EHCP for school refusal

[Rega26]

Has anyone been successful getting an EHCP for a child that is doing academically well but has poor attendance?
My daughter is in year 6 and was diagnosed with ASD last year after a 5 year battle.
She is less and less able to cope with school and has 1 friend. She refuses to eat or drink at school also.
She struggles to sleep and has missed alot of school due to being exhausted.
The school won't apply for an EHCP because they say it will be refused, but continue to send threatening attendance letters.
I'm wondering if it's worth me trying to apply for one and what I should include.
Shes starting high school in September and I'm really worried about how she will cope with it when she is already reaching burnout.
Any advice appreciated.

Request an EHCNA yourself, on their website IPSEA have a model letter you can use. Unfortunately, some schools incorrectly tell parents their DC don’t need or won’t get an EHCP, but the parents go on to successfully apply themselves. Some are refused, if that happens you should appeal as the vast majority of appeals are successful. 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.

DD’s absences should be authorised. The letters suggest they aren’t, so you need to challenge those.

In the meantime, if DD cannot attend school full time the LA must provide alternative arrangements (as well or instead of part time school depending on DD’s needs) to ensure DD receives a suitable, full time education. This should begin once it becomes clear DD will miss 15 days, the days don’t need to have already been missed or consecutive. If this applies to you email the Director of Children’s Services informing them of the situations and requesting provision under s.19 of the Education Act 1996. If they refuse, delay or ignore you email again reminding them of their statutory duties and threatening judicial review. Then if that fails contact SOSSEN for help with a pre-action letter.

Have you spoken to the SENCO at the secondary school?

Thanks for your advice.
Yes I've spoken to the SENCO at the secondary school, so they are aware but have said little about it so far.
Her attendance is currently 74% and she has missed many school days.
The last letter I had said they would not authorise further absences unless I provide a doctors note or a proof of prescription - she has been on the waiting list to see a paediatrician since November '21 and our GP has said she can't prescribe melatonin until she's seen by paeds. The school are aware of this!

Unless the school has genuine doubts about the authenticity of the absences they should be authorising them.

@FloatingBean they are fully aware of her sleep issues - the SENCO wrote a supporting letter to the GP to try and speed up the paeds appointment!

Hey 👋🏼 would anyone be able to help me... I have mediation with the LA as they refused to assess my autistic son for needs asessment. I was going to go straight to appeal but its up to a year for a hearing , so thought I've got nothing to lose with mediation. So my son has aggressive challenging behaviour and has a behaviour plan at nursery, with additional funding for him to have one to one . So with the law stating Section 36 (8) of the Children and Families Act 2014 (C&FA 2014) states that the LA must secure an EHC needs assessment for the child or young person if the child or young person has or may have SEN, and, it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made for the child or young person in accordance with an EHC plan. But the LA has still refused even though my son has sen and has provisions in place . So could this be overturned at mediation?? I asked the mediator if the LA has someone attending the meeting with the power to be able to do this , and they replied

“With regards to the question from parent, I do not have authority to change decision but do have authority to decide if evidence is significant enough to be brought back for reconsideration
Is this correct policy ?
Be grateful for any help please. 🙏

@Auri2728 Don’t bother with mediation, just get the certificate and submit to SENDIST. LAs use mediation as a delaying tactic. If they are going to concede they will do so regardless of whether you actively partake or just get the certificate.

Whilst the waits are still long refusal to assess appeals are mostly paper based so mostly don’t have as long a wait as refusal to issue/content/placement appeals.

The LA should send someone who can make decisions, unfortunately LAs often don’t or the person attending claims they can’t make decisions.

Thankyou for you're reply , I think I'll just take it to appeal .
Whats the point of having a legislation act , when the LA cant even follow it ! They refuse to asesss children with sen and it costs more in the long run when the appeal gets overturned and the needs asessment gets carried out . It's a complete joke !!

Sadly LAs rely on many parents not appealing.

I think each LA handle things differently we had luck emailing directly back to LA.

Here's what I said:

It is my understanding that according to the law section 36(8) of the Children and Families Act 2014, that the criteria to carry out the assessment are as follows:
• whether the child or young person has or may have special educational needs (“SEN”); and
• whether they may need special educational provision to be made through an EHC plan.
When I submitted the request letter I provided 80 pages of documentation from DS's Occupational Therapist, Psychologists, SALT, his mainstream IEP plan and his current independent SEN school. DS is currently enrolled at the Specialist School. He definitely checks both criteria for ECHPNA, he has SEN needs and has already continued to have a special education provision.

They agreed immediately to assess after this email.

Good luck!

You could have still done that whilst simultaneously appealing though. Which would have meant if the LA didn’t agree to assess following your email you hadn’t wasted time, especially important at the moment with the long waits for appeals.

yes absolutely. i meant to add that. still appeal but try to go directly to LA as well.