EHCNA refusal

[whatnow35]

Today I received an email to inform me that further to school's application the panel has decided they won't be assessing my son for an EHCP. The reason given is that the school can provide the support my son needs and no further provision is needed.

I'm very confused by this! My son has been out of school since Christmas.

Despite all measures put in to support him within school he was "unable to access learning" and ultimately we were unable to even get him into the building any more and any staff support was withdrawn as they didn't have the facility to provide him a staff member to deal with this and spend the next few hours trying to calm him down and control the meltdowns.

All outside help available to the school was utilised and ultimately failed to keep him in school.
Everyone involved agreed that he needs a specialist provision for ASD (this should have happened a long time before we reached this point) as his needs cannot be met in mainstream now that his anxiety has reached the level that it has.

My son hasn't left the house at all for 6 months, he's 10.

So what now? I'm frustrated that a whole panel of people have collectively made the decision that my son can access all the support he needs from a school that he can't attend... I phoned the number given on the email and the conversation went like this;

Her "We won't be doing a needs assessment as school can provide all the support he needs"
Me " you mean the school he is unable to attend?"
Her "yes so we won't be doing a needs assessment as school are able to meet his needs"
Me " right... but he isn't there..."
Her "yes so we won't be doing the assessment, if you want to appeal you can."

Fabulous.

I've contacted the SEN advice service and the mediation people, should I be doing anything else? Can I do anything else? Just want to cry to be honest!

Thank you and sorry for the long post.

You should appeal the refusal to assess. LAs often refuse in the hope you won't appeal. Don't bother with mediation, just get the certificate and go to tribunal. LAs use it as a delaying tactic and if they are going to concede prior to the tribunal they will regardless.

IPSEA and SOSSEN are useful charities with lots of info on their websites and advice lines.

Consider making SARs to school and the LA. Do you have in writing the school believe he needs SS? Follow up any phone conversations with emails so that you have a paper trail.

Separately to the EHCNA, LAs have a statutory duty to provide education to those medically unfit for school. The guidance is here. You should pressure the LA to provide this. If they don't you can threaten Judicial Review, which usually kicks them into action.

If CAMHS aren't currently involved ask the GP for a referral.

And just be careful with SENDIAS. They can be amazing, but receive LA funding so aren't completely independent and will ultimately toe the party line. IPSEA and SOSSEN are much better in my opinion.

Ah that's all really helpful thank you, interesting about SENDIAS I wasn't aware of that, IPSEA and SOSSEN top of the to do list for tomorrow.

I've been having a read of the link you posted, I think that will need to be my next question to them. This is what I'm struggling to understand, they have to provide an education but they just aren't, presumably not helped by me not having enough information to fight them with! I think I've been too trusting.

I have a large amount of reports and paperwork which covers everything I think.

I have had regular meetings with all the people involved including the ed psych, the school have been pulled up every step of the way and admitted defeat months ago, that is all documented.

It's annoying that this has happened during the holidays as I've not yet been able to make contact with anyone at the school, as they made the application they should have received the email as well but I can't speak to anyone which is frustrating.

Only you, as a parent, can appeal. You don't need to wait to contact school.

You have more than enough evidence for an EHCNA. The threshold is has or may have SEN and may need SEN provision to be made via an EHCP. DS is out of school, he meets that test.

The LA will try to get away with providing nothing and spinning you lie after lie. Don't let them. Don't worry about appearing pushy. DC whose parents are on the ball and know what the LA should be doing get better provision. It shouldn't be that way, but unfortunately it is.

Thank you, you've been really helpful. I should have known all of this as my other son actually has an EHCP and left mainstream a few years ago, but his was done without argument, silly me for expecting it to be as easy this time!

@whatnow35

LAs spout such bollocks.

Absolutely appeal the refusal to assess. The email notifying the refusal to assess decision should have given you details of your right to appeal and explained about mediation.

When we were in the same position our solicitor advised not to bother with mediation.The requirement is to consider mediation ; you do not actually have to go through with it.

You just need to ring up and get the mediation certificate as you need this to register the appeal. I would do this asap as I was told by a very reliable source earlier this week that it is taking up to a month to register appeals and then you get a hearing date about 12 weeks after this. At the moment parents are getting hearing dates for December.

Information here:

www.ipsea.org.uk/refusal-to-assess-appeals

As PP above said you have more than enough evidence and the fact that he is out of school indicates they cannot meet needs.

And as your child is of statutory school age, the LA have a legal duty under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to provide him with an education.

www.ipsea.org.uk/faqs/what-support-should-the-la-give-me-if-my-child-is-out-of-school-for-any-other-reason

Thank you, I've contacted the mediation service and have begun the process of getting everything in order for the appeal.

I've also spoken to the relevant people that are involved with my son and they are looking into things as well so I think I've done all I can for right now, I hope so anyway.

I'm still just as angry so I'm well prepared to fight!

You might find SOS SEN's booklets on appeals helpful.

If the school has thrown in the towel, do you have anything in writing from them saying so? I assume anyway they supported your EHCNA application - have you got a copy of what they've written? And do you have medical evidence supporting the fact that your child could not cope in that school?

My ds (Yr7) has diagnosed Asd and high anxiety. Complete meltdown during lockdown and unable to cope with any homeschooling whatsoever. We applied for an EHCNA and it was denied. We immediately appealed with all the paperwork (you can do it all on line). At first they came back saying they had given us a hearing date of October and also said one of the email files they couldn't open. I re-sent the file and the next thing we knew they suddenly said: yes, we will assess him. He has had social services, camhs, Ed Psych etc all sorted in a few weeks. It's just stalling tactics to get you to go away. Get your appeal in ASAP! . 90% of appeals will succeed. Good luck.

I've only just seen these replies, thanks all! Yes the school did the application themselves so all their evidence was included and they stated that they couldn't meet his needs throughout.

I have started getting everything in order for the appeal and have the mediation certificate so fingers crossed for a good outcome this time!