What are our chances of securing an EHCP for DS?

[TarnishedWithLove]

Posted in SEN but it’s very quiet on that board.

The deadline for the LA to notify us of a refusal to issue or to issue a plan is looming. We have already been through one appeal to secure the assessment.

DS is in Year 7 and has ASD, social anxiety disorder and sensory processing difficulties. I applied for the EHCP myself after being told repeatedly by school DS would not qualify for one in spite of his lack of social and emotional development . Academically he is very able.

The educational psychologist has specified in his report that in his view , DS requires specialist educational provision.

The OT , speech and language therapist and DS’ consultant have all supported the EHCP .

School have told us not to get our hopes up as if DS is offered less than 15 hours worth of support , the EHCP will be refused.

Would this be correct ?

The school are expected to fund the first (up to) £6000 of support for each child on SEN support and the LA might say that’s sufficient and won’t allocate any more funding for them. That’s probably what the school means when they talk about 15 hours.

Some LAs issue EHC plans with no funding attached which is not helpful either!

Whereabouts are you in the 20 weeks?

The LA might try that but it would be illegal and would get overturned at tribunal, especially if all the professionals are supporting it. An EHCP is not determined by how many hours of support is needed. We have some EHCPs which bring no or very little extra money with them but they outline what support is necessary for that learner.

@Howshouldibehave because I had to appeal, we have no idea where we are in the process. The LA do need to inform us by beginning of August whether they are going to issue an EHCP . We are on tenterhooks as we know an appeal will just drag on.

@NotAnotherPushyMum that’s helpful to know. We want the EHCP to secure his support as without it, the school have offered support but it’s inconsistent and informal.

I applied for an EHCP for dd in year 10 (ASD, ADHD, GAD, mental health issues). The school said I would never get one - she was at a grammar school and academically very strong. We succeeded on the first application, with the school only becoming involved at the meeting to discuss what support was required. I would advise completing the form a describing your ds at their worst, even if things are only that bad occasionally. DD’s mental health deteriorated further and the EHCP funding was raised almost as high as possible in the end - they funded her attending a small private school for sixth form in another county and covered the cost of transport there too. Her mental health improves dramatically in that safer environment with excellent CAMHS support. We agreed to cancel the EHCP at the end of A Levels and she is now at uni, coping well with no extra support.

We first applied for one in year 7 for a very similar child but haven't got in until end of year 9. Very difficult here though ours was delayed by lockdown as everything stopped for a year as he wasn't allowed in school then.

Ours has given 20 hours of support which they said was £10,300 roughly, school senco was OK but not happy with it and school are challenging amount. Second school didn't reply at all and now everything appears to have stopped until September. Our LA said they are overwhelmed with requests atm and implied they had doubled due to lockdown impacting mental health esp ASD kids.

Are the EP, SaLT ect LA ones or private? If they are LA ones you have a very good chance, it does depend on LA but the decision in usually based on level of need as well as the level of support in school but the provision recommended by the EP ( especially if the EP is employed by the LA). If that provision cannot be met from the school resources available for all children EHPC is there to provide the level of support. Even is your DS is academically able does he have other difficulties in school? Is he making expected progress? Did the school provide their report for the EHCP process? All of there will be taken into the account.

The assessments have all been done by the local authority.

DS is making expected progress and also over achieving in some areas , but is very much behind his peers in social and emotional development.

Without targeted support , he is likely to continue to fall behind in this area and it concerns us.

If the LA EP recommended EHCP and specialist provision/support I think you have a good chance of getting it. Good luck

As others have said, don't worry about the hours thing. The most important thing is section F of the Plan. Everything in that MUST be quantified - eg: 'DS needs an hour of speech and language a week, delivered by a trained therapist or a TA who has been trained to deliver...'etc.

If it is quantified like that then the 'hours' attached to the Plan don't really matter. The hours are used as a way of allocating funding. If the funding isn't sufficient to deliver what's legally set out in Section F, then that's for the school and the LEA to argue over. (And for you keep an eagle eye on that it's being delivered!)
I got tied down worrying about the hours my DS had been allocated in his Plan until it was explained to me.

If/when you do get issued a draft plan though, do either post back here and/or contact Ipsea or SOS!SEN as it's vital the Plan is watertight.
In terms of if your DS will be given a Plan - it's impossible to second guess a local authority I'm afraid! They can make some bizarre decisions.
However, as others have said, the fact that their own experts have stated that your DS needs an EHCP, I would also say you have a very strong chance. If you don't, you would have an excellent case at appeal.

As I've said in other posts, I was also told my DS would never get a Plan as he was 'too able' but he did - and without an appeal. Fingers crossed for you.
Your DS sounds a lot like mine and I completely get how chronic anxiety impacts every aspect of their lives.

In my experience it's very common for the LA to initially offer 15 hours because this means they don't have to provide any extra money to the school. Those first 15 hours come out of the School's SEN budget. This happened with my son but the support the LA agreed he needed was clearly more than 15 hours. I appealed and got 25 hours support with no counter arguments from the LA.

The other thing my council often did was post their letters several days after the date on the letter, giving me 10 days (from the date on the letter) to reply. And these 10 days include weekends not 10 working days. One time they actually posted a letter 2 days after the deadline for reply, luckily I kept the envelope so could prove this with the post mark.

It's so tedious and exhausting. So many barriers to getting the support the children need and are entitled to.