Echp/home education request/LA causing headache

[Jerima]

I have decided to home educate my child starting from year 7 she is just finishing year 5 now. She has an EHCP and attends a mainstream school

As far as I was aware I could do this.

The LA have tried to pressure me into choosing a school and I have refused. They say they will then choose one nearest my house and communicate with them and I am to tell the LA my education plan, how I will fulfill parts of the ECHP and then a panel of people who we have never met will decide if I can home educate my child.

I asked if they will be providing any funding to me and they said no so as far as I'm concerned they have no right to decide if I can home educate my child if they will withdraw funds but maybe I'm wrong.
I don't want their money anyway and I don't want them deciding what I do with my child so I'm just wondering can I tell them I don't need the ECHP once DD finishes year 6?

Thanks in advance for replies, I want to know all my rights so they don't lead me to make uninformed decisions.

This is the process. Why are you concerned they won't agree it?

You need to get on to IPSEA. If you’re changing the setting of the place of education, (section I) and want support from the LA, you need to get that as EOTAS - educated other than at school.

You personally don’t have to provide what’s in the EHCP. It’s a legally binding contract between the LA and the child.

If you want the plan to continue then appeal it on section I. If you want to home educate and have had enough of every aspect of the support the plan gives then you always have the right to EHE - elective home education - but by the same token if you do that electively then the LA may well try to cease the plan.

You don’t need their permission to take her out though. As I recall, it’s only if the child is in specialist placement that the LA have a say.

I am concerned about the panel bit, yes. I don't want it to be their choice. It's mine and my DD choice.

If there is an option to stop the plan then that will be fine with me. I'd rather do that than name a school that my DD would never attend

Whomever has told you this - the stuff about panel and permission - is wrong. That’s all. Ask for a review of the plan and see can you move setting to EOTAS and then continue with it. If not, withdraw, electively home educate and the LA will cease it.

Do you have to name a school if you EOTAS

If you would like to home educate and expect no input at all from the LA, then there is no need for this to go to panel at all. You can simply inform the LA and deregister from school. The only time you need permission is when deregistering from a special school. There is also no need to follow the EHCP at all as a home educator. The EHCP can stay in place though in case you want to return to school at a later date - section I can just state ‘elective home education’ and it will be reviewed annually as normal.

If you would like the LA to provide support in terms of provision at home, then section I would need to be left blank and an EOTAS package detailed in section F. You would need to prove that the provision can not be made in a school though, rather than this just being a preference.

Take a look at the IPSEA page here:
www.ipsea.org.uk/home-schooling-and-education-otherwise

The Education Otherwise website may be useful as well:
www.educationotherwise.org/

Thank you.

I don't want any of their input but I wanted to keep the plan on the back burner incase my DD wanted to return to school at a later time or go to college or something but if it meant going to a panel then I'd rather get rid of it.

The lady from the LA also said the plan would need reviewing every year with me showing how I intend to follow the plan and ensure my DD reaches its objectives.

The lady at the LA is loopy and doesn’t know what she is talking about.

The plan would still be reviewed every year but when home educating, the review is usually just to check that you want to continue to home ed. That’s it. There is absolutely no need for you to follow it at all! As a pp said, it’s a legal document putting duties on the LA not parents.

It makes sense to keep the plan in place if there is a possibility that your daughter may want to return to school/college at some point. It saves having to go through the entire assessment application process again.

LA staff rarely understand SEND law so I’m not surprised that you’ve been misadvised unfortunately.

Yes, LA is clueless.

Since your child attends a mainstream school, you can deregister whenever you want. The EHCP is not relevant to that. You don't have to give any notice and you don't need anyone's permission. You just send a correctly-worded letter to the school and you're done. If you're removing her at a transition point e.g. after she leaves primary, you don't have to do anything at all - simply don't register her at a secondary school. Having a school named on the EHCP does not mean she is automatically registered there; only someone with parental responsibility can register a child at school.

Most parents prefer to keep the EHCP while home educating, just in case it is needed in future, for example for school and college. Updating it is a fairly pointless but harmless annual exercise. If you are sure you don't want it you can ask for it to be ceased, but the LA are obliged to maintain it if it may be needed later, so they might well say no.

Thanks all,

I don't mind keeping it for later, that was always my plan until yesterday when this woman phoned and sent me an email saying I needed to be assessed and a panel of people will decide.

Especially when I asked if they were planning to give me funding and she said no! ( Not that I want their money)

I will contact the senco today who had been copied into the emails and make sure we all know the process properly before the LA start doing all this weird stuff they've been saying. Then I may get put a letter together telling the LA the real process and that I'll only stick to that.

In many LAs you can get a personal budget for therapy or specifics in section F even if EHE or paying for a private school yourself. Usually, for a child who would otherwise be in mainstream, this is limited to the top up (over the first £10K) cost of the school placement but still its potentially a useful contribution.

Some will simply refuse to do anything for those making their own arrangements.

If you do make your own arrangements you don't have to follow the EHCP, even if it is maintained. If the LA are concerned that the child isn't receiving the things they need in section F, it is THEIR responsibility to provide and pay for them! so maintaining the EHCP can mean you do get some financial support.

Will you want the EHCP for college later?

In usual circs and providing your child is not attending a special school then no, you don't need anyone's permission to EHE.

However if there are any safeguarding concerns or the LA has reason to believe your child is not recieving a suitable education they do have quite considerable powers actually.

But the panel stuff I don't understand. What kind of panel??