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!!

What did the school have to say @MrsLamb? I hope it wasn't too frustrating...

I'm messaging on behalf of another mum. She is in a no man's land between her DD mainstream school and the LA. DD has suffered years of seizures and silent seizures that have had impact on her development. She's repeated Reception while they were trying to get her health sorted. But even after repeating Reception DD is still behind. Family applied for EHCPNA and was denied then went to mediation. In mediation LA refused NA in large part because school hasn't used all its SEN budget (infuriating.) LA said DD needs EP assessment and school should provide. School says they can't and it's a part of the NA. So they are stuck. First can they still go to tribunal? And does anyone have any other suggestions as to what they should do?

DD obviously needs more support but no one is helping her get it.

@ThomasWasTortured this is one for your expertise, I think.

Thanks @Phineyj.

@krobhix20 unfortunately, mediation is often unsuccessful, which is why the advice is often to just get the certificate and submit to SENDIST. LAs use it 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 and submit to SENDIST.

Whether the family can still appeal to SENDIST depends on when they got the mediation certificate. You have to submit your appeal within 2 months of the date of the refusal or 1 month from the date of the mediation certificate, whichever is later. If that date falls in August, they have until the first working day in September. If the family can’t appeal, they should make another request for an EHCNA.

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. Anything else such as needing to spend £6k is unlawful.

In the meantime, the school could apply for high needs top up funding. They should also be making their best endeavours to meet a pupil’s SEN.

The school can seek an EP assessment outside of the EHCNA process. However, in reality, given the EP shortage and situation in schools at the moment, it is highly, highly unlikely to happen.

@ThomasWasTortured thanks for the reply. I've passed info on to the parents.

Thanks for asking @Phineyj.

On the plus side I am getting better at asking for what DS needs.

And then plus and down, there is unanimity with School that the EHCP is 'ludicrous'.

And then down side, much shrugging of shoulders.

I don't really get it - I assume someone from School will have fed views into the LA?

Sorry @MrsLamb, both for my slow response and to hear of the lacklustre response from your school. They may well have fed back to the LA, but the LA ignored them? That would also have been some time ago, so different people on the school end?

I received responses to my letter of complaint, very promptly, from named people and sounding quite sorry! They even admitted that we haven't been allocated a case officer (!) despite being over 14 weeks now.

Physio tomorrow.

Onwards...

@Phineyj - sorry not to be clearer on where you are up to, have they confirmed they will issue now?

Nope. They're only confirmed that they know they should have made a decision on it by now.

🙄

In the meantime I've started drafting the EHCP myself so I can "mark their homework" 😀

Good idea!

Where I am, it's only after the panel has agreed to issue, thay they start to work properly on a plan (although it was a pretty quick cut and paste job from their EP's report). The first draft appeared by week 24 I think? My child and their needs were unrecognisable. I sent comments; they accepted in respect of section B, but not F, so the final report describes extensive needs, largely without any accompanying provision.

The LA EP has played a rather dubious role, ignoring all correspondence seeking factual corrections to their report, including a tier 2 complaint. With a heavy heart its going to the LG Ombudsman, professional body and the ICO. My DC shouldn't have to put up with diagnosed conditions/functional incapacities being significantly mischaracterised.

That sounds really, really poor @MrsLamb, but you know that.

If they cut and paste from the EP report that wouldn't be a bad start here tbh. He was quite human.

I'm absolutely sure they haven't started on it yet!

@MrsLamb I'm sorry it's so rubbish! So frustrating which LA you with?

After complaining, complaining and more complaining we are now at LGO stage that are investigating- but the whole thing is laughable. I was complaining about the full duration of the EHCP from LA which was around 2 years due to a tribunal but the LGO seemed to think they were only looking at things after the tribunal (which is tiny by comparison) Where tens of thousands previously were spend thank you very much parents 😂 that's what I'm just complaining about to have it in writing 😂 nothing more. Not sure it's worth it but it would be nice to have it in black and white.

I just think far too little cash, incompetent people, incompetent LA and a huge uphill mountain to climb. LA never learn - they repeat the same old mistakes times and time again. Also, far too few schools and help within the sen world. Case workers we have (had 3) in planet zog and don't seem to know their job / they are beyond useless.

Have you seen the pay scale of the top people in LAs - extremely small percent are on less than £50k and many over £100k+

So sad for the children though. The entire thing is totally messed up.

At least we are not mega mental issues / suicidal here (fingers crossed) - but lots of my friends have been and that's really not right 😭 that's just so sad 😭 not fair really for the children and the parents.

Anyways saving grace - no school due to the holidays woohoo 🥳

I think the entire thing needs a mega shake up though .... it's a big problem x

Hi all, sorry can i jump in here?

I could use some help focussing my mind on what I should be doing at this stage of my EHCNA.

Context - we applied as parents for our 12 year old whose transition to secondary school uncovered a whole range of SEND issues that had been missed at primary (and by us his parents)

LA refused to assess, we appealed and before appeal was heard LA changed their mind after i shared the appeal material (more thorough than original request) and are now assessing.

The communication has been poor and I'm still exhausted from gathering the info for appeal and I'm scared i'm missing the boat here.

One thing that worries me is that the LA don't seem to be involving OT, even though we asked for that and there's good reason to suspect dyspraxia and sensory integration issues. I don't know whey they would not be gathering OT info? possibly because they don't have any?

Anyway, having realised that LA's OT's are not necessarily experts in ASD etc., and expecting to have to fight the appeal, we commissioned our own OT assessment, and i'm expecting an EHCP report from OT to arrive, coincidentally, exactly on the day that the LA have set as a deadline for gathering info from professionals.

Does anyone have any idea if they are likely to take our OT report seriously if they have not ticked the OT box on the forms they've shared with me (whereas they have ticked SALT and EP)?

Also, the only appointment that was made as part of the LA's assessment was with a Dr for an overall health check. Is that unusual? I would have thought they'd arrange for EP/SALT to actually meet my son etc. Are they really just going to work with the material we presented while requesting the EHCP?

is that normal?

Perhaps I should start my own thread on all of this. I don't want to hijack and i've been meaning to jump in here and share commiserations. I just don't have time to catch up now. But anyway yes, what a miserable and inhumane process all of this is.

listlesscat is the LA sticking to the timescales?

During the EHCNA, the LA must seek advice from:
a) the child’s parent or the young person;
b) educational advice (usually from the head teacher or principal);
c) medical advice and information from a health care professional;
d) psychological advice and information from an educational psychologist;
e) advice and information in relation to social care;
f) advice and information from any other person the local authority thinks appropriate;
g) where the child or young person is in or beyond year 9, advice and information in relation to provision to assist the child or young person in preparation for adulthood and independent living; and
h) advice and information from any person the child’s parent or young person reasonably requests that the local authority seek advice from. (Reg 6(1) of the SEN Regs 2014)

H can include OT and SALT. If the LA has not sought advice from an EP and SALT, email the Director of Children’s Services reminding them of their duty under the SEN regs. LAs sometimes don’t seek the necessary advice or delay because of staff shortages, but that is not a lawful reason. LAs sometimes try not to seek advice from SALT/OT etc. because it costs money and then they might be forced to include provision in the EHCP. If your OT is Tribunal standard, it will be better than an LA assessment. The LA should use existing reports if they, you and the report writer agree it is sufficient, pressure the LA to use your OT report - sadly, many LAs refuse and force parents to appeal. SENDIST do accept independent assessments.

@lilistlesscat hi there - I would say welcome but no-one enjoys this process!!

Our LA uses a portal for EHCP and parents can upload reports there. I don't know how seriously they take them though. At the moment the OT our LA commissioned is withholding their report and no-one seems to know why. We have a perfectly good, very recent one we commissioned ourselves that they could use...

No-one seems to do anything unless I prod them. We haven't even been allocated to a case officer yet as far as I know, and they went over 14 weeks 1.5 weeks ago.

I used to apply for National Lottery grants back in the day...this is worse...

Before @ThomasWasTortured prompts me, I did send a letter of complaint to the Director of Children's Services the day the 14 weeks were up.

The LA have till 19th August to complete their complaints process now.

Tbh I'm on holiday this week and next and trying to forget about it all a little. As no doubt are they!!

You don’t want to go down the normal complaints procedures, phineyj. The normal complaints process takes too long for this sort of thing. Instead, you should threaten JR, then get a pre-action letter if that doesn’t work.

Hi Thomas, I read that advice, but only after I'd already sent the IPSEA template letter which included the statement "I have used the council's complaints procedure" (so I did) unfortunately.

Fortunately because I want my daughter to go to the secondary where I teach, she gets priority admission there, so it's not as urgent as it could be.

But I can threaten judicial review later this month if they don't shift themselves I guess.

What should my short term aim here, to force a decision on whether to issue?

IPSEA’s letter states it isn’t appropriate for the normal complaints timescales to apply, so do think about threatening JR then a pre-action letter if necessary.

If the LA is going to issue they should have finalised by now. So, I would push for a draft and then finalised EHCP because if they weren’t going to issue they should have informed you weeks ago.

I will get on it when I get back from holiday.

Argh! It is all so tedious! Why can't they just do their jobs properly?!!!

Hi, hoping anyone can help me as feeling super anxious this weekend and Monday seems to be taking ages! My son has an EHCP and we were at the draft stage two weeks ago. I informed LA of my school preference which they consulted with but school said no based on his "complex emotional and mental health needs". (He is still enrolled at current school however I have been homeschool due to issues at school and both me and current school agree they cannot meet needs)I informed the LA that I disagreed with the chosen schools answer as they most definitely can meet needs. As the school isn't in my area, the La informed me that they "decline my preference school however if I agree to sort out home to school transport myself then they will consider my preferance school". They sent me a contract to sign which I did ( my son is independent and does not need transport). The SEN caseworker then informed on Monday that the LA is considering my preferance school and a senior management will make a decision by the end of next week. Last night she sent me the final EHCP enclosed with a letter confirming that the EHCP has been finalised and sent to all the relevant people. The bit I am confused about is Section I states " The Local Authority considers X needs can be met in a local mainstream secondary school. His parents have expressed a preference for X High School and have agreed to be responsible for home to school transport. This was written on the “Name of setting section”. It doesn't exactly clarify that he will be attending my chosen school? So what exactly does this mean 😢. I saw the email too late and won't get a response from them until Monday :(

@Solange91 the rules are the same whether your preferred school is out of area or not. What is written in section I means DS will attend X high school, but the LA has only named that because you have agreed to take responsibility for transport (the transport could be a bus pass). I would appeal to try to get only the preferred school named.

In case you are in a similar situation in the future, you didn’t need to homeschool. If DS is CSA and could not attend school full-time, the LA had a statutory duty to provide a suitable, full-time education under s.19 of the Education Act 1996.

Hi @ThomasWasTortured thank you for your response. Could you please clarify what you mean by only appealing my preferred school?

As mentioned in my first message, section I stated “The Local Authority considers X needs can be met in a local mainstream secondary school. His parents have expressed a preference for X High School and have agreed to be responsible for home to school transport”.

The X high school they mentioned is indeed my preferred high school but I just don’t understand if this means the LA has agreed to still name my preferred school on the final EHCP although the school had already said no two weeks ago. Does this mean this is where he will be starting in September ?

Also I’ve heard that the school can appeal LA’s decision to secretary of states if they wish to do so? Thanks again.