Reception Appeal - Healthcare Plan

[newbie202020]

Our son has recently been diagnosed with epilepsy and this diagnosis was made past the application deadline in January. He has been allocated our 3rd place school which we don't think can accommodate his medical needs, however we do have a meeting with the Head teacher to discuss.

We now have a detailed health care plan in place and will likely appeal the place allocation as we believe our first choice school is much better suited to support his medical needs. Has anyone appealed in a similar situation? This is all new to us and feels a bit daunting!

Any advice gratefully received - thank you

You can get an EHCP for a child with just a medical condition, I had a child who had diabetes who received full time 1:1 support just in case! So it is worth a try!

@spanieleyes

You can get an EHCP for a child with just a medical condition, I had a child who had diabetes who received full time 1:1 support just in case! So it is worth a try!

When was this?

Why should the Ops child have a 1-1 only because the school have an unsafe environment for their child? Surely it makes more sense to attend a school which has a better environment & therefore no need of 1-1. Playtime is supposed to be a time of exploration and enjoyment, having someone watch your every move in case you injure yourself is not ideal if it can be avoided to give the child more freedom & be more inclusive to his or her peers?

Unless there is a major drip feed that this child has seizures daily/multiple times a day, I really can't see them giving 1:1. 1 in 200 children have childhood epilepsy. It's not rare.

@spanieleyes no you can't unless it has a significant impact on their education.

LAs won't fund 1-1 for children who desperately need it, they won't fund it on just in case basis.

I did look into this a few years ago OP and unfortunately unless the school that is your preferred choice has a "medical and social" or "exceptional circumstances" criteria, it is very unlikely that this diagnosis would be sufficient to win an appeal.
I am assuming that the "medical needs" admission criteria isn't there for this school, otherwise you would have mentioned it.
When is your ds 5 years old? Could you perhaps defer his place until the term after he is 5 and use the time to apply for an EHCP?
This would also give time for his condition to stabilise under medication and give a better idea of what you may be dealing with in future.
Is your ds at pre-school / nursery now and what provision is being made now to accommodate his condition?

@Sendsystemsucks
Well, they did! The child concerned had diabetes but no learning difficulties, she was initially granted emergency medical funding for 1:1 support which was changed to an EHCP and this continued for several years!
Epilepsy can vary hugely, from continuous petit mal absences to full blown episodes. Continuous absences can have a significant impact on learning as a child will be continually missing bits of learning. So it is worth looking into rather than dismissing out of hand!

It depends which part of the country you live in but, talking from experience of a child with complex photosensitive epilepsy - absence seizures, myoclonic seizures, tonic clonic seizures and temporal lobe seizures, the priority intention of any specialist will be to gain control of the seizures with medication, or where that's not possible, using surgery, bagel nerve stimulus or ketonic diet. If a child is not able to gain control of frequent seizures by any of these then I would expect that there is a significant enough impact on a child's development to warrant application for an EHCP.

My son's healthcare plan for epilepsy included the school needing to fit blinds, risk assessments prior to physical activity of any kind, a space on the ground floor and first floor that could be cleared easily so that he could sleep after a tonic clonic seizure, a sleeping bag and supervision but not 1:1 and at its worst, my son was having 40 myoclonic seizures a day plus frequent absence and temporal lobe seizures, mixed with less frequent tonic clonic seizures (ie, not daily), but we wouldn't have being considered for an EHCP until his doctor had stated it couldn't be controlled. Fortunately, after changing medication twice and increasing dosages, he is stable and they are under control.

I wouldn't underestimate that you may need to discuss the matter at length with school staff, but unless your son's condition is more complex, all mainstream schools should be able to cope.