EHCP issues

[Cocomelon99]

Hi wonder if I could get some advice! So we are in the process of trying to secure a reception space in an ARP. I think we are about week 17 in the EHCP process. We have an EP report which recommends an ARP and our ARP of choice have said they can meet needs (although the council has not yet named the school and offered a space). Our issues are around the SLT and OT reports. Our DD was under therapists at a different council who have not responded to multiple requests for information. We do have private reports but our council refused to consider them as ‘private therapists often recommend more hours than their NHS ones’. We are not the only parents who have encountered this issue. DD is in a specialist nursery who have managed to transfer care and arrange a SLT assessment but the OT review hasn’t taken place yet. The draft EHCP was already issued several weeks ago with only the EP recommendations as they said they will add the OT and SLT later. The council aren’t denying that there are OT and SLT needs and have said they will add the recommendations from the NHS reports when received. But I don’t think we will get the OT report in any timely fashion due to a shortage of NHS OT locally, and am dubious it will be in time for the EHCP being finalized.

Anyone have a suggestion as to the best way to tackle this? I doubt the council will look at the private reports without a tribunal and the waits are 1yr plus locally. Whichever route we take I don’t want to risk losing a space in the ARP if we are offered one. But equally want the OT provision to be specified and funded! Should I wait for the final EHCP to be issued and then appeal? I’m not really sure what the correct process is.

The LA can’t have a blanket policy of refusing to accept independent reports. Anyone asked for advice must respond within 6 weeks. And the LA must seek advice from anyone you reasonably request, if they can’t assess in-house or via the NHS within the statutory timescale they must commission independent advice. This IPSEA page has more information on these points. You could email the Director of Children’s Services pointing these out to them.

Personally, as you already have a draft I would state your preferred placement and push the LA to finalise ASAP. Then appeal if it doesn’t name your preferred placement and include all the necessary provision. As DD is phase transfer year the appeal will be prioritised, so although there will be a wait it won’t be as long as many others.

How old are the independent assessments?

Thanks @FloatingBean thats very helpful! The OT report is from Oct last year. SLT is from around the same time too although we will hopefully have a more up to date NHS report from this month although I’m yet to see what is recommended. It’s very frustrating with the LA refusing to consider private reports and the other therapies team not responding to the requests for info. But it seems that it is challenging to enforce this as you are met with silence from the other side.
With the appeal what’s the process for asking for this? Thanks again for your advice.

To appeal you will need the EHCP to be finalised, so you need to push the LA to finalise ASAP. When they do, the letter with it should give you information about appealing, the details of mediation etc. You need to appeal within 2 months of the finalised EHCP or 1 month of the mediation certificate, whichever is later. Don’t bother actually partaking in mediation, just get the certificate and submit to SENDIST.

If the LA fail to comply with the 20 week deadline you can force them to, via judicial review if necessary (the enforcement process for enforcing anything the LA are acting unlawfully with is JR). If the LA do breach, email the LA’s Director of Children’s Services threatening JR. If that fails contact SOSSEN for help with a pre-action letter.

I agree you should push the LA to finalise the EHCP and they absolutely should accept your private SLT and OT reports. Far too often LA/NHS reports are vague and woolly and not worth the paper they are written on.