Questions to ask at my autistic son's Year 7 EHCP review

[elliejjtiny]

11 year old in year 7 has his ehcp review later this week. School is great with him despite not enough funding. Ds moans about school and doesn't like going but I'm pretty sure the kind of school ds wants to go to doesn't exist and if it did there is no way the LA would fund it. He doesn't like french, writing, art and pe and he only likes maths, swimming (which they don't do at his current school) and food tech. He said his TA keeps nagging him (to be fair he would probably just sit there and stare into space if she didn't nag him). He has autism. He is cognitively average but has emotional development delay so emotionally he is like a 3 year old. He has 1-2 TA support in lessons and constant supervision in our local mainstream secondary school.

Any tips of questions I should be asking?

I'd want to ask what progress is being made towards achieving the targets set out in Section E. I'd also want to review these to check that they are still relevant.
Id also want to check that he was receiving the support that he should be receiving and that it was focused enough to help him learn in and cope withthe school environment.

Do you have the updated and information that should have already been circulated? If so, go through all that, any other relevant evidence and the current EHCP carefully to know what amendments are required and what you need to raise at the AR meeting. This should also help you know what progress has been made.

Focus on the provision detailed, specified and quantified in F of the EHCP over the funding.

Section E contains Outcomes rather than targets. A small, subtle but important difference.

You can get the TA to scribe. Has he had an OT assessment? There is no reason to write he should be allowed to type (that can come from OT).

Also, I’d try to get some subjects he hates to be dropped before it all builds in his mind and then the joys of ebsa (not saying your child will need a flexible school / head / senco).

Hopefully got Salt and OT. I’d get all the scores to check he is keeping up with the class!

Nagging / stare into space - adhd?

Good luck.

Thankyou. I've had a good read of his ehcp today. He hasn't had an OT assessment but he goes to a special needs gym in the school holidays that is run by an OT. One of the local OT's does a drop in session for parents to get advice so I will go to that.

We don't see any information until the meeting.

He had a scribe in his sats and I think the TA scribes for him sometimes as well. I didn't know you could drop subjects at this stage. He doesn't do geography because that is when he does small group work in the LS department. He also misses a lesson to do bike therapy and his emotional support intervention.

OT will able to comment on writing speed and also examine fine motor skills etc.

You should ask the TA to be in the meeting. It would be better to be in the EHCP as a scribe as then it’s set in stone (but that should come from an OT assessment) private people can produce good reports (which might make sense why art is hard fine control, same for writing and also sport is coordination)

Why don’t you ask the senco for the document she should give you it.

What you mean not enough funding? Does it specify my child x needs 1 to 1 support for x number of hrs and to include (or maybe not) include lunch and breaktime? 32.5 hrs (or what ever hrs you need here could be less or more) for your child name to be supported 1 to 1?

Depends on the head some are grumpy and non understanding of ND and won’t allow to drop subjects however some have the ND understanding and will allow it.

We don't see any information until the meeting.

This is wrong. You need to chase. The law is the same whatever LA you live in. It will help you to learn more about what should happen. Reading IPSEA and SOSSEN’s websites are a good starting point.

DS needs a full OT assessment. You can raise this.

It sounds like the EHCP is incredibly poor. If DS needs a scribe, it needs to be in F. As well as an OT, an EP could comment on this.

Thankyou. The TA was in the meeting. The funding problem is that the LA agreed to a load of provision in section F and then didn't give the school anywhere near enough money to fund it. The TA hours are in section F but not the specific things she does for him. He does a mixture of writing himself, using the laptop and the TA scribing for him. We went through the outcomes in section E. He hasn't achieved any of the short term goals set out in year 5 although he is closer to some of them than he was. They are going to put in some more interventions.

It sounds like F needs improving, the provision to be provided needs stating, but if provision detailed, specified and quantified in F and isn’t being provided, it can be enforced. The LA is ultimately responsible for the provision in F, so chase them. If that doesn’t work, you need a pre-action letter.

Had my daughters last month. We went through it and added bits the SENCO had witnessed and took out a lot of stuff my DD was no longer displaying (eg friendship issues) since she had been at secondary she is generally thriving.
she doesn’t take languages as she is working below average so she takes extra maths and English. I discussed my concerns on her socialability and maturity so we are working on that. I discussed SaLT and we added extra targets in for that. But on the whole it was very positive and felt like the school are working in alignment with us compared to her primary where they were working against

One thing they said which concerned me was that they said that ds could do functional skills instead of gcse's. I thought that was for children who weren't expected to pass gases. But ds passed his sats and is in top set for maths.

I would ask the school for further details. Functional Skills come in different levels. However, if DS is in top set maths, I wouldn’t expect him to sit FS maths. English sounds like it will be more challenging for DS, but there not enough information to say whether FS instead would be appropriate.

Looking wider than English and Maths, it is a good idea to look at a reduced load and a mix of qualifications rather than just GCSEs.

Sounds like the school can't meet your child's needs, between not reaching targets and referring to functional qualifications.

Have you looked at other schools?

I will not attend an Annual Review unless I am sent the paperwork at least 14 days before the Review.

www.ipsea.org.uk/the-annual-review-process