EHCP for DD who is 2 - HELP PLS

[MinnieTruck]

Posting here for traffic because honestly, I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing anymore.

My daughter is 2 and started nursery at the beginning of May (one day after her birthday). She only does 15 hours a week but I’d like to increase her hours as she seems to enjoy nursery.

Due to developmental concerns, I spoke with our GP who then referred DD to have an initial assessment with the Paediatrician in May. After completing the assessment, I was told that DD most likely has Autism and she’s been referred to get diagnosed.

I was told to fill in an EHCP request and contacted the LA in order to do this. I submitted all the required evidence to the council and my request for an assessment was put before the panel. Well I received an email today saying that a request for DD to be assessed has been declined. The only reason why is because I haven’t added a SEN plan from the nursery which states how and the nursery are supporting DD. But she doesn’t have one?! Are the nursery meant to provide me with one or doesn’t the LA contact the nursery to gather all the details first?

I just don’t know what to do honestly. I’ve given the nursery the report from her assessment with the Paediatrician. She’s also non verbal so I’m sure they’ve noticed a lot of these signs with my daughter. I’ve asked the owner on two occasions to have a meeting with the teachers in her room to see how/what they can do to support her and have had no response! The SENCO is the teacher in the 3/4 year old room and is ALWAYS busy. I can’t even get two minutes with her let alone arrange a meeting with her.

What do I do now? Do I email the nursery and ask them again to have a meeting? I’d really appreciate the nurseries support because my daughter hates change and took nearly 2 and a half months to settle properly. I don’t want to move her elsewhere. I also need to make sure she’s happy and is well understood. Please help!

Tbh it shouldn’t matter anyway but her she will be a big reason
2 is very young for an ehcp
we had one before starting school but the year leading up to started school.
she didn’t have a sen plan for it.
I think you are best waiting for a year at least.

I would suggest you call https://www.ipsea.org.uk/. They provide free advice.

Which LA are you? Most fund an independent advice service.

Appeal the decision and request a mediation. The mediation meeting will have a decision maker from the LA attending and SENCO or nursery teacher requested to attend. Either nursery can get a plan in place to submit for the mediation, or they can discuss what support they are giving your daughter in person.
To agree to assess, it needs to be evidenced that nursery have used all their resources as to support your daughter and she still requires more to make progress - which EHCP can access.
Hopefully they are doing all the right interventions, but they need to evidence this. The mediation might prompt them to get this sorted.

Ask if there is an advisory SEND teacher or practitioner for the LA who can make contact with the nursery and offer support.

The nursery where your child is at should definitely have a special educational needs support plan put in place especially as she has been referred to be assessed by a paediatrician. This normally writes what your child may struggle with and also sets short term/ long term targets to help them. Support plans are normally shared with parents to show you what they are planning and doing with your child to help them at nursery and at home. You should speak with your child’s key person/class teacher along with the manager and explain that you will need a support plan as soon as possible.

Have the nursery not picked up on any additional needs?

You'll need the nursery to be more proactive, the local authority hate doing ehcps for pre school age in my experience. When I got my son's he was 3 and we had reports from speech and language, OT, portage, Ed psyc. You need a meeting with the nursery, it doesn't matter how busy the teacher is

Some really great advice, thank you so much. All I want is for DD to have the support she needs. I don’t mind if it’s through an EHCP or through a support plan, I just don’t want her to struggle especially as she’s non verbal.

I really need to ensure that they’re understanding her non verbal communication as much as possible. Also helping her manage her emotions and meltdowns. I’m going to speak with the SENCO tomorrow morning and not get fobbed off. It’s been a month since I sent them the detailed 5 page report from the Paediatrician so why are they faffing around?!

@GreenMeanMachine thank you so much. I’ve been very overwhelmed and have no one to speak to about the next steps. I’ll look at the website and try and give them a call sometime tomorrow

My other thing is, what support do I even ask for them to put in place?! My DD has SALT and her therapist has recommended a few points to help with her communication but overall I just don’t know how to help her

What does she struggle with? You need a list of things.

Eg my son can't transition from an activity
He can't handle noise
He needs lots of sensory play
Needs nappy changed
Can't communicate thirst so they need to be proactive
He needs 1:1 as he eats soil

@bryceQ DD’s difficulties are quite similar to your son’s!

She really struggles with change. This can be an activity, changing to a different room or having to be with a different teacher.

She often won’t make eye contact and gets quite distressed when someone’s talking to her. It’s best to get down to her eye level to try and speak with her.

She can’t talk so can’t indicate when she’s thirsty/hungry. I’d appreciate if the nursery let her keep her water bottle in the room and at eye level so she can reach for it.

Gets extremely distressed if another child is even a few metres away from her. She needs her own space and somewhere to calm down when she’s overwhelmed and overstimulated.

There’s so much more and I honestly feel like I’m failing her

So she will need a dedicated space and a 1:1 keyworker.

I would never try to force eye contact by the way, it's okay if that's hard for her.

You aren't failing you're just figuring it out. To be honest I'd say non verbal at 2 won't be super uncommon... There will be lots of children with low level language at that age.

Good luck with the nursery meeting, they will likely apply for top up funding as an ehcp takes about 4-5 months once it's been approved.

I can't see her getting one at 2. Even if they suspect Autism, she's still at an age where she may just start talking and come out of her shell, so they're unlikely to provide any financial aid at this point as her care needs would still be high at 2 whether she's NT or ND.
The fact she can attend nursery like any other 2 year old goes against her getting it. My disabled child would not have been able to attend at that age. She got her echp at 5 and was the first to get it out of her peers who were also disabled.

Firstly you’re not failing her. I was certain my son was autistic by 2 and hadn’t even heard of an EHCP at that point, so you’re already far more on the ball than I was! However they are bloody tough things to get approved, even more so at 2 and without much evidence supporting from nursery.

Are you happy with the nursery and how they approach possible SEN needs OP? Because the first nursery I put my son in was awful, I was shut down whenever I tried to explain my concerns and then brought up his delays as if it was my parenting (believe me, I felt like a failure and ended up in tears). I took him out and swore I was giving up - but another nursery nearby came highly recommended where SEN/autism was a possibility. Honestly it was the best thing I did for my child - you simply know when an educational facility know their shit about SEN. It’s not an ‘if or maybe’ situation unfortunately, either they get it and fully encompass it, or they’re crap. I’ve seen no in between in the last few years unfortunately.

Even with a great nursery setting it wasn’t until Reception that my son’s case was sent to the council for EHCP consideration. However by that point there was so much evidence from many support workers and health professionals it basically wrote itself. It took less than three months from application to final draft, so whilst it can feel like forever getting anywhere it doesn’t mean nothing is being done to recognise and support in the meantime.

@bryceQ do you think I should appeal the fact that the council won’t even carry out an assessment? It’s extremely clear that they haven’t contacted the nursery for further information as I only finished submitting evidence 14 days ago. I think I’ll focus on pushing a meeting with the nursery and take it from there!

@sezzer87 I’m sure you know that every child with a disability is extremely different. My 16 month old has a rare genetic disorder and is severely disabled. He probably won’t even go to nursery. I wouldn’t compare him to your daughter as everyone is different

I should add saying the EHCP basically wrote itself was a bit glib, without the amazing SENCO that put together a draft and everyone else involved at that point it wouldn’t have come together at all. Some people who work in early years SEN are bloody heroes, what they do for kids like mine is nothing short of amazing.

Get your health visitor involved in meetings with nursery.
We had these, called TAF meetings and SALT would also come along.
We had them every 6/8 weeks for any progress, concerns, what needs worked on etc.
things were put in place in nursery for DS from these meetings for his needs.

Appeal. The vast majority of appeals are upheld. Don’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 or just get the certificate.

If the nursery need further advice on supporting DD they can request input from the Area SENCO. They could also request early years inclusion funding - in some areas this is available to 2 year olds, in others not until 3. If you are in an area where Portage still support DC attending nursery it is worth contacting them.

The SENDCo should be able to do an initial assessment in which they and the keyworker gather all their tracking and observational evidence on exactly where DD is in each part of her development.

This should then turn into an action plan of the provision the SENDCo puts in place for her, and track this through targets to achieve her next steps that are regularly reviewed. This is the evidence the LA will need, to know how DD progresses under what conditions over time, how she copes within ratio, what kind of additional to and different from arrangements she needs to be successful and happy, this kind of thing. Without that evidence it's difficult for an LA panel to judge what to put in place for her, or what her long term school needs might be. Two is very young, and they are likely to want to see some evidence over time while good arrangements and tracking are in place as to what has helped, what hasn't and how her needs are or are not changing.

If the SENDCo isn't trained (Covid has hugely messed with this) they can look for LA support from Portage/SEND Support service/their local advisers, or from private providers. But under the Code of Practice they have a legal responsibility to do this. I hate to say it, but it may be worth interviewing some other settings, just in case, including some of the good chain nurseries who have a lot of central SEND support systems embedded, and LA run nursery schools, who tend to have teachers and a lot of SEND awareness, and see what you find. If DD has settled in one place, she will settle in another more easily, she has that experience, and in a really good nursery with quality support she may find it easier to settle and enjoy herself anyway. If you decide to move her then sooner rather than later may help.

Even if she isn't on a SEN plan at nursery they should be able to provide you with details on if they feel her behaviour is outside of normal range for her age and any particular issues she has - especially regarding PSED and C&L. It is more usual to start an EHCP when they reach 3yo ready for them starting school.

I’m so happy I started this thread. Thank you so much for the majority of responses, they’ve been extremely helpful.

@Gerrataere I think this may be the case. As much as the SENCO is a nice lady. She has her hands full running the pre-school class and I can never get a word in. The nursery is short staffed as it is and it seems like the SENCO department isn’t really a department per se. They just have someone there so they’re ticking boxes legally.

I’m hoping to move house in the next 6 months so it seems like moving DD to a nursery which has an exceptional SEN department is crucial. I worry about taking her out of her safe space but I don’t want her to struggle as she gets older due to the lack of support

@OvertakenByLego is spot on.

You are going to need to upskill yourself on this.

SOS:SEN do some wonderful booklets for £5 each that will explain the EHCP process and appeals.

Your LA haven't followed the law. The law for assessing is that the child has or may have SEND. And that they MAY need support in accordance with an EHCP.

It is a low bar and, if you go to appeal, you are more than likely to win that appeal. Forget mediation, go straight to appeal. Mediation will just waste your time.

I would really try to get the EHCP in place by the time your child is 4 so that you have an option to name a specialist setting.

I'll warn you, you're in for a long battle, not just with the LA but also an unsupportive nursery. In my experience, if they haven't supported you by now then they never will.

Sorry but having got two EHCPs for my kids and got them into a specialist setting, it took 5 appeals and 3 years to do it.

Also, seek out some local SEN support groups and start learning from more experienced parent carers and getting the support you need. It will make you feel less alone. Good luck!

I agree with this.

Depending on your county funding, I think you might find that additional SEN funding is only available on the first 15 hours of any entitlement.

This won't be an issue unless you are entitled to 30 hour funding and you want her to attend for more than 15 hours.

With an EHCP, any such blanket policy would be unlawful. Sometimes additional funding is available for more than 15 hours even without an EHCP.

OP, @Wanderingfree32 is right. Sadly, DC whose parents know the system and can advocate for their DC get better support. It shouldn’t be like that, but it isn’t going to change any time soon. Learn as much as you can about the SEN system.

@OvertakenByLego - sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant that without an EHCP, additional SEN funding may be restricted to the first 15 hours. It certainly is in my county.

Obviously, with an EHCP, this is likely to be different.