EHCP support thread

[Phineyj]

My DD (10) is being assessed for EHCP. The council refused to assess (despite her already being diagnosed with ADHD, ASD, hypermobility and vision problems following eye surgery).

School have been supportive throughout and they are going above and beyond to keep her engaged in education.

She's about to go into year 6 though.

I took the LA to the tribunal and won.

They must produce the plan by 4th August. I think they probably will (they've stuck to deadlines so far...ish...). But I've got all the IPSEA complaint letter templates primed!

The hardest thing about the whole process is that no-one else in my life understands it or what it's like to spend all your free time essentially begging people to document the deficits your child has.

It is also a hard realisation that no-one cares much about your child's education except you.

I am also a teacher so I feel sad on behalf of the SEN DC I teach as I am told little about their needs (I spent a whole day doing DofE with one recently...I don't even know what her EHCP says...)

Join me if you are also grimly trekking through the EHCP jungle!!

Thank you

Well well well... The LA have only gone and conceded. I am surprised they did not wait until the last minute, I am now in the process of trying to source a private SALT for a full assessment so it is quantified

Hurray!

Hi all - quick question for anyone in the know !

The LA have missed the deadline to assess ds which was supposed to be by the 9th October.
Does anyone know when we should've been provided a decision by if they assessed on time ? Currently drafting a complaint email and it's all new to me !

14 weeks isn't it? @ThomasWasTortured will know! You can get a template letter off the IPSEA site too.

@Mummytodo Hurrah!

@losingthe you can see the timescales on IPSEA’s website here. If the LA is not going to issue they must inform you by week 16. If they are going to issue they must finalise within 20 weeks and, as Phiney posted, in order to do that they should issue a draft by week 14.

<sounds thread victory klaxon>

@Mummytodo Yay! great news🙂

Thank you. So if I add on 20 weeks from when they agreed to assess this would be the time they should've made a decision by ?

@ThomasWasTortured It's been 17 weeks since they agreed to assess

@losingthe no, if the LA is going to issue they must (with a few limited exceptions) finalise within 20 weeks of the EHCNA request. If they aren’t going to issue they must inform you by week 16 from the EHCNA request. Email the Director of Children’s Services reminding them of the statutory timescales. If that doesn’t work, email again threatening JR. Then, if that fails contact SOSSEN for help with a pre-action letter.

What is JR? Sorry if I sound stupid but no idea what I'm doing 😆

@ThomasWasTortured In confused also because they haven't even assessed ds so I've no idea where I stand timescale wise

The LA is in breach of the timescales, you should email the Director of Children’s Services. JR is judicial review.

Hello everyone.

I’m plonking myself here whilst awaiting a decision from recent tribunal (LEA refused to give DD an EHCP).

The wait for the outcome is worse than the wait for the hearing.

DD Yr6 is not at school but has some things in place at home. I’m predominantly a lurker but the advice on this board is invaluable and has really helped me get things in place for DC.

@GreysToenatomy I can only imagine the stress waiting.....wishing you the best of luck really hope you get the EHCP 🙂

Well, I've sent off the SEND7 form to the LA for their "comments" (after brief confusion about whether the 'Request for change' form referred to in the tribunal letter was something different, but it seems to be the same thing). Shall we start a book on whether they actually reply to the email within the 5 working days required?!

And then when they inevitably don't reply by Friday, I'll tick the 'no reply' box and bung it back to SENDIST.

I read all the SENDIST bumpf they sent me. I liked the bit where they said that if the parents had provided more than 100 pages of evidence, they had to include it all anyway. As I have 130...

Feeling more cheerful.

Hi everyone. By some miracle ds had his assessment with the ep tomorrow. In a little worried to be honest, this is ds' first week back full time, school have made some quite big adjustments for him but he is still complaining of feeling sick in the morning and trying not to go in...
will the fact school have made such adjustments go against us in getting them to agree that a care plan is needed ?
Also, the ep wants to meet me beforehand, what can I expect ? Worried im going to mess it up and not get across why I think ds needs the care plan
Any advice would be much appreciated !!

Adjustments being made and not being sufficient won’t harm your case.

Think about things like: what has worked, what hasn’t, what is need but unable to be delivered, what DS likes/dislikes, what DS is good at/what he struggles with, about DS’s anxiety and EBSA, developmental history, aspirations for the future etc. It is helpful to make a list of anything you would like to say and a timeline of events.

I had a pre assessment phone call with the EP (I was on a train, on an unfamiliar route, so it was a bit stressful...)

He was just fact checking. If you think about it, they do loads of assessments so they need to have the factual stuff recorded so they can spend their time with the child observing them.

At least, I assume that's how it works as the OT did similar.

I'm still waiting to hear from LA, and to see a draft. I've talked to other LA education employees this week who say that the ehcp team is having more difficulties than usual and offered to help chase our case with their colleagues. I rang the dept and, for a change, got through to an actual human. I asked if a new caseworker had been assigned when she'd looked us up on the system starting to talk about the draft! So there does appear to be a draft. I asked if she'd send me a copy but she said she'd get her manager to get in touch. That was two days ago. Tomorrow i think i'll mail everyone again, and maybe include mayor and mp...
I'm just happy that now we have the section 19 tuition DS is at least out of his school and on the road to recovery.

Thank you.
I guess I can only say what is true, that ds struggles to focus/concentrate without guided support from an adult. He will go off task quickly which means he isn't accessing the curriculum
Even with the adjustments that have been made, which are massive tbf, he still needs that 1:1 guidance
The senco doesn't quite agree and thinks he only needs it for a couple of lessons which he struggles with - ds will tell you differently

Meeting ep all done... feeling quite positive actually, lovely chap, just hope I've done enough, I was very clear about what I feel ds needs
Thanks so much for everyone's help.
It's just a waiting game now...

That sounds good!

I had a nice conversation with one of our HLTAs at school today and also our visiting SLT. I just happened to be in the staffroom at the same time. The HLTA was telling me about the transition they do for kids like my daughter.

It was encouraging.

Well done @losingthe. But can I urge you not to think about this as whether you've done enough? You will have been fab and compelling. But fab and compelling parents are getting screwed over every day. Hopefully this will not be your experience this time. But it is a lottery with increasingly bad odds which be should avoid internalising if we are to preserve our sanity. If we lose out it is because there isn't enough money to go around and people are cutting their cloth accordingly to manage this. It's not because parents aren't compelling