EHCP questions - start it myself or through school?

[CampCroc]

Ds is 12, he’s waiting for an ASD assessment.
He’s in yr 7, highly anxious, zones out in lessons, feels sick most of the time due to anxiety, attendance isn’t great because of this.
School are pretty good, are excellent at putting certain strategies into place (like a reduced timetable, being able to leave a lesson etc), communication is not amazing, but I do understand the pressures on them.

I have an older son with ASD who I had to HE, I managed to get him an EHCP (but sadly can’t remember much of the process at all).

Is it better to work with school and their waiting list (nothing would be started until September at the earliest), or do I start it myself?
I seem to remember there being advantages to starting it as a parent, but school have told me there’s no difference.

Thank you!

Request an EHCNA yourself, but inform the school you are going to request it. Whether you apply or school doesn’t matter, except you know it is done ASAP and includes all the relevant information. I wouldn’t wait until September.

When you say reduced timetable, do you mean DS isn’t attending school full time? If so, part time timetables should be short term aimed at reintegration. After this DC should either be attending full time or alternative arrangements put in place as well/instead of part time school to ensure DC receive a full time education.

He’s in school full time but during certain lessons he spends time with a key worker to try to get on top of his anxiety.

Thank you, I’ll have a look into that and get it started.

I would also second putting in the application yourself - while obviously working with the school. It would be worth making an appointment with the Senco to tell them that this is what you're doing.

There are long tribunal waits at the minute - I believe. You could be looking at a year. So if you factor in the summer holiday and the LA refusing you at every stage, you may be looking at maybe 18 months, worst case scenario? (I believe the LA is allowed to discount the month of August?)

If your DS is unable to access lessons WITH the adjustments the school is already putting in place, then I think that is evidence that the school are unable to meet his needs without a considerable level of support.

Ipsea has some good info - and a template letter you can download to request an assessment, that's what I used:

https://www.ipsea.org.uk/ehc-needs-assessments

Apologies if you already know all this - I know you say you've already been through this process before.

I believe the LA is allowed to discount the month of August?

Not automatically.

Only if it would be impractical for the LA to inform parents whether they are going to assess or not within 6 weeks because:
1)the LA request information from school when it is closed for longer than 4 weeks or during the week before it shuts for more than 4 weeks.
2)during the 6 weeks the LA have to decide, exceptional personal circumstances affect the DC/parents or they are away for 4+ weeks.

Or

If it would be impractical for the LA to stick to the 20 week time limit because:
1)the LA requested advice from school when the school was closed for longer than 4 weeks or during the week before it shuts for more than 3 weeks, and this caused a delay.
2) exceptional personal circumstances affect DC/parents or DC/parents were absent from the LA for a continuous period of 4+ weeks.

Thank you.
He’s mostly accessing lessons, but tends to
zone out, so he’s not doing as well as he could.
Teachers think he’s insolent and argumentative which is very far from the truth.
He gets excellent support from the pastoral team, but in lessons with teachers it seems to be falling apart.

Any advice is amazing, even though I’ve been through the process I have a big mental block, my brain forgets all EHCP stuff instantly.

Thank you for that clarification @ThomasWasTortured .

I would also say - start making a diary now with regards to what difficulties your DS is having at school. Any incidents of him not being able to attend/triggers for difficulties accessing lessons etc. Make a note of how many lessons he's not able to attend.

This can be submitted as evidence during the assessment process. Also when your DS sees an EP as part of the EHCP assessment process, they will want to talk to you - the more examples you can give them, the better.

There are still around 4 weeks of term left so I would get the letter off asap so you can then pick it up again in Sept and start chasing if the LA don't respond in the legal timeframes.

As I said previously, my concern for your DS is if the LA force you to appeal at every stage (refusal to assessment, refusal to issue), you could be looking at Yr9 before his EHCP is in place.

Typo in my pp, 3 weeks should say 4 weeks. Fat fingers!

Our school kept saying "there's no hurry" even though DS is going into Y6 and really struggling with some things, so I finally submitted a parental request (IPSEA letter) a few weeks ago and we should get a decision just before school breaks up.

My LA said they have a 7th July cutoff, after which they stop accepting new EHCNA requests until September. AFAIK, this isn't advertised anywhere and I only found out about it because I rang the SEN Team to confirm that they'd received my request and had contacted our school for information. So you may want to check with your LA in case they have a similar cutoff.

I've documented a lot over the past year and I feel like I'm spending every free moment putting additional evidence together, which you can submit until they send the application pack to panel for review, but I'm relieved that we'll get an answer soon, even if it is a refusal to assess. At least it feels like we're moving forward, unlike with the approach the school keeps advocating.

Good luck.

And a huge thank you to @ThomasWasTortured for such generosity sharing knowledge and insight into the process.

Your are welcome SpaceInvader.

My LA said they have a 7th July cutoff, after which they stop accepting new EHCNA requests until September.

This is unlawful.

@ThomasWasTortured is correct. I read the SEN Code recently (It's easy to find on .gov). Some LAs really try it on!