How the hell do you get an EHCP

[Crystallizedring]

How the hell do you get one ( My DS has been rejected. He's 4, non verbal, can't use the toilet, according to nursery assessment he has the social and emotional development of a child half his age. He struggles with changes or different routines. He recently had a settle at school and would not enter the area where the other children were meaning one of the TAs had to stay with him but apparently some shit expert pannel have decided he will be fine.
I'm clearing going to have to delay his start date as no way will he cope with no support.
Nursery applied for the EHCP but we fully backed them. Everyone, Senco, doctor, speech and language therapist were convinced he'd be accepted first time.
I can't work out how to appeal or if I have to pay or how much.
I'm exhausted and nursery put so much in to applying for it. I don't know what to do and keep crying.
How much worse does he need to be to get help? Anyone appealed successfully (the %l looked low on the website)?

You should has an organisation called SENDIASS near you who can support
There's one in each local authority

www.kids.org.uk/sendiass-home/

You don’t have to. Many many people do appeals themselves. In our case our son was all set to start college, he’d done transition. Most of the funding was in place (he’s joint funded) and last minute the LA decided “it wasn’t a good use of public funds” and planned to cease his EHCP . I panicked as it was July and phoned the first solicitor recommended. It wasn’t a straight forward case. In your case it’s 100% doable to do the appeal yourselves.

LA lucked out in our case because we won appeal the following March and it was written into the new EHCP that April-July would count as a transition period abs he’d go as a day student. then he’d start full time , residential in September so they still had to pay for the 3 years plus the additional 3 months as a day student plus a taxi there and back daily with an escort 😂.

Place marking

My younger 2 dcs have got EHCPs that I had to fight for but their needs are still unmet.The TA that is allocated for the youngest is generally called to different classrooms and I've complained about this.So I hope you can get the EHCP but schools do not have to honour them if they don't have the resources.

1st you appeal. Have you appealed yet? Log your appeal asap.

Be careful with Sendiass. They're linked to the local authority. You know, the same one that rejected you...

Better to use the Ipsea resources as they're independent.

The legal threshold for a needs assessment is very simple:

1. Does the child have SEN (or may they have SEN)?

If yes:

1. May they need provision through an EHCP?

Nobody needs to prove the cost of support needed, spend years doing APDR cycles, etc.

DD2 (ASD) had virtually no SEN support in year 9. In year 10 she fell apart dramatically at Christmas, then was unable to cope with school at all by Easter. Because she had very little SEN support, we had very little evidence of her needs. We did a Subject Access Report at the school (they refused to support us with an application) and put in the request. We fought to get SaLT and OT assessments as part of the assessment. She was awarded a place at an independent special school and is now on an EOTAS package.

DD3 was doing brilliantly academically. On the ASD waiting list with OCD symptoms. Fell apart in year 9, limped through to year 10 but wasn't able to attend school since November. I fought for SaLT and OT assessments as part of her needs assessment. She got her EHCP with no diagnosis whatsoever (still on waiting lists). She will attend a specialist setting from September.

Lots of LAs say you need x,y,z before they'll assess for an EHCP. But the legal bar is much, much lower and they know it.

With any child with these kind of difficulties, it's surprising how much evidence there is once you put all the sources together (and of course a subject access request - SAR - tends to reveal discussion behind the scenes so to speak).

Sometimes I look at the behaviour system records for a DC who is having issues and there it is in black and white.

Forgot this
Forgot that
Was late for this
Got a sanction due to not knowing about X
Got into an argument about Y
Forgot to complete the sanction regarding X
Because of Y, missed Z
Etc etc for pages and pages

Our DC has done well in a mainstream primary setting but when I considered the part of the SEN Code about needing to put in much more than the "normal" amount of effort to get and keep her there, it obviously applied.

What you’ve stated is the legal criteria for statutory assessment (the process where the LA assesses whether an EHCP is necessary), they don’t have to issue an EHCP after the assessment. I agree that far to many cases are turned down at the point of application and not put through the assessment process.

Anyway, I’m not going to argue. I hate SEND policy as much as the next person. I’ve worked within several roles for 25 years. I know the COP and the law. I just answered the OPs question.

I have to say Senco has been brilliant and I even said to her I was cross on her behalf because she did so much work in applying for the EHCP just for them to go no we can't be bothered to assess.
What makes me more angry is a boy in DS class got his EHCP on first go and his needs are nowhere near as severe as DS (I work there and know this child so I actually do know. Yes he has additional needs but nothing like DS).
I have contacted mediation who said we should get a meeting within 30 days whereas going to court will take a year.
Thank you for the support on here I do feel less alone but I'm still struggling and imagining just how awful things will be for DS if he has to wait an entire year before even being assessed.
We are considering getting an educational phycologist to do an assessment on him just to get extra evidence.
My middle DD has autism but she is high functioning and school put adjustments in place for her so we never needed an EHCP. Obviously DS really needs one but I do feel totally clueless.

Maybe this is the problem. Nursery do cope, not very well but they can cope with him. He's on 1:8 ratio but in all honesty gets 1:1 some of that time (which was in his application).
The problem is school is not going to be a 1:8 ratio. They couldn't get him to go in the classroom on his settle and there were only about 15 children then. So he was able to do the settle on a 1:1 but I'm fully aware that won't happen in September. I'm scared for him m

Hi OP, it won't necessarily take a year. This is our timeline which seems to not be unusual:

Request EHCNA - wait 6 weeks - refuse to assess
Do tribunal - wait 6 months - order to assess
Assessment - took about 4 months - refuse to issue
Do tribunal - wait 8 months [after doing SEN-7 form which lopped 5 months off the original wait time] - order to issue

Plan written - wait 2 months - finalised plan with preferred school named in I
= 2 academic years approx

But you can see that the main waiting parts were the 6 months + 8 months for the tribunals and you wouldn't necessarily need a second one if they issued a plan after the first one. Plus the LA may cave during those waiting periods.

And I have a friend with a DC who sounds like yours, with problems emerging at the same stage of education, and their EHCP was in place much faster.

So don't despair. And I suggest also, don't look for any logic in LA decisions as generally there isn't any, at least from our perspective.

Some LA’s SENDIASS good but too many repeat the LA’s unlawful policies e.g. must be 2+ years behind, the school need to have spent £6k, outside agencies need to be involved, 2+ APDR cycles are needed before an EHCNA can be requested or before an EHCP can be issued.

Any LA with a blanket policy of requiring 2+ APDR cycles before issuing an EHCP is acting unlawfully.

You may have to appeal, but it is possible for DC to get an EHCP even if their needs are currently met, but only because they are receiving provision in excess of ordinarily available provision. Similarly, it is possible to get an EHCP even if the school could do more, but won’t.

Appeal appeal appeal

Hello all I place marked earlier in the thread.

yesterday I had a knock at the door and it was the LA letting me know that we have an interview under caution next Friday because dd hasn’t been in school since October which the school are fully aware of ( obviously) and the reasons which I will go into in a min. She probably wasn’t expecting me to be so pleased about this and looked a bit shocked!
i told her that maybe now we will get some help and somebody may take notice of the situation.

when LA mentioned fines/prison etc I said it would be a break for me to go to prison atm. She was really nice to be honest and I’m trying to arm
myself with as much info as possible before Friday:school will also be attending after us separately and then there will be a joint meeting between us all.

will try and keep this brief- dd is 13 and in year 8. We live in one or the most deprived boroughs in the country, especially for schools and we literally border another borough which strangely her feeder school is ( all girls and the school I went to and loved ) but dd didn’t like it and wanted mixed and she really wanted to go to the school my ds went to and did so well, he’s 21 now.

ds was diagnosed with ASD aged 8. They’re very different kids but I knew dd was also autistic long before she was diagnosed last November when she was 12. Her school noticed the signs in year 4 after a residential trip as she was a brilliant masker in school but due to Covid everything got delayed and it took a few years.

year 7 was ok. Her attendance wasn’t great at 70% as she was constantly anxious and having migraines and struggled hugely with the transition from a
tiny primary or less than 200 kids to being in a big school where year 7 had 210 kids alone. She was in set 1 of 7 and is a very bright girl.

year 8 starts and she fell apart. Couldn’t cope with anything and only did 9 days not consecutively. Diagnosis came and I emailed to multiple source at school, have yet to hear from SENCO and school putting pressure on me to de-register her.
obviously there is much more to it but I’m aware this post is already ridiculously long. Feel very unsupported and school now contacted LA.
I asked for help with an EHCP in January in a
meeting and was told they cant do that as she needs to be in school for them to assess her.
MH is terrible, she picks her skin until it bleeds, has left the house under 10 times since October and I don’t know what to do!!

apologies for such a long post.

@Zoflorabore sorry, that sounds really difficult.

EHCP support thread no. 3 - www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_educational_needs/5077140-ehcp-support-thread-no-3 come over to the support thread. Lots of people have been through similar, sadly.

You can apply for an ECHNA without your daughter being in school. You can apply for it yourself. It sounds like you have lots of evidence already.

There is a template letter you can use on the Ipsea website or your council may have its own form.

@Zoflorabore you would be better starting your own thread.

Request an EHCNA yourself using one of IPSEA’s model letter.

If DD is unable to attend school, request alternative provision using another one of IPSEA’s model letters. This should have been provided a long time ago.

If DD is unable to attend school because of her mental health, the absences should have been authorised. The regulations (Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006) make clear where a pupil is absent because they are unable to attend because of their medical needs the absence must be regarded as authorised. The DfE attendance guidance states absences must be authorised where pupils can’t attend because of illness, physical and mental health related. It should be coded as I. If you now have an interview under caution, the school hasn’t authorised the absences. They should have also advised you they were recording it as unauthorised. Did they?

Since alternative education under s.19 of the Education Act 1996 is not in place and an EHCNA has not been requested, the school and LA could have done and still can do more to support DD with their needs arising from their disability.

Do you have evidence DD can't attend? Have you seen the GP? Is she under/has she been referred to CAMHS?

You may want to seek legal advice.

The school should not be trying to off-roll.