EHCP missed timeframes

[Onedayatatime13]

Please help. My son is awaiting EHCP, he has autism, GDD, SPD and is non verbal. He will be 4 next week. Currently awaiting educational physiologist- hasnt even been allocated one yet. his final date for EHCP is 2 weeks today. LA are saying it will be significantly delayed and have confirmed the 20 week deadline on 22nd jan is 100% not happening. What can i do now. I thought they were legally bound by these deadlines but how do i even enforce it? I called head of education who advised me sending a letter threatening a judicial review was a fixed price of £600 😩

EHCP deadlines are statutory. However, LAs breach the timescales regularly. If emailing the Director of Children’s Services reminding them of the statutory timescales, if they can’t assess in-house within the statutory timescales they should commission an independent assessment and threatening JR hasn’t worked then unfortunately a pre-action letter is the way forward. Pre-action letters aren’t always £600. Sometimes they are more and sometimes they are less. Contact SOSSEN, they are cheaper.

Thank you. I have tried to find an email for the director of childrens services in lancashire. It seems this annoyingly isnt kept public!! Not sure how else i would get any contact with her. I will look into SOSSEN thankyou x

You can find the details here.

Has anyone sent a pre action letter and actually felt it made a difference to the wait time/ sped things up or not? They are now saying 4 months for an EP. We are going to be lucky to have this by time they break up for summer. When we should of had the final plan by 23rd of this month :(

Pre-action letters are successful in the majority of cases.

@Onedayatatime13 I had this with my LA. I didn’t get as far as sending a pre action letter because once I emailed children’s services and mentioned judicial review, they suddenly leaped in to action.

Everything was still delayed, but it was more swift than it would have been without mentioning JR.

Thanks i’m going to go ahead with it i think and pray it helps. @GobbleSmacked oh really i wish that was the case. I lodged a complaint with head of childrens services and it was literally sent to the team i was complaining about to deal with the response i have received today is that the educational physiologists are not currently responding to requests due to back log and that my son is expected to be allocated one in april/may. Only getting Allocated an EP in april/may even though it should of all be completed and finalised this month! I find them all extremely rude and not compassionate at all. They just dont care its so disheartening. And im really worried what such a delay now means for him x

Have you specifically emailed the Director of Children Services threatening JR? Rather than just complaining.

@KeepGoingThomas Yes i sent a very long email to her directly advised of their statutory rights, missed timeframes, the detrimental impact on my son And advised i had seen a solicitor and would take it to JR. But the response came back as an electronic letter from someone else (signed business support officer education & childrens services) stating my email had been passed to the manager of the inclusion team and i would receive a response in around 2 weeks. Then the case worker emailed me today to say April/may he is now expected to be allocated a EP.

In that case you need a pre-action letter, sadly.

Point out to them that if their in-house EP service isn't accepting new referrals then they should be sourcing the reports through independent EPs.

Hi @Onedayatatime13, just wondered how you got on and if you have an update? Thanks

LAs are now finding it difficult to even source freelance EPs - some are offering vast daily pay rates and still can’t attract them.

@Ponche we went ahead with appointing an education solicitor to send a pre action letter and within 48 hours on the letter being received an EP had rang nursery to come in a few days later. So it went from 4 months wait for EP to one coming within a week. The pre action letter definitely worked for us. We did try official complaints, emailing director of children's services etc before that but just got the same response of shortage of eps. Its sad that it takes what it takes and the cost to do it. But definitely was worth it for us.

@Onedayatatime13 that’s great to hear! Do you mind me asking how much the letter cost?

Also, after the EP assessment did you experience any further delays? Has the EHCP been issued now?

Some are importing them by paying for them to travel and stay overnight once or twice a month to help clear the backlog. Some are paying for training. There are answers for the more imaginative LAs.

It doesn’t really matter how imaginative an LA is if there are supply side problems. Offering training doesn’t seem to make sense in this context.

With the right effort and money LAs don’t need to (unlawfully) leave DC waiting months on end for an EP assessment.

Some LAs are offering freelance EPs £1000 a day (more usual rate is £500-£600; an LA employed EP earns £200 a day), and still are unable to clear the backlogs. Again, it’s a supply side issue. EPs get funded to train then many either leave for the Middle East or set up privately and choose not to take on statutory work. The whole system needs reforming.

Yes, the system needs reforming, but that doesn’t excuse LAs acting unlawfully. I am aware what LAs are offering. Yet with the right effort and money when faced with enforcement action LAs don’t need to leave DC waiting months. Excusing unlawful behaviour is not in the best interests of DC.