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!!

@hiredandsqueak Waiting 10 months to then concede the day before the hearing is exactly the tactics I’m referring to. It should not be allowed.

Who did you complain to? Was it the LEA themselves? Sadly, I don’t think many will care. I am trying to ignore the tactics my LEA played throughout but I’m so angry about it all that I’ve compiled a letter of complaint, but there’s no independent body to send it to.

Yes complained to LA who upheld the complaint and offered me £2k I escalated to stage 2 asked for £6k but settled when they offered £4k because LGO are unpredictable and it's luck as to who investigates your complaint and you are looking at a year before it's settled. Today was a stage one complaint where i suggested they should pay me £1.2k and they upheld and agreed. My FOI to our LA showed they had 390 formalcomplaints to SEND dept between Jan and Oct and paid out more than £95k but no doubt they saved more than 20 times that through unlawful actions and deliberate incompetence

@hiredandsqueak similar here earlier in the year. Although DS1 already had an EOTAS package, the appeal was about the content of it. The LA conceded on the day. Infuriating!

How is DD getting on with EOTAS?

@ThomasWasTortured Dd likes it, seem to have struck lucky with the tutors, SALT and OT again seem good, Dd really likes the SALT. Support worker starts in January (reason for latest complaint) specialist careers adviser starts then as well.I don't like it much tbh, we are still building hours (she has more than thirty a week) and I'm already feeling like my home is overrun but I will suck it up. Going to move the bed out of the spare downstairs bedroom in the New Year and put in desks and chairs and make it a room for dd's EOTAS so hopefully that will help

@hiredandsqueak glad DD likes it. It is a good idea to convert the bedroom. We use the playroom and makeshift gym/sensory/therapy room for DS1’s EOTAS package otherwise it could easily take over the whole house.

Once DD is settled with the package you could look at a setting outside the home (e.g. church hall, community centre, council building, office space) if she could cope with that.

Yes I'm hoping we can move outside the house. We have a community centre really locally that has rooms to rent (ds rents it for team days as they all work at home) so have options will need dd to agree. It's not what I would have chosen but there was no alternative when she left independent specialist.

Hi All, have recently started dipping my toes in the pool of despair so I hope you don't mind me joining the thread, I have read every post so far. DS4 started school in September and is awaiting assessment for ASD next year and ADHD when he's 6, after seeing community paediatrician a couple of months ago. He gets fulltime top rate higher needs funding at the moment, saw an EP arranged by Early Years a couple of months ago (should have been before summer but got delayed) and then a different EP from same private company commissioned by LA for EHCNA a few weeks later (I did ask for same one but obvs that would have been far too logical). First EP report had some errors in it which I highlighted, second EP then referenced the earlier report including the errors (that he had been told about) so it had to go for QA and be amended.

I know compared to many I'm lucky as they've at least agreed to assess, I reckon it's because they already provide a high level of funding that shows he has needs that can't be met through usual school budgets. We're in week 13 now, prior to agreeing to assess the LA told me school normally arranges OT, I've challenged the absence of OT again and the LA has reponded that they need to understand what support has been provided by the school to meet DS's sensory & physical needs, such as the sensory processing resource pack for schools, and that they will speak with the SENCO.
Do I write back again saying I am making a reasonable request for OT as per section H of Regulation 6(1) of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014? Caseworker was only allocated 3 weeks ago, SALT has of course been requested but I've been warned there are huge backlogs (I know, DS had an initial SALT appointment over Zoom 9 months ago and been waiting for a F2F ever since).
It's clear the LA are going to base their decision on the EP report, which I'm not happy with (recommendations including 5 hours daily support programme delivered by a TA, which is fewer hours than he currently gets and still doesn't engage, also doesn't recommend 1:1 despite referencing his significant needs elsewhere in the report, also says my child needs a quiet, calm space to learn but doesn't give that as a recommendation). The recommendations do not go anywhere near far enough to support the child described in it, he needs continuous input to bring his focus on to task, to help keep him on task, to take him out for sensory breaks, to assist him with lunch, to dress him after using the toilet, to keep him safe at playtime, to take him out of class to reduce sensory overwhelm etc. One of the outcomes in the EP report is for DS to spend 75%of his time in the classroom (currently it's less than 25%, and most of that time is spent on an ipad at the back of the class not engaging at all in the lesson). - not a chance when he can't focus and is overstimulated by the classroom environment.

Sorry for the saga. Have only just started on this journey and am already stressed about it. Little one can read 3 letter words and count to 100 at home but school don't see any of it, all he wants to do there is run amok and press buttons and climb and chase his friends.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far!

@curlydiamond hello and welcome. Regarding the SLT, have you phoned them yourself about slots? Cancellations maybe? Especially if you'd be able to take him at short notice. When I phoned SLT myself, I found they had plenty of availability but evidently the LA doesn't really chase anyone. I bet someone cancels every day.

I'm sorry your EP report has errors in it. We were lucky - only one error in the SLT report and they corrected it quickly - it was an annoying one though - they said she saw a paediatrician "regularly". She's seen the NHS one ONCE (in four years of trying).

I don't know about the OT issue but hopefully one of the more experienced posters will be along later and advise you.

However, while I was researching OT myself, I found the online pack for the Evelina children's hospital OT service quite informative. I was astonished by the amount they expect school to do first though. I will try to find it.

Clearly it cannot be sensible or legal to expect schools to do OT themselves. I am a classroom teacher myself (secondary though) and that is definitely not in the training!

www.evelinalondon.nhs.uk/our-services/community/community-occupational-therapy/resources.aspx these are the packs in case any of this is any use.

You can reasonably request that LA commission independent SALT and OT assessments to fit with the timelines of a needs assessment if there isn't availabilty within the NHS. Your assertion that the OT request is substantiated by section 6 is correct as well.

@curlydiamond definitely email the LA again. Assessments are the LA’s responsibility, not the schools, and waiting lists are not an excuse not to comply with the law. If the EP report is not detailed, specified and quantified, ask the LA to go back to the EP to make it so.

Hi all, joining in. Been reading for a while to see what is coming our way, so thank you for detailing the shower of ineptitude that this is and will be.

Like a more recent poster, my DS6 is adopted having been with us since he was one. We knew this was likely to be his future and although not having a detailed family history, have enough information to start the ball rolling. But dithered as we didnt know what is age related vs trauma related.

Having discussed with school in reception year, they were supposed to be gathering evidence, which they didnt, we are now into Y1 where he has escalated enough that we have had four meetings since September. Supportive as the school is (academically bright, meeting milestones etc), his sensory processing, social and communication issues cloud all he does, and we are wary due to a few areas where they've not delivered or let us down.

As an academy, we will need to wait our turn to access support so EP, CP etc not likely until end January which is now lucky. We applied for ECHNA during October. School were asked for their input mid November and it went to panel on 29th. We received the letter on Saturday 16th, to say rejected. The LA has refused to assess on the basis that the school hasnt provided enough evidence of graduated approach. So far so usual 🙄

So have asked for the mediation certificate and we are about to send on to SENDIST. Only shining light is that the mediation company were open on Saturday afternoon and working yesterday as they sent over the certificate yesterday morning. But how crafty of the LA to leave it so long, giving us less than two months to appeal. Thanks for reading!

But how crafty of the LA to leave it do long, giving us less than two months to appeal.

@Bendattheknees the appeal window is 2 months from the date of the LA’s decision letter or 1 month from the date of the mediation certificate, whichever is later. If the LA has dated the letter more than 2 weeks before you received it you can request they amend it, but I don’t suppose it matters if you are ready to submit anyway.

@Bendattheknees welcome. And good luck.

I need some advice please. I recently logged a complaint to the la As the ed psych assessed my daughter remotely at school without my consent or knowledge it was happening.

I asked the LA to re assess they have now responded to my complaint saying I did consent to an assessment and in words to the affect i have no say in how and where the assessment is carried. They have said a comprehensive assessment has been carried out because they got teacher views, parental views and an old salt report.

I still don't agree with this and think another assessment should be carried out as daughter has many needs inside and outside of the class room which we're not observed. Do I have any legal stance with this? I have 20 days to respond

To add they did partially uphold the complaint and said that I should have been told how the assessment should be carried out

How did you consent - have they said?

They may be splitting hairs here... if they conceed you didn't know what would be involved you can hardly have provided informed consent....

You state that you were informed on 12 December 2023 that a remote assessment had been completed by the educational psychologist the previous week, and that as your daughter’s needs are so complex and varied you do not feel that remote viewing from a laptop was suitable for your daughter. You also state that consent was not sought from you and that you would never have agreed to such an assessment.

When you requested an education, health and care needs assessment (EHCNA) for your daughter you completed the document EHC 1 Part 4 – EHC Needs Assessment Declaration which gives consent for the Local Authority (LA) to seek and share reports from the child’s education setting and other appropriate professionals who may be able to provide advice about your child’s education, health and care needs. This was signed by you on 02 September 2023 and the EHCNA agreed by the council on 14 November 2023. Consent is required for the assessment to take place but not for the manner or approach used to gather information to inform the assessment. The council sought professional educational psychology advice from Derbyshire County Council’s Educational Psychology Service (DCC EPS) to contribute to the EHCNA. Due to the high level of demand for EHCNAs DCC EPS is currently supplementing its capacity with locum educational psychologists. Locum educational psychologists are not always located geographically close to Derbyshire and must use their professional judgement to obtain the information required to contribute to the EHCNA. Dr Wajma Torkmani (Educational Psychologist) completed her assessment and submitted educational psychology advice to the council on 15 December 2023. This assessment included discussions with the school’s SENDCO (Mrs xxxx) and the class teaching assistant (Mrs xxxx), discussion with yourself, remote observation of xx accompanied by her teacher (Mrs xxx), review of the detailed report from xxxtutor (xxxxx) and consideration of the information submitted with the EHCNA request. This included parents’ and young person’s views, the Graduated Response Individual Plan, the Speech and Language Therapy report and health advice from the paediatric team, in addition to the information listed above.

I find that this element of your complaint is partially upheld because the educational psychologist has considered and triangulated a range of information from various professionals to form her professional advice. However, I accept that best practice would have meant that the school or the educational psychologist would have contacted you before the assessment took place, so you were aware of the process and had the opportunity to discuss the approaches being used to complete the educational psychologist’s advice.

You also requested “that an educational psychologist carries out a full comprehensive assessment within school”. As outlined above, a comprehensive educational psychology assessment has already been completed which meets the requirements of the EHCNA, so we would not offer a further assessment at this time. If queries arise that indicate further information is needed, the school or the SEND assessment service can discuss that with the school’s educational psychologist or more senior managers in the DCC Educational Psychology team.

Thank you for bringing these concerns to our attention. Despite the national shortage of educational psychologists, we are working hard to increase our capacity within Derbyshire County Council’s Educational Psychology Service to reduce the need to commission locum educational psychologists to complete EHCNA work in the future.

This is part of their response

However, I accept that best practice would have meant that the school or the educational psychologist would have contacted you before the assessment took place, so you were aware of the process and had the opportunity to discuss the approaches being used to complete the educational psychologist’s advice.

So they have in practice conceeded this. If you want to push the issue you could ask for the EP practitioner's view as to whether or not they had adequate consent to proceed, given the requiremen of their professional body for consent to be informed. I'd ask for a proper apology at the very least....

I wouldn’t class that as a comprehensive assessment but many LAs do. Request further assessment again but unfortunately you can’t force them to do anything more. The legal requirement is to seek advice and information from them. I doubt you will get anywhere pursuing the consent complaint further either.

Thank you, I have private ot assessment in January and I'm awaiting probate salt report. The EP report is crap. Is it best option now to let it run it's course then appeal with the private assessments?

If the EP report is woolly and vague ask the LA to go back to the EP to make it detailed, specified and quantified, but at this point you can’t force them to assess further. Don’t let going back and forth delay the LA issuing/refusing to issue. Push the LA to finalise then appeal.