Battling LA for EHCP my son needs and deserves

[ihatejezza]

We're so depleted, I don't even know how far we are going to push this. We have been battling for my son since he was a baby, and he has been fighting to survive his whole life too. Aged 6-13 months he was in hospital with a tear in his pancreas,.and many very dangerous complications that nearly killed him. When he came out, it took him 2.5 years to catch up with his developmental milestones, and even to just grow. In hospital he had dropped from 91st to 0.4 centile. By 3.5 he was pretty much there. Speech a bit behind but otherwise good. At exactly this stage, his Grandpa died unexpectedly and we are told by clinical psychologists that this retraumatised him, ie reminded his body of his time in hospital. His behaviour deteriorated overnight. He developed a whole swathe of sensory sensitivities that didn't exist before. He was aggressive, controlling and just highly, highly traumatised. He's been diagnosed with developmental trauma including attachment difficulties, sensorimotor integration difficulties, and a host of other issues. He was also at a childminders that didn't understand, support, even acknowledge any of this. They generally shamed him, rejected him, stopped him using his comforter, scared him. He masked with them as much as he could and then came home absolutely beside himself. He wasn't able to articulate this and when he eventually could we removed him.

Cue school start. Traumatised from all of the above, and with no experience of a formal learning setting, he found school very overwhelming at first. He was aggressive with teachers and children, impulsive, hypervigilant, completely unable to learn. After a few weeks of it being completely impossible to keep him and the other children safe, and having exhausted any financial support without an EHCP, the school funded his 1:1 from I don't know which pot. Even with the most amazing, proactive, attuned 1:1, he has still been suspended 3 x in his first term. We have reduced his timetable to almost half hours, which I feel be needs for the rest and the therapeutic time with me more than anything. The last few weeks we have finally started to see improvement, safety, learning. He has built some lovely relationships with teachers and children because when he's not dysregulated he is sociable and sweet. When I asked him about his 1:1 today, he said that she is always near him and that helps him feel calmer. That she is the only thing that helps with his anger at school.

The EP report talks about 1:1 being required throughout the school day by attuned and trained adults who are able to coregulate with him until he is able to do so himself. There are various mentions of 1:1 support needed throughout the school day. When we received back the draft of the EHCP, they have removed this wording. They have changed it to "daily as required" which is in no way equivalent. They have also told our SENCO that they cannot discuss funding until after the school has been named, but that they will make the funding decision that they feel meets his needs. We are all fully aware that if he doesn't have a full time 1:1 he will be expelled within a week. I'm just absolutely fuming that we are in this position, when none of this is his fault and the system is so broken. He deserves opportunities to thrive and his whole life has been the opposite, with what, his expulsion before the age of 6 due to terrible funding by the LA as his next hurdle?!!!

You have the chance to respond to the draft. Do that, propose the necessary amendments referencing your evidence. If the LA finalise without making the amendments required, you can appeal. If DS is not attending school full time, you would be able to request an expedited hearing.

Focus on getting the provision detailed, specified and quantified in F rather than on the funding. If it is in F, it must be provided, the LA is ultimately responsible including for ensuring there is sufficient funding, and the provision can be enforced.

Do you think MS is the right environment for DS? Have you considered other options?

No offence but you will always battle the LA against an EHCP. What ever part of the process you are in. Just standard. The back history of his life won’t be taken that seriously within the LA.

Make sure you have all his daily needs in an email from the teacher / 1 to 1 etc (this is evidence which you can use in a tribunal).

Your EHCP needs to specify the number of hours 1 to 1 for your son and whether that includes lunch time and break time. Usually mainstream is 32.5hr other schools can be longer if it’s 1 to 1.

Don’t reduce the hours / part time table as that really means that the school can’t meet your child’s needs. Plus you are taking the slack for this.

You need to be sure on your weeks since you applied. Usually the LA will drag you to a tribunal to waste time / save cash even if your child is not in school.

Has there been an OT assessment you can demand one and make sure it’s SI (I didn’t know about that you can demand one - the LA fobbed me off saying not required. Stand up strong and demand one)

Good luck - be proactive - look up Ipsea

Equally do you think this school can meet needs and your child can be happy and be supported there - that’s the first hurdle before you start on the “fight” for it as LA always go for the cheapest option which is always mainstream first. Do you think your child would be supported and happy there or would the child be best placed in special education.

Know what you want first and then fight it and get evidence 💪

Good luck

Thank you for this this is helpful. How do we get it quantified during draft stage? Would that need to go back to EP because it seems like the LA are going to do whatever the hell they feel like regardless of the evidence!

We have very limited options. But yes at the moment a 1:1 in mainstream is preferable to alternatives. Firstly because all of these issues came on overnight just before he turned 4. I don't want to make big decisions about his education based on an acute stage in his life that needs support, patience and therapy. And secondly because his primary need is SEMH, and he finds other kids being dysregulated extremely stressful and threatening. At school he seeks out the most calm and regulated children to coregulate from, and I know that in an SEMH school he would be in constant fight or flight. For us, special school just isn't the big fix.

Put a request in writing that the EHCP contains the EP recommended provision word for word.

Let them know you will be straight to lodging tribunal over the wording if they don't.

Thank you! It's not so much the school can't meet needs as he has a lot of sensory integration issues and hypervigilance that make the day exhausting, and emotionally he is very young and he needs time with me. These would genuinely be the same with whatever setting he went to. Except maybe EOTAS would be an option! Genuinely would love them to put full time hours specifically like that but we and the school repeatedly told them exactly what was required and that he would be expelled without this, and he put a lot about 1:1 support throughout the day, in a way that could never be offered without a full time 1:1, but never explicitly wrote he needs one for 32.5 hours. How do we get this changed? Would it have to be the EP that changed it now? Or the LA?

You go through the draft and the evidence with a fine toothcomb and highlighters.

Go through all the reports with highlighters. Highlight all DS’s special educational needs in one colour and all the provision to meet DS’s needs in another colour. Each need should have corresponding provision. There should also be corresponding outcomes.

Then go through the draft and make sure all the highlighted needs are in B and the highlighted provision is in F. Make a note of anything the LA have omitted from the draft, any needs without corresponding provision, any woolly and vague wording, and anything the reports have failed to include. Some people find it helpful to make a table.

When checking F look out for vague and woolly wording - “access to”, “or equivalent”, “opportunities for”, “as appropriate”, “would benefit from”, “regular”, “up to”, “would be useful/helpful”, “such as”, “e.g.”, “etc.”, “as required”, “as advised”, “key adult(s)”, “small group”. If provision isn’t detailed, specified and quantified, the EHCP isn’t worth the paper it is written on and cannot be enforced.

When you come across vague and woolly wording, check the reports to see if they are woolly and vague or if the LA has watered down provision. Provision in EHCPs is taken from the reports, so if the reports are vague and woolly, the EHCP will be too. If the reports are vague and woolly, ask the LA to go back to the report writer(s) to make the reports detailed, specified and quantified - e.g. who (not the person’s name but job title and training/qualifications/experience), what, ratio, when (length of session, frequency…), where, etc. If you know the professionals’ contact details, contact them too. If the LA has watered down provision, make sure to request the LA sticks to the wording in the reports. Remind them EHCPs are a legal document and F must include all special educational provision reasonably required and must be detailed, specified and quantified.

Also make sure any health or social care provision that educates or trains is in F. For example, LAs like to put things like SALT, OT, physio, etc. in G (health care provision) when it belongs in F.

Unfortunately, despite proposing amendments and referencing your evidence and the law/case law, the LA may still finalise a vague and woolly EHCP.

I was actually thinking EOTAS/EOTIS rather than SS. It doesn’t have to be permanent. Certainly not (the vast majority of) SEMH SS.

op please do call SOSSEN or IPSEA SEND legal advice charity helplines. They can help you.

Thank you I appreciate this so much! I will do this over the next couple of days, it's really helpful. And thank you re your advice on SEMH schools. Tbh I think everyone I have spoken to especially those who know him think that these schools would be a really bad fit for him. I do think EOTAS would be good too and I would definitely consider it the next best option until we can get his nervous system where it needs to be.

everything is based on evidence. So it’s the EP that needs to quantify the hours and specify the number of hours 1 to 1 and whether that includes break and lunch too then less arguments later on. 32.5 is standard for mainstream however you can push for more hours if that’s what you require. My child did have more specified 1 to 1 but longer days and included break and lunch too. It’s down to the EP though for 1 to 1 and hrs (well it was for our case) good luck

everything is based on evidence. So it’s the EP that needs to quantify the hours and specify the number of hours 1 to 1 and whether that includes break and lunch too then less arguments later on. 32.5 is standard for mainstream however you can push for more hours if that’s what you require. My child did have more specified 1 to 1 but longer days and included break and lunch too. It’s down to the EP though for 1 to 1 and hrs (well it was for our case) good luck

Also depending where you live some LA are more understanding than others. Also, a good case worker will help you (if you have the short straw for either of those things unfortunately you haven’t got an easy ride) and I pray to god you are not in surrey as they are terrible!