EHCP and six weeks holiday

[Fkouncingflump]

Can I ask a stupid question?

DD is 3 and we are about to submit an EHCP with her nursery. The nursery SENCO said that the school holidays would delay the application.

Can I ask why? I absolutely understand the impact of not being able to assess the child in school because of the holidays with the schools being closed, but this is a private nursery thats open 51 weeks a year? What is the barrier here?

Am I being dim in missing something obvious?

Because the holidays don't count towards the time period in which they make decisions. It's the same whether of school age or nursery (public or state)

Ah ok, but there is nothing to indicate that hopefully, the timelime should continue on plan? They dont just down tools for six weels?

They do actually just down tools for 6 weeks, sadly.

They do down tools for 6 weeks.

Wow, thats...MASSIVELY annoying. Nursery have taken so bloody long to fill the form out.

They counted the summer holidays when assessing my son for an EHCP.
Maybe it’s by council?
his was massively delayed due to lack of educational psychologists though.

Yes. We were told we’d have it in place by the time DS started school. It actually took until the following January.

And since it was signed off in January we haven’t had any of the ‘monthly’ speech therapy specified in the EHCP, but that’s another issue.

The statutory deadlines don't 'stop' over the summer.

LA's may not adhere ti the deadlines over the summer, but a lot don't adhere to the 20 weeks anyway.

The timescales don’t automatically stop. Even when one of the exceptions does apply, it only applies when is it impractical for the LA to comply with the statutory timescales and the LA must comply as soon as practicable.

The exception the nursery is thinking of doesn’t apply if they do not close for a period of 4+ weeks. So assuming you/DC are not going to be out of the area for 4+ weeks or affected by exceptional personal circumstances, the exceptions won’t apply to your case. Neither will the exception to the 6 week timescale public bodies have to respond when asked for information and advice unless one of the exceptions in my last sentence applies or you miss appointments.

@Youdontevengohere if provision detailed, specified and quantified in F isn’t being provided, you should email the Director of Children’s Services threatening judicial review. If that doesn’t work, you need a pre-action letter. If that’s needed, SOSSEN can help with that for free, but there is a wait, so you may want to look elsewhere.

Thank you for this. We haven’t really known where to turn. Our school SENDCO is as useful as a chocolate teapot.

@Youdontevengohere the starting point is checking if F is detailed, specified and quantified or if it is vague and woolly with wording such as ‘would benefit from’, ‘or equivalent’, ‘access to’, “regular”, “up to”, “opportunities for”, “as appropriate”.

It is detailed, specified and quantified, we made sure of that before it was signed off.

@Youdontevengohere then it can be enforced following the advice in my first post. The threat of JR or a pre-action letter mostly works. If it doesn’t, JR proceedings will.