To ask you to sum up your council’s SEN provision in a sentence?

[Starwomanwaiting]

Hello all,
Some very brief background: I have an autistic child, referred at 18 months, saw consultant before age 2, diagnosed age 3, extra funding at nursery for at least a year now. Nursery is applying for EHCP which will take 12 weeks. Have seen educational psychologist and looking to defer reception for a year.

My question: it seems like we have been very lucky with our experience so far (except for speech therapy provision, which has had to be private). However we can’t stay in the city forever and need to buy a house/want a garden. So we need to find somewhere that isn’t going to be total shite for SEND.

If you are outside London and have had a good experience please tell me! I know each case is unique but it would help me do more research. Equally if your experience has been awful and you’d like to warn me off please do so.

I want to do right by my kid, but in a SEND crisis it’s hard to know where to start.

Thanks x

I could afford a taxi to my daughter’s school. But, the Local Authority has mopped up every single taxi company in the county to provide transport for kids, and they still don’t have enough. If you need a taxi in our area between 8 and 9 or 2.30 and 3.30, you will really struggle to get one.

Plus, I am also subsidising a whole load of other things they don’t provide, I’d rather not have to do that too. How about we target things parents of non disabled kids can afford to provide like free bus passes and free school meals.

Room for improvement.

Thanks for this. We can’t really afford to live in London and own a big enough house, not even in the suburbs. We are deferring for a year because excellent support is already in place in nursery.

Here’s the word for my council’s SEN provision that my DS got:

“ “

and then apparently I’m a demon for using a private school.

A 4 year wait for first assessment means it's not a viable route to take if you need it to help with schooling.

Thank you for this. Was considering Oxford(shire) so this is useful

Essex County Council excel in unlawful decisions, gaslighting and failing CYP and their families.

I am horrified that some people are waiting four years for an assessment, while my child was diagnosed by age three. It is so spectacularly unfair.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I feel scared, sad and disheartened but also in possession of a lot more insight than we had yesterday.

In answer to a few of your questions, the ed psych thought try mainstream first. Child is still so small and while not talking now it’s hard to know where they’ll be in a year’s time.

This. We have had a relatively smooth run only because I have the skills and experience. I wrote our EHCP by myself, kicked up a fuss til it was approved, and did the same for our families assessment with disability social work.

We went private and were very lucky a family member died to enable that (horrible thing to have to say). It's why I get annoyed when they say you have to have an ECHP as in the state system that would have likely taken us to Y10/11 to get and all the stress that goes with it. In private she doesn't need that; they test they do what they think she needs and all is settled. I am actually very lucky and a lot of her friends from primary only got put on medication in Y7 of senior school, and those were the ones running out of classrooms causing danger to themselves and others. The ones who managed better but cracked at senior are still waiting in Y10.

Wigan - absolutely everything is a fight despite DS having extensive physical disabilities and learning difficulties. I do have to say though that after winning the 4 year fight to transfer to special school everything has become much smoother.

I have a sibling who was in private, but paid for by the local authority. We took them to tribunal but in those days you got a free lawyer. How times have changed.

Private is not an option for us at the moment. However again we are very lucky in that we will likely have the ECHP in place by early next year. The deadline here is 12 weeks and it actually takes that long. To give some insight into how different some london boroughs are, people in the council keep telling me it’s illegal to go past 12 weeks and that it never happens.

Again, so unfair and unequal nationally,

No one has mentioned Wiltshire yet …. Also very very shite. 5 year battle to get an EHCP. They employ an in house legal team to oppose you rather than spending the money on education!

Don't come to Derbyshire. Area SEND inspection was pretty accurate at the time, it's got worse since and now is Reform led so God knows what new depths they will plumb DerbyshireAreaSENDFullinspection_Sep24.pdf

The EHCP timescales are the same across England, as set out in Regulation 13(2) of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. It is 20 weeks from first request to finalising (if the LA is going to issue). Different timescales if it is the result of appeal/mediation. There are a few exceptions too. Not 12 weeks.

12 weeks is the maximum for issuing a finalised amended EHCP following the annual review meeting where the LA is going to amend - made up of a max of 4 weeks to issue the amendment notice following the annual review meeting and a further 8 weeks max to finalise.

Local authorities often break the law although more often they poorly describe the issues and hope the family simply won't take them to Court - happened to 2 people we know - which obviously all takes time, months and years, not mere weeks. https://educationadvocacy.co.uk/what-is-a-ehcp/timeline/

Oh well here they are confident they will have it done within 12 weeks and won’t be breaking the law thankfully

I don’t think that is going to happen in our case, thankfully.

Do you mean nursery are going to take twelve weeks to apply? Timescales apply to everyone, once nursery have submitted request LA get 6 weeks to decide whether they will make an assessment. It's unlikely that LA will do anything quicker than they have to generally they need to be forced to meet the 20 weeks and that is presumng that they aren't going to force you to appeal at any point. You should check out IPSEA and SOSSEN so that you know what should happen and what to do about it when it invariably doesn't.

Bucks is horrific. Even when you win at tribunal and have complaints upheld they still just refuse to provide any provision if your child isn’t capable of mainstream. Completely non verbal with significant LD then maybe they will help after you fight for a couple years then wait for a non existent school place

No, sorry, it’s still the statutory 20 weeks they just said they often get it done in 12! Nursery have already started the process and brought in the ed psych.

So nursery requested that LA make a EHC needs assessment? You have seen the paperwork and LA have agreed to assess is that right? Have you asked LA to arrange SALT and OT assessments as well? They are usually invaluable at ensuring EHCP is well informed.

It might just be how you are wording things but it would be LA who send in Ed Psych for a EHC needs assessment. You have seen all the paperwork and you have been asked for your contribution haven't you? EHC needs assessments This is a trusted source of information on the process.

Just so you are aware, there isn’t a borough in London who has issued all their EHCPs within 20 weeks every year for the last 3 years. Let alone 12 weeks. The statistics are available on the government’s website.