said.

Ideally, if they are amenable, apply in partnership with the school, working closely with the SENCO, ideally with them leading.
They have to evidence all sorts of things and it needs to be laid out really clearly for the local authority.

[quote hiredandsqueak]@Teaandtonic Then you need to take it up with the LA then as they have six weeks to decide whether or not to make an assessment. There is nothing to stop them from alerting the school on receipt of EHCNA request. The process is lengthy enough especially when parents may well need to appeal at some or all stages without adding weeks onto the process before the request is in.[/quote]
No, there's nothing stopping them but that part of the process isn't written in the code of practice, so as much as they have 6 weeks to assess they will give the school less time. In this case LA policy means the OP would be better doing this in partnership with the school.
You can disagree about how right this is until the cows come home, but if the OP ploughs ahead putting the request in this week (for example) she could be shooting herself in the foot by not giving the school notice of this and subsequently putting the application at risk of being weaker. This is even more important to take note of over the summer holidays when SENCOs are not working and when the start of a new academic year is mayhem.

Parents I know and have supported are generally more clued up or quickly become so and would have put in a SAR prior to making a request so as to have plenty of evidence to meet the legal threshhold tbh. Thirty days to get absolutely everything the school holds on the child.
Generally though by the time the parents come to us looking for support they have been asking schools to apply for an EHCP and told all the excuses that we have seen on here as to why it's not necessary or why they must wait for the school to jump hoops.
As a parent is the person with the right of appeal it makes sense that the parent leads as a school can only reapply in six months if a request is denied but a parent can secure an appeal at SENDIST.
In 2019 our LA won just one appeal (sorry I haven't asked for the figures for 2020 yet) out of I think 111 or maybe more appeals so it makes sense for parents to apply and appeal if denied. Should perhaps add that was in spite of LA spending a small fortune on barristers fees in addition to their own legal team.

@hiredandsqueak where do you volunteer please, I hope it's ok to ask? I'm just curious as our sendiass and parent forum wouldn't dream of speaking out as you have or supporting parents in that way. A few parents locally including myself are talking about setting up a peer support group and I'm wondering if you have a working model we could look at please?

@hiredandsqueak a parent can appeal regardless of whether or not school put in the request or the parent does. There is also no 6 months for school nor parent.

@justrealised Our group exists because our Parent Carer Forum and SENDIASS are little more than LA mouthpieces and many parents were hugely dissatisfied by what our children were experiencing.
We have a closed Facebook group primarily because the LA and schools are not afraid to snoop on social media. Parents enter the closed group two ways either through personal invite usually because another parent at the school/nursery/group has spoken of difficulties or we have a gateway group where parents post and are invited into the closed group after being checked out by mods.
We all have children with SEN, we all have EHCPs or are pursuing EHCPs, many have been to Tribunal, some have had leave for Judicial review, won at UTT, many probably all have complained, lots have LGO rulings, we have ex teachers, speech therapists, ex LA employees, social workers etc and we pool our knowledge and experience to support others. We also have useful contacts that we can ask questions of.
LA are well aware of us and Director of Service used to hold three monthly meetings pre covid with reps of the group. I wouldn't say much came from this only acknowledging service was abysmal and assurances they would do better.....they haven't.
We are there as a sounding board, we rant and rave and cry at times but we really do laugh and we celebrate the victories and prop up people who feel at their limit.
To do the same I would advise a closed group you don't want the LA to see your hand and you wouldn't want them knowing what you say about them either so have a gateway page. There are about seventy parents in our group, it's about at capacity really as if it's too big it's difficult to spare enough time as we all have plenty of demands already.
I really recommend it, it's kept me sane during the battles and I've made some good friends as well who fully understand how difficult it is.

@threearm yes you are right but if parents are going to appeal it's best they steer from the off don't you think? I secured mine before my children started nursery so had no school input at all and suspect it would have been far more difficult to pursue had I waited especially as they have never struggled academically.

@hiredandsqueak it literally makes no difference. I have two children with EHCPs, one was initiated by school and the other me. There is literally zero difference other than who submitted the forms.

Suspect I might be too much of a control freak not to want to be in charge though @Threearm

Do it.

I wanted to apply when DS was diagnosed aged 8 but his head teacher refused, saying there's no chance he would get one so he wouldn't have his staff waste their time on the application. A couple of years later and lots more knowledge on my part (plus a new head teacher) and I asked again. This time I had no problems, the SENCO was supportive, we went through the process and his EHCP was granted last year when he was 11. Just after he started secondary school- it really needed to be in place much sooner.

I’ve got no intention of putting in an application before I speak to the SENCO, they have been very supportive so far so I have no reason at this point to go behind their backs. DS has had a support plan in place since nursery so they have plenty of plan, do, review evidence already collated, which will be handy. Thank you to everyone who has posted about support groups and people that can help to draft the application, I’ll definitely look into that.

@everythingthelighttouches you’re so right, I doubt myself all the time. Sometimes I wonder if I’m just worrying about nothing and then something will happen that makes me realise he needs more support. If the class had the same adult support as last year I wouldn’t even be questioning it, but I’m really uneasy that there’s going to be virtually no TA support. There are lots of other kids with various needs and I just don’t see how they’re going to be able to support them all without something in place 😩

@Threearm I’m really worried about ending up in a situation like this. He’s a lovely child but people are going to start expecting a lot more from him and he just can’t do it 😢

@Justrealised

Apply now yourself. You are asking for an assessment of need not for an ehcp as such. The threshold for assessment is very low you just have to show that the child may have sen although as PP's have said you may need to appeal.

The ep has already recommended 1:1, so this should be evidence enough for an assessment. Does the report word it as recommended or required/needs the wording is important as an ehcp has to be specific to hold any weight.

Have a look at ipsea, sossen and special needs jungle. Some sendiass aren't as impartial as they should be so seek independent advice. Ipsea and sossen both have free helplines. The sossen booklets are fab, I think they are £5 each. Ipsea website has loads of info.

Schools receive funding from the higher needs block for children who have sen but don't have an ehcp, without an ehcp they can say how this funding is spent with an ehcp the provision in section f has to be provided regardless. So at this early age where younger children can "cope" it works out better for some schools to not apply for plans. This doesnt mean its right for your child.

Just for info children can have ehcp's even if they are doing "ok". Also he may be reading well and doing in depth maths but what is his comprehension like?

If you do go for an assessment think about any other areas that he needs assessing eg ot, sensory, communication/slt etc as these have to be done in the timeframe and can be requested by parent if reasonable so if the nhs say he has to wait the la will have to provide independent.

This!

For all Mums and Dads wondering about EHCPs!......I have just posted a short film that may help on the link below