I want to deregister Y10 DD, we'll probaby lose EHCP

[Elephantstatue]

DD is in Y10 and really not coping at school. She has EHCP for cognition and learning - mainly dyslexia and learning anxiety. She goes to school but not really to classes so isn't learning.

Last year she was anxious and self harming. Private therapy really helped with that v. expensive though. She is currently depressed and has suicidal thoughts. Is known to CAMHs but shes stuck in cross referrals between them, well-being service and gp.

As whole point of KS4 schooling is to push her through GCSEs and given the fact she has missed most of first 18 months, failing has become self fulfilling prophecy. I think we should get her out of there. Unschool her, allow her to follow her many talents and interests and try again in college at 16+

What do you think?

Thanks LightLillies, your pov LA should support educating DD is where DH is coming from. He has very similar profile to her and feels let down by schooling in 1980s.

I'm more aligned with PPs who have unschooled and looking at voluntary/ part time work and clubs etc. DD is 16 before Christmas so more options open up.

Either way I have to do all the organising because DH let down by schooling in 1980s and is useless at dealing with officialdom.

It doesn’t need to be either/or. Unschooling &/or voluntary/part time work and clubs etc. can be via EOTAS.

Go and ask in a local home ed Facebook group - a bunch of people who don't have experience of a SEN child, and who don't home ed aren't going to be the most knowledgeable.

But deregistering doesn't actually affect the ECHP because that puts responsibility in the school and education department; meetings are held every year still and sometimes you are asked to attend if you want to. No reason to go as it's about the things that a school is obliged to do for your child.

DD is schizophrenic with psychosis and has been for a year. He struggles to get out of bed, struggles to even engage with family and is high risk for essentially killing someone (by mistake) by nature of his additional rarer mental health diagnosis. There is no provision currently he could engage with, he doesnt even engage with his psychiatrist. The request for EOTAS was put in earlier in his illness when he was engaging with services and before he detiorated further. now we are awaiting the results of treatment and/or a potential hospital stay. I'm lucky my parents are paying for London solicitors to handle it. It may be the EHCP ends up funding a private hospital stay, but we'll see.

I'll add he wasn't always this way. He's always had an EHCP for other difficulties and I was engaged with Eotas on transition to secondary.

But deregistering doesn't actually affect the ECHP

Well it does in the sense making suitable alternative arrangements relieves the LA to of their duty to provide the provision in the EHCP.

So he would benefit from further intervention, that could be funded via the EHCP, via EOTAS if necessary.

Hence me saying his EHCP may end up funding a hospital stay. But that won't be EOTAS, that will be joint social care, Camhs education proposition

Trust me the Solicitors know what they are up to

I wasn’t just talking about a hospital stay. I was talking about in general. Also, a hospital stay &/or joint funding, often via the tripartite panel, doesn’t preclude EOTAS.

just sayin' I have asked the question on my local HE facebook groups. Not many answers (exactly 1 and we are a very active HE area) - and loads and loads of groups and meet-ups aimed at younger age groups.

Bangs head on brick wall.

There is no provision. Having essentially had an aeotas blank check offering from LEA via solicitors there is no provision experts, state or private, solicitors or me could recommend.

He is literally too ill

There is no need to be rude. Having spent years supporting hundreds of other parents on MN and IRL to secure EOTAS packages I was trying to help. The scope of what can be covered by EOTAS is extremely wide. Unless you are saying DS needs absolutely no therapeutic input/care/provision or equipment/budget then yes there is things the EHCP could fund, via EOTAS if necessary. If DS didn’t need anything there would be no need for an admission.

I think by the time you get to secondary a lot of Home Ed groups have really migrated to more unofficial friendship meetups

Have you looked at online schools OP? There are a few about, it's classed as home Ed but you wouldn't have to do any of the teaching.

thanks icedlatte - that was what i guessed. Hence asking on MN for a wider base with similar experiences and there are some which is heartening. I feel - and DD definitely feels - that deregistering in Y10 means you have no tribe. No longer in school but too late to join HE commmunity. I think it means she'll join a more adult type world, she is quite mature so not disastrous.

Please do look at the Internet schools mentioned above. Things like Interhigh absolutely are picking up girls exactly like your DD

Are you sure she is ‘bright enough’ to do GCSEs? If she has an EHCP for cognition and learning, that’s usually an indication of low cognition. What does her last EP assessment of cognition say?
Have you considered a change of school? In my LA, children like your DD can attend a fantastic special school that absolutely puts the needs of its students as individuals first and foremost. They have great links with colleges and employers for post 16 education. Rather than withdrawing her now, explore all alternatives.

Cognition and learning covers things like SpLDs such as dyslexia, so doesn’t always mean low cognitive ability.

Yup dyslexia, dyscalculia, slow processing etc. She is actually predicted 6/7s at GCSE if she was doing the work

With apologies i was kinda writing on shorthand.

A lot depends on whether you have a tame Educational psychologist/clinical psychologist and frankly how rich you are.

If you can get whatever provision you want written into section F the LEA remains legally responsible for securing and paying for that provision. So if anything in section f isn't provided you go down the judicial review route.

If its written as personal budget with homeschool/eotas as the named placement, the LEA are not responsible for the provision and its up to you to sort. If for example you gain funding for a forest school you have to find the school and you have to ensure the provision is adequate. You don't necessarily have to run the forest school yourself, but it's your responsibility to find it and monitor the provision iyswim.

Lightlillies is quite right, you can get anything written into an Eotas package, from forest schooling to counselling to a online school such as interhigh. Also as she quite correctly points out equipment, so for example at transition to secondary we were looking at laptop hire (so I wasn't responsible for maintenance) and voice recognition typing software.

Home schooling, in terms of "true" homeschooling you derister your child out and you take responsibility for the whole shebang. The LEA retain a degree of oversight in that you might have to give a report or home visit yearly. Your EHCP remains in place with the annual review but the LEA has no responsibility for implementing it. In order to show you are providing an adequate education you have to show you are meeting the needs within the EHCP although that doesn't mean you have to provide the same provision as F.

If you're unschooling proper you probably will have some involvement with Education Otherwise (I personally don't necessarily agree with much of what they say but I know many homeschoolers think them wonderful). You will also find similar families through Facebook groups involved with the charity more than local home Ed groups.

Bear in mind the cost and challenge of taking formal qualifications as an external candidate. Also whilst unschooling entirely may be appealing not having GSCE English, maths and science can limit your options in life significantly.

I also know families who have deregistered then self funded interhigh and private psychiatrists. It work very well and definitely the least stressful, quickest, route.

Also There is recent caselaw that means if you are asking for EOTAS is is a little more complex than just requesting it and the LEA saying yes or no (as was the case at DS' transition to secondary). You do have to show why traditional settings are not appropriate. In DS' case this was easy as Mainstream schooling was unsafe, homeschooling had failed, medical schooling had failed and he was turned down by every specialist provision we approached. That said the LEA ed psychologist supported EOTAS for DS and this alone would probably have been good enough.

In your case you've got a good argument as she is definitely Mainstream ability so special inappropriate but Mainstream has failed and medical provision is only temporary. But it may be worth looking at dyslexia specialist provisions such as Frewen, even if it is just to rule it out.

Online school like Interhigh work so well for Mainstream ability kids with anxiety. They can attend school still study for gcses but attend in pj's and keep the webcam off if they want. Again you need a plan for how/when to take tge GCSEs

Many colleges offer GCSE maths/English (including taking tge exam) for 15-16 year olds who are homeschooling or have medical difficulties. So well worth considering a hybrid approach.

I'm sure I've repeated myself a bit in this posts but my point is there actually are just so many options, even though it might not feel like it

If you want to help people its often better to find out where on the journey they are rather than keep recommending the same thing which you've been told three times isn't appropriate. It's better to find out people's experience rather than automatically assume it is less than your own.

I'm way beyond the level of support you are accustomed to giving as evidenced by the fact you have trouble envisioning a situation where Eotas isn't appropriate. It simply isn't within your sphere of experience, and that's OK, doesn't mean you are great doing what you do but what we're going through just isn't within your sphere of experience.

Sadly it is within mine, but DS really is very ill indeed and I wouldn’t wish anyone else to have gone through what we have and are going through with him.

With EOTAS the parent is never responsible for provision or for sorting provision out. Although many LAs tell parents otherwise.

If its written as personal budget with homeschool/eotas as the named placement, the LEA are not responsible for the provision and its up to you to sort. If for example you gain funding for a forest school you have to find the school and you have to ensure the provision is adequate. You don't necessarily have to run the forest school yourself, but it's your responsibility to find it and monitor the provision iyswim.

Legally for EOTAS no it’s not. The LA may tell you otherwise but legally it isn’t. The LA’s duty is absolute and cannot be passed on to anyone else - parents, private carers, the ICB or anyone else. EOTAS isn’t written as the placement. With EOTAS section I is blank and the package (in your example forest school provision although not the specific forest school provider) detailed in F. For which the LA retain responsibility. With any PB to meet the provision in J.

It has always been the case EOTAS was only legally possible under s.61 CAFA 2014 when “it would be inappropriate for the provision to be made in a school or post-16 institution or at such a place.” Case law just clarified that and what inappropriate means.

I don’t keep recommending the same thing. I was replying to your posts. Neither did I assume your experience was less than mine. Unfortunately you are completely incorrect with your assumption I don’t have personal experience with DC gravely mentally unwell.

So you are saying DS doesn’t require any psychiatrist, clinical psychologist &/or OT… input? No support &/or supervision with personal care or other ADL? That’s hard to believe, especially since you mention a psychiatrist, a potential admission and struggling to get out of bed.

Quoted the wrong post.

This is why it is a good idea if you go for EOTAS to get specialist legal advice.