When to apply for EHCP?

[Jogon122]

Hi,

It may be that I’m worrying about this too early but I’m almost certain our 33 month DD will need additional support when she goes to school next year. Apologies in advance for long post. She has both speech & language (receptive and expressive) and social skills delay. We are under the child development team and SALT. They believe she has ASD and she is on a wait list for formal diagnosis/ ados assessment. After nearly a year of static development she has done really well in the last 3 months with intensive play therapy that I have done myself at home. However at the rate she is currently going I am very doubtful she will have in any way caught up with her peers. She finds unfamiliar environments very difficult and so I think the nearest school to us (which is in an area she is v familiar with) would be best but it’s just over the border in another council. As we are right on the border of two councils, this has proved problematic so far with her HV/ SEN keyworker worker being in the council where we live but her GP/ child development team and SALT are all in the same council as the nearest school. Unfortunately all the schools in our registered council are much further away and I’m not sure how well she would tolerate the journey. With her care being across two councils there has been no joined up management of her needs. I have been emphatically told not to change GPs/ switch to our councils child development service until diagnosis is confirmed as she will be bumped to the bottom of the waitlist. Hopefully we will have an appointment for the ados assessment in the next 6 months but fully aware there’s no guarantees with Covid affecting the wait lists.
She is currently in a private nursery but they have been pretty clueless so far- to the point where they claimed that there were no concerns about her development (a thought not shared by any other professional who has been involved in her care so far). That said she is settled there and given this area is massively oversubscribed for nurseries (both private and state) & the waitlists I’m not sure that the benefits of moving her would be outweighed by the potential challenges of changing her environment twice in a short space of time.
It’s unlikely I’ll have much help from her private nursery to do the application so I feel a bit in the dark about how I am going to go about this and any tips from parents who have been through the EHCP process would be much appreciated! I am hoping her SEN keyworker will help with her application but am a bit confused how to go about this. When we should apply (from what I hear there’s a high likelihood of initial application being rejected) and how best to identify what the statement of needs should be. Im also unsure if the EHCP will name a school and if a council will even consider a school in a different council. The whole application process sounds like a total minefield!

Hi we had concerns for my son from young age. salt and early years team were involved from around 18m. Private nursery supported and offered one to one but did not want to initiate any Sen plan or ehcp. (They didn't seem to want the paperwork!) Because he was settled and they were giving support (without the official documentation) we didn't want to rock the boat. He went to school nursery from three which luckily was in our catchment area so can't help with that I'm afraid. School put a Sen plan in place which allowed additional funding he was allocated 12 hours (of 15) support aweek. This came from early years sen team. Diagnosis came at 3.5 years, School then started to gather evidence for ehcp. In reception he got increased funding on Sen plan which allowed for about 15 hours one to one but school topped up to 24 out of budget plus he attended lunch club. (Not all schools would or can do this we were very lucky). The ehcp got delayed caus of covid but finally got it in first term of year 1. His funding is now 24 hours a week one to one and ehcp sets out what he should receive each week in terms of support.

Is there a reason you want ehcp now do you feel it would help with school choice? I'm not sure it would unless it's a special school. But as I said I've no experience of this so just a guess based on understanding of echp. You would be best to apply to your chosen school then appeal if you don't get a place.

Would it help with private nursery supporting? This is a good reason to do it and would also transfer for school so when dc is starting school everything is set up.

Your local authority should have an independent support for Sen parents you could contact. Ours is called SENDIAS . There's also charities that support with parents initiating ehcp it would be worth doing a bit of research into the support in your area.

I know parents who have successfully applied for ehcp but their children have been older and diagnosed.

Have you contacted the school you want dc to attend? They may be able to support/advice.

An EHCP would be via the LA you live in. In most circumstances it will name a school. However, unless the school is wholly independent the LA must name your preference unless they can prove:
-The setting is unsuitable for the age, ability, aptitude or special educational needs (“SEN”) of the child or young person; or

• The attendance of the child or young person would be incompatible with the provision of efficient education for others; or
• The attendance of the child or young person would be incompatible with the efficient use of resources.

Once a school is named in an EHCP the school must admit the child, so an EHCP helps with admission to MS as well as SS. The fact the school you want is in another LA doesn’t matter.

IPSEA have a model letter you can use to apply for an EHCNA. I would apply now, many parents have to appeal at least once during the process. If you don’t have a finalised EHCP by the admissions deadline next January you must make an application via the normal admissions round just in case even if an EHCNA is underway. Appeal if you are refused, the majority of appeals are upheld.

What provision the EHCP will include will be identified as part of the assessment. Provision in EHCPs is taken from the reports.

Have you asked the nursery to ask the area SENCO for advice? If DD receives DLA when she is 3 the nursery can apply for disability access funding. There’s also early years inclusion funding they can apply for if they need more funding to provide additional support.

So you are aware, a travel time of 45 minutes is considered acceptable for primary aged DC, although many do travel further.

Be careful with SENDIASS. Some are brilliant, but too many repeat the LA’s unlawful policies - you only have to read threads on MN to see this. They receive LA funding so aren’t completely independent and will ultimately toe the party line. IPSEA and SOSSEN are better.




Thank you both for the very helpful responses

@autieok I know that most the council nurseries and schools are massively oversubscribed locally and our nearest one has such a tiny catchement area that a space is unlikely without EHCP in place. Thank you for sharing your story and I am super glad to hear you were able to get support in place for your DS 😊

@Imitatingdory the SENCO is actually the private nursery manager, although she seems to have little understanding of SEN. The nursery seem to have no idea about the early years inclusion funding. They have not put any extra support in place for DD that I am aware of. They also don’t seem to think that she could have an EHCP without a formal diagnosis. Thank you so much for the info on SENIDASS, IPSEA and SOSSEN. I have previously spoken to SENIDASS and they told me to wait to apply for the EHCP until Sept which I felt was too late if the application process to school starts in Jan. Her SEN worker had recommended we apply for DLA - I was initially wondering if it was likely we would receive this but it seems very worthwhile to try if it potentially gives access to extra funding. I am now trying to get my head around how to fill in the application and if you are aware of any support for help with this it would be very much appreciated. Also grateful if you could scalping the difference between EHCP and EHCNA? I just wish we had a more supportive/ clued up nursery ☹️ I’d move her to another private nursery but either they don’t respond to me when I mention her S&L delay or they have a 1 year + waitlist… Will definitely now look up IPSEA/ SOSSEN. Thanks again

We got dla without diagnosis but yes the form is awful to fill in. Basically when you are filling it in describe your child's worst day not their best. I'm not sure about support filling it in @Imitatingdory do you know? It is helpful if you have any reports from professionals- salt, paediatrician etc to attach as evidence. You can get a ehcp without diagnosis as long as there's evidence it's needed.

You don’t need a diagnosis for an EHCP. An EHCNA is the needs assessment prior to an EHCP being issued, or not. The threshold for an EHCNA is relatively low - a) has or may have SEN, and b) may need SEN provision to be made via an EHCP. Case law also shows it is possible to secure an EHCNA if the placement could do more, but won’t.

Rather than just the nursery’s SENCO has the nursery spoken to the Area SENCO? The LA’s Area SENCO can give advice to nurseries.

The Cerebra guide is helpful for completing the DLA forms. Some local CABs can help complete the form, but the Cerebra guide is just as good.

@autieok @imitatingdory this is so helpful- thank you!

I wasn’t aware there was an area SENCO as well as the nursery SENCO. Will try enquire, am supposed to have a meeting with the nursery manager and her head of room soon anyway. Will see if can try get private nursery on board. Currently DD can say quite a lot of single words but mostly echolalia. She uses words in context only v occasionally and rarely functionally. She can’t follow the vast majority of one step questions (eg. Can’t get a cup if asked, can’t point to body parts etc etc). She doesn’t respond to her name and doesn’t point. She shows little/ no interest in other children or adults (although this has improved a bit lately) and very little imaginative play. She jumps and hand flaps and loves numbers, shapes and colors. Her favorite activity is to line up cars and construct endless rail tracks where she then lines up the trains... Engaging her attention without 1-1 attention is pretty much impossible. I asked them to do a MCHAT-R when we were considering private diagnosis and they filled it more or less the same way I did (she scored 15 when I first started raising concerns). I’m slightly baffled as to how passive they have been in this whole process and can’t see she needs extra support. I guess I will have to just keep pushing!

Thank you both so much again, I feel much better informed about how to tackle this now.

If your child is managing they may not want the hassle of extra work, or they may just not be very good with Sen. I had to push for everything for my son initially but then school were great once he got there and they took over. It's not uncommon for services to be slow to act unfortunately. I found it helped to be clear about his issues when talking to professionals, doing research about the process of diagnosis etc and knowing what he was entitled to. It sounds like you are doing a fantastic job of advocating. Getting a good school (good with Sen kids) makes a big difference I would definitely speak to school you want your child to attend. If you do go for ehcp and don't get it do appeal . I know several people who got it second time round.