To think that this is OUTRAGEOUS!?!?

[mojitounicorns]

That this has so few signatures???

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/249057

Can we try and get the numbers up please

I didn't start the petition but am a Mum of a SN child and going through hell right now trying to get our EHCP through. There are many like me. The law needs changing.

YABU to have such a clickbaity title. Though I support the objectives of the petition

Why can't they get the plan through

Have signed. One day I hope the government will realise that not meeting the needs of children with SEN may be a short term gain but long term adds an enormous burden on society. ds2 is likely to need life long support as he is unlikely to ever be able to live independently. I truly believe that if he had been given support in a more timely fashion when he was ten then his outcome would have been very, very different.

I’m in two minds about this, as obviously Iwant all children to receive the proper support BUT the whole point of changing from the old “statement of Special need” to the new “Education Health and Care Plan” was that so much time and money was being wasted pursuing and maintaining statements for every additional need. The idea was that schools would instead get a pot of money to support lower level additional needs and only those needing very substantial additional resources would get an EHCP. I think this was a sound idea and should have meant that schools were able to quickly intervene and put in place support up to £6K a year. EHCP simply isn’t appropriate for children who’s care needs come in under that level.

Signed

But all councils are required to do that by law anyway. A change in the law is not required so this petition is obsolete IMO. A change in how its funded is desperately needed however.

Councils miss the deadlines because they can't afford to increase staffing levels - SEN officers, Educational Psychologists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists etc

The resources required to implement the system to meet timescales are needed.

Petitions rarely achieve much. Consider the one about the EU referendum recently with millions of signatures. All that happens is that it gets 'debated' in parliament - anyone recall that debate?

To be honest, I think there's a problem with the premise of your petition. What do you want Parliament to do? They're not going to say that local authorities must assess every child on demand, and they will point to the fact that there is a relatively simple and straightforward appeal process for refusals to assess done on the basis of the papers.

Now, put up a petition for LAs to be properly accountable for unlawful decisions on SEN and I would be delighted to sign.

Sorry, itwouldtakemuchmore, but that simply isn't correct. The law on the criteria for issuing EHC Plans is really very similar to the law on issuing Statements. Despite my comment about the petition, I don't think OP is saying that children who don't qualify for EHCPs should get them, simply that LAs should be more easily challengeable for unlawful decisions.

I have to disagree with the poster who commented about EHCPs being unsuitable for children receiving less than £6000 worth of intervention. The point of EHCPs are they make the LA legally accountable to provide what's in the EHCP. Also, without going through the assessment process how do you know all needs have been identified and met. You cannot rely on schools to know what needs there are and then to meet them. I also understand that the additional funding (I think it's called notional funding) is often used for other things as schools are so cash strapped, which means SEN kids who fall in that supposedly lower bracket level of needs are not receiving anywhere near the £6000 per year, but schools won't admit that.

Local authorities don't "not be timely" wilfully.
The government has shafted LAs successively over the years. The Blair government wanted resources close to children and insisted LAs delegate most of their money to schools and retain as little as possible. Only the money couldn't be ringfenced and didn't always get spent as intended. Cameron then increased the LA responsibility from 18 to 25 for youth SEN, and required all children with statements to be converted to EHCP over a 3 year period, and that new EHCP assessments be completed alongside - trebling workload - with no additional budget and indeed a hugely slashed budget in many Northern urban areas. The vast, vast majority of LAs are overspent on their high needs budget. This petition should be demanding proper funding of LAs to carry out their duties and support children, then I would sign it.
You have a government funding problem.

Signed. Currently going through the EHCP route for the second time as was rejected first time.

Gov petitions lol another smokescreen that maintains the illusion of democracy. I agree with what you're saying, but these petitions do nothing I'm afraid. If they want to change something and need to drill up public support, you will find it on every news media, newspaper, social media trend etc. Having worked in government, that's my experience. Notice it's if they want to change something, not if they want to change something that would be in the greater interest of the public.

Councils miss deadlines because in my experience the SEN office is filled full of people who rather than looking at what is needed and listening to people who spend time with the child constantly throw barriers in the way, or just ignore things, or forget to post letters and generally are at best unorganised.

So much time must be wasted having to fight parents who are simply after ensuring that the basics from the code of practise are implemented. If parents can’t or won’t fight then they have no chance sadly.

At our AR last year it was widely agreed to stay in mainstream Ds needed full time 1-1. The Sendo tried to argue at first but by the end of the meeting it was agreed. That was July. In the November I received a plan which was horrendous, he was in year 4 by then and it quoted things about when he was in reception - no we aren’t sending a 9 year old back to nursery to work on his social skills! But no clear mention of 1-1 but a fair but of wooliness.

It took a complaint to the top manager to finally get the wording right - that was in February. I still haven’t actually received the final plan but have seen the draft with the right wording in.

His next annual review is due in July. Recent change of circumstances means changes will be needed to the plan. So that’s another year of back and forwarding.

I dread to think how much time and money they have wasted with this daftness and I was “lucky” that unlike many I didn’t have to take them to court to get the needs met.

In our LA we still have people on the old statement system - that’s how ineffient they are. Ofsted ripped them to shreds a few years back but nothing has changed

As I'm not on social media I hadn't seen this.
I have a child in sen school and found it easy. But I know other people arnt the same.
Signed and shared

Signed and shared, if we all pop the link on our social media it would help greatly. I suspect many of us belong to SENS groups online?

Please let’s get this out as i’m Hearing from friends who are TA’s and teachers that there is a drop in the amount of EHCPS being authorised.

We are in a similar situation to sirzy and the process is pretty rubbish. I don’t think the solution to schools not fulfilling their legal duty is to give ever more people EHCPs in an attempt to force schools to do what they should be doing anyway.
The point of EHCPs are they make the LA legally accountable to provide what's in the EHCP
This REALLY isn’t the point of an EHCP. The entire point of changing from statements was to avoid so many people needing statements and to extend provision for the most needy because it was recognised that education to 25 was important and a marrying of education health and care was sensible. It’s a total waste of time and money if we just morph it into statements rebranded.

None of it addresses the root cause.

There is too little funding from national government. This impacts on all resources including massive cuts in LA staffing. We don't willfully mess up, my own LA dep has gone from 150 three years ago to 25 by the end of this year once more redundancies are complete. There isn't the personnel to support you.

Due to continuous cuts the high needs block in my one LA is currently overspent by 7.2 million - just not enough money coming in from central government.

I've signed

Thanks all. I agree the petition maybe isn't addressing the root cause. But I just agree with what it's saying and many agree with me that the current process is just torture. It's affecting my mental health and could end up with me signing off work, which is another hit to the economy (I'm in public services). I agree petitions aren't always listened to but i just pray with enough voices speaking up, even if it 'a pointless click' like this maybe just maybe the message will filter through that SEN children ARE cared about and people do want the government to invest in them. My son would benefit greatly and potentially be almost 'cured' with investment in therapy NOW. If let too long he will need a lifetime of extra costly provision.

FloatingthroughSpace, whilst it's absolutely correct that LAs are funded totally inadequately, I would have more sympathy with them if they deal with that problem proactively, e.g. by joining in and supporting the current legal challenge against the Department for Education's funding decisions. Instead they seek to deal with the problem by putting an awful lot of effort into avoiding compliance with their legal duties to disabled children. When they decide to shaft the most vulnerable sector of their local population, they forfeit all sympathy.

The point of EHCPs are they make the LA legally accountable to provide what's in the EHCP
This REALLY isn’t the point of an EHCP. The entire point of changing from statements was to avoid so many people needing statements and to extend provision for the most needy because it was recognised that education to 25 was important and a marrying of education health and care was sensible. It’s a total waste of time and money if we just morph it into statements rebranded.

This simply isn't true. The Department for Education and the then Secretary of State made it very clear that LAs who thought this was going to be their route to reducing statements were mistaken. The reality is that the criteria for EHCPs are very similar to the criteria for statements, so obviously no-one seriously thought the new law in itself would lead to a reduction. Likewise the legal effect of EHCPs, particularly section F, is very similar to that of Part 3 of Statements.

It is certainly true that the change was brought about in part because of a recognition that education for children with SEN should not be dealt with in a vacuum and divorced from health and care needs, and the extension of the EHCP system up to the age of 25 was a definite plus. But none of that was directed at reducing statements or EHCPs - rather the contrary, given that previously no-one could have a statement past the age of 19, or indeed 16 if they were in further education colleges.

There's a case for saying that the main point of EHCPs is to ensure that school staff have a reasonably accessible document that summarises a child's difficulties and tells them exactly what they should be doing to support the child. That was also the main point of statements. However, for a parent's point of view it is equally the case that one of the main benefits of an EHCP is that, if it is properly written, it secures support for their child that can be enforced relatively easily if need be, via the courts. I can't see how that is conceivably a bad thing. Yes, in an ideal world schools would be so well funded that they could meet all SEN without the need for EHCPs, but we definitely are not in that world.

So in your opinion funding for Sen support hasn’t been shifted into school to meet the needs of less costly support? That’s not my understanding at all.

No, it hasn't. Ask any maintained school. They're cutting down on TA support all round the country. There are approximately 100,000 more EHCPs in place than there were statements in 2013, the last full year before the EHCP system came into force.