AIBU to ask what is specified in your academically able ND child's EHCP?

[AnonMama87]

If your academically able neurodivergent child has an EHCP in mainstream school, what support is actually outlined on it?

The support DD10 needs is most likely ordinarily available provision like toilet a leave early pass and toilet pass, sensory supports like loops and chewellery and somewhere safe and quiet to go at break times. She will need support forming relationships with peers and trusted adults, but will also likely resist help with this.

I keep being told to go for the EHCP, but in reality what would it consist of and what benefit would it have outside of what is available through universal provision.

Thank you.

It should open the door to financial support which will allow extra spending by the school to support them. It'll also mean they can stay in 'free' education after 18 if required.

Allowed to leave 10 minutes early to avoid rush at the end of the day, allowed to transition to next lesson earlier than everyone else, extra time in exams, toilet pass, sensory support, lunch time club, does homework at school, less homework given so not overwhelmed, allowed to do work on laptop than write, work needs to be chucked (can't process to much information at once). Esla support for aniexty. Allowed to skip assembly if to loud.
High achieving child like yours.

*chunked not chucked 🤣 he also has adults whom help with his t1d in form of a TA who stays in his lessons and checks his blood sugars for him and administers injections. That was partly why I got the echp. Unfortunately if school are already meeting needs you may not get a echp they are difficult to get I only got my sons as I had evidence of school admitting they weren't meeting needs and would do so and then continued not too.

Why have you got an EHCP for that, most schools provide that anyway.

Most of the above reasonable adjustments, but she also has 1x hour a week SALT (external specialist) focusing on social communication and an OT session per week which is delivered by the school but overseen by an OT (focus on practical skills and things like time awareness). We had to go to appeal for the SALT though. She also gets a maths booster session a week- she's actually ok at maths and this is a bit of a hangover from primary but have stuck with it as her slow processing means she can miss stuff.

Our secondary would have given the reasonable adjustments without an EHCP but you might not be so lucky with all schools.

I think in an ideal world you would get all of those adjustments but there are plenty of schools who are a pain about it and so having it written down and legally binding can help.

The other reason we wanted it is so if she suddenly became unable to cope we could do an emergency review rather than starting from scratch. So far so good but plenty of girls find year 7 and 8 very difficult.

Ds is academically able but needs a lot of support so his lays out the 1:1 he needs and also social groups/ communication skills to attend. But a word of warning every secondary school automatically said they couldn’t meet need. According to our Sen officer it’s typical for secondary’s to refuse children with ehcps. It didn’t matter as the local authority chose a secondary and named him anyway. But it’s not a good feeling that you are sending your child somewhere they are not wanted. You also get less autonomy over your child’s school once they have a EHCP. You can’t just decide to move schools it has to go through the sen team.

1:1 support in PE
Keyworking 1hr per week
Access to 1:1 support when needed (this is terrible wording but it wasn't worth an appeal in our case due to timescales.)
Access to quieter area at all times
Support to catch up missed work
Weekly ELSA
Support around transitions or changes in routine.

OT isn't in there but she does need it.

Things like accommodations in class were already in place, like choosing where she sits.

She's unlikely to get an EHCP if the school can already meet need with reasonable adjustments. It sounds like all she needs other than the reasonable adjustments is support with relationships which could be done with one or two pastoral sessions which wouldn't even require her being on the SEN register. My DD gets extra help from the pastoral team and isn't registered SEND.
My DS has and EHCP, he needs 1:1 support for safety, an individualised curriculum, daily sensory circuits, small group work for social skills, speech and language intervention, OT input for writing skills.

Social skills groups/interventions (in groups of x, y times a week). Help with fine motor skills. Small group re-teaching for whole class instruction if his concentrating wanders. Access to quiet space. Sensory circuits.