How can we cancel an EHCP for Year 11 and college?

[EHCPcancellation]

DD who is going into year 11 has an EHCP since year 6 due to a mild developmental language disorder. Having this plan has made her very unhappy and she requested this plan to be cancelled. School said they will request this.

We just received the outcome from the council and they said no change is needed.

How do we cancel this plan? She is planning on going to college after this? Will this follow her for life?

Most of the things written there are not valid any longer.

If it’s not valid this should have been spoken about during the annual reviews? The annual reviews happen for this exact reason?

Yes, that is what we spoke in the annual review with the school and they said they were going o request the cancellation. The council has never attended the meetings.

Wow that’s shocking. They are usually desperate to remove plans if suggested by school and professionals. I am a SALT and I have sat in a few reviews where we have decided that the EHCP is no longer needed and it has been removed by the local authority. I might see if you can get supporting letters from professionals although I know that would take time and probably only for the next review

Counter thought here - I would keep it in Year 11 - it may be beneficial for getting any additional exam access requirements your daughter could benefit from. Even small things like the English speaking exam which is very informal may be daunting for a child with even a mild language disorder. At transition planning meeting for college then is maybe a better time to ask for the plan to end.

Hi OP, Im a retired sendco. Anything to do with changing EHCPs was highly problematic with my LA.
If a parent had requested to cancel one, I would have made sure it happened and I would have reached out to colleges to explain why. But not everyone in send thinks like me.
Get the sendco involved and point out that the person it is supposed to help ie the student has requested this.
There is no reason apart from institutional inertia why this cant happen. Ask the sendco to remove the coding E from the schools admin systems as well.
You and your child are by no means the only people who have found EHCPs to be unhelpful, many of the strategies in EHCPs are not appropriate in the GCSE and college settings. Actually lots of them are not helpful in secondary school at all. Again though my opinions are very much not part of the orthodox send thinking.
Good luck.

As per the Children and Families Act 2014, the LA may only cease to maintain if they are no longer responsible for DD or if it is no longer necessary (in the legal sense) to maintain. Unless there is more to the situation that your post doesn’t cover, neither applies. Although if you ask the LA, they may be only too willing since it will save them money.

Personally, I would be digging into why it is making DD unhappy and pursuing amendments to the EHCP rather than cease to maintain.

Contrary to what the pp thinks, SEP not meeting needs isn’t a reason to cease to maintain, it should be amended instead.

It is quite common for LAs to not attend AR meetings. It doesn’t mean you can’t communicate with them directly.

There should be a phase transfer review in the next few months.

Thank you all. Apart from the school getting more funding I don’t think having this plan has been helpful. It was written ages ago and many things don’t apply any longer,

The school said they will request the cancellation but wondering if they actually did it. I guess they don’t want to loose the funding.

I am not English and I feel the government micromanages education in England.

The content of the EHCP not being updated isn’t a reason to cease to maintain. It is a reason that it should be amended, though.

There should have been a report circulated within 2 weeks of the AR meeting.

If your LA takes away your EHC plan | (IPSEA) Independent Provider of Special Education Advice https://share.google/t6OtWKE9WdpQC2jIL this info may be useful.

How do we cancel this plan? When does it stop? DD doesn’t want it/ need it anymore.

No report was sent after the meeting

I realise its the holiday but you need to speak in September with the sendco. My LA took complaints about my school and me very seriously and it was one of the only times they contacted me so you could try to reach them directly. I also understand that the staff in LA sen teams changes frequently.
You should have an annual review meeting early in the term and the LA should attend as its year 11.
If the sendco isnt responding in September you can complain to the head or to the chair of governors. If you do this you need to be specific about the complaint. So make sure you email not just phone. Email has a time and date stamp. And be really clear and polite in the email as lots of people may end up reading it.
And dont accept any draft version of the EHCP dont sign any version.

You can't cancel it. Only the LA that issued it can. Read the IPSEA guidance that I linked.

Sounds like a miscommunication between the school and council, understandable as no parent ever requests less help and to cancel an EHCP. You don’t have to go through the school, just contact the council directly. They will assess though and most likely wont just cancel, might seem intrusive to you but it’s a safeguard as a bad parent might want to cancel it for negative reasons and they have to guard against that.

As I said in my pp, the Children and Families Act 2014 states the LA may only cease to maintain if they are no longer responsible for DD or if it is no longer necessary (in the legal sense) to maintain.

If you didn’t receive a report within 2 weeks of the AR meeting, you should speak to the school because the correct process hasn’t been followed. It would help you to read IPSEA and SOSSEN’s websites and the SENCOP so you understand what should happen.

LAs do not attend all phase transfer appeals. In fact they don’t attend many.

Thank you. This is very helpful

well surely the point is it needs UPDATING. what happened at the annual review? rather than just saying you don't want it any more, did you discuss what support needs she still has?

deciding mid GCSEs that you've decided she no longer has any additional support needs even though she's had them for years is a little ... unusual

Just so you are aware, the LA doesn’t need your permission before making their decision on any amendments and they don’t need you to say you will accept it or sign it before amending/not amending.

Why does your dd want it cancelled? If the support doesn’t reflect what she needs then it can be updated. Do school feel she still needs support? I would request a reassessment from the LA to find out what her needs are/ may be.

@Inthequietofdawn is correct about procedures and the law, however my LA never followed even their own published protocols, working with them was always very tricky, my advice is just what I would do based on my experience.
I had a number of students who had no benefit at all from their plans and so I do get where the OP and their child is coming from.
Send support is supposed to help so if it doesn't withdrawing it may well have a positive benefit for the student.

If the things written there are not valid any more they should be updated at the annual review

that’s what the annual review is for.

Parents in your LA can challenge the LA’s unlawful practices. They don’t need to let the LA get away with acting unlawfully. Your LA isn’t unusual in thinking they can do whatever they like, unfortunately.

Those EHCPs were poor and their parents could have appealed to improve them. Working towards amendments would have been better than ceasing to maintain.

Agreed and I did tell parents that all the time. However the LA continued with their shoddy practices even after being found liable a couple of times in tribunal and court. They had morals that would have made a gangster blush!

Unfortunately, LAs do, but parents can enforce the law, including via JR if necessary.

Can I ask what is in the plan that is making her unhappy? I’m struggling to think of anything that would be forced on her. I’m my school, she’d simply find herself in the best seats in each classroom and at the top of the teacher’s radar for checking she’s okay. And I wouldn’t want to stop that if I was the parent.

I find that it’s not unusual to have outdated things on year 11s plans. (They’re asked if everything is okay in the review meeting. They say yes, they’re getting the support they need and everyone signs off on the plan again without changing it.) The student will let you know that they don’t need the adjustments very quickly. E.g. while giving out worksheets to year 11 in the first week of September. “Here you go Josh. I printed you one in size 12 comic sans on blue paper like your plan says.”
”Oh, don’t worry about that Miss. I haven’t needed that since year 8. I just use my overlay now.”