EHCP support thread no. 2

[Phineyj]

This is a support thread for anyone at any stage of the EHCP process. I've got an 11 year old girl in year 6 of a mainstream private primary school. I've been seeking an EHCP since she was in year 5, to support her transition to secondary school. She is diagnosed with ASD and ADHD and is working about two years behind age related expectations. Our local authority refused to assess and refused to issue. We are currently in the 11 month wait for a second tribunal which I am hoping (but not sure) will take place before she actually goes to secondary, although I doubt the actual EHCP will be finalised by then. In the meantime I've been enjoying (not) learning all these acronyms and trying to support other people in this journey. In my spare time, I'm a secondary school teacher.

If you, too, are drowning in acronyms and paperwork while finding your local authority (LA) as useful as a chocolate teapot, join your fellow travellers here!

Looking for a sanity check before I write up a 'failure to send a draft EHCP' letter:

SENDIST ordered LA to assess on 9th Feb, so yesterday was 10 weeks from that date and the day I was expecting either the draft plans or to be told they aren't issuing. But have I misunderstood about the drafts timeline?

I know the normal timeline doesn't apply when there's been an Order to assess. According to this from IPSEA, it looks like there is no date by which they must issue the draft. But we have to have at least 15 days to make representations and they must finalise by week 14 (17 May).

Should I hold off on sending a letter and just hope the drafts arrive early next week? Our case worker assured us we'd get them on Friday but she's actually now on leave and someone else was given the task to draft.

I guess the good news is that they didn't send refusal to issue notifications by yesterday, so we can assume they really are going to issue.

@RMNofTikTok it is better to have too much support than not enough.

A decent SEN department will gradually encourage more independence anyway. I've seen ours do this.

It's unknowable at this stage what support a year 6 would need with GCSE, for instance. I teach a year 12 with EHCP and the EHCP was drafted at primary. They are very different now but still have needs - but different ones to at age 10.

Thanks @SearchingForSolitude

@SpaceInvader321 chase the LA. There’s no timescale for when LAs must issue a draft (that applies whether it’s via appeal or not). It is a should in order to be able to comply with the deadline to finalise. LAs are unpredictable and nothing is 100% certain yet, so I wouldn’t celebrate just yet.

Hi Everyone,

I am glad to hear that some people are getting the results they want. So my 3 year has already been seen by SLT and report was sent to me. Next week I have a telephone app with a Paediatric Neurodevelopmental specialist re the EHCP. Seen by OT at nursery this week. OT has scheduled a chat with me and I have 2 OT workshops whilst waiting for an appointment (long waiting lists). I believe this OT assessment was specifically for the EHCP whilst the workshops/later appointments are ongoing support. He also has an initial assessment paediatric app in early May which I presume is related to his Autism assessment. Currently accepted a place at his sisters’ mainstream school but once EHCP has been completed nominate a nearby ARP school which I like. I am feeling really overwhelmed with making sure I get him an effective EHCP …

Should I be aware of anything before my app with the paediatrician? Specifically related to EHCP, so she can put it on her report?

Thanks everyone!

Mostly that if they have recommendations for support in school, they should be specific and detailed, and the report should explain why the recommendations are made. If you can persuade them to avoid terms like "would benefit from" in favour of something like "must receive" that would be a definite win.

@MinnieTruck I’m being ignored too, will wait a couple of weeks before complaining. So frustrating.

Haha oh gosh listen to this all.

I chased the LA up in regards to requesting the OT to give advice for the ECHNA. Just received this response,

‘Hi again MinnieTruck,

I have sought advice from that team yes, but as they aren’t known to them at present (as I said in my previous email) they are likely to respond with ‘Not known to service’. As you pointed out in the code of practise in your previous email:

6.—(1) Where the local authority secures an EHC needs assessment for a child or young person, it must seek the following advice and information, on the needs of the child or young person, and what provision may be required to meet such needs and the outcomes that are intended to be achieved by the child or young person receiving that provision—
[…]
(h) advice and information from any person the child’s parent or young person reasonably requests that the local authority seek advice from.”

As DD isnt known to the service this wouldn’t constitute a ‘reasonable’ request, if the services of the Occupational Therapy team were required previously this should have been a request made from either the school or DD’s GP to the Occupational Therapy team beforehand.

Please refer any other questions regarding this to X/X as they are my manager and case worker assigned to DD and are more knowledgeable about this than I am and maybe able to give additional context.’

Well thank you love, you’ve been ever so helpful. NOT. Honestly, I don’t have energy for this so don’t see me fighting it. I may request OT for DD via the GP as he’s very onboard with referring both DCs as and when to the relevant team. Then sometime down the line the LA will have to contact OT right? Maybe for a review or however the heck it works?

As for complaining about my reasonable request being declined, where can I find more information on how to do that? I presume it’d be somewhere on IPSEA’s website

@MinnieTruck not being known to the service doesn’t not mean you have not reasonably requested advice and information be sought from OT. Not known to the service is not a lawful response either. I would email X/X and copy in the DCS. You can use IPSEA’s model letter as the basis to complain and just amend to include that you have already requested this and been refused. From your posts previously, DD clearly has sensory needs.

@DDDN it can be helpful to write some notes before the assessment and a timeline of events/history, but the main things is the report is detailed, specified and quantified, not woolly.

That’s the thing @SearchingForSolitude , X/X were both emailed in the email chain. I also found and included the DCS’ email and that’s what they’ve still come back to me with (with all three of those people still cc’d in). Judging from their silence, it seems that they’re all singing from the same hymn sheet.

I’ll look at the model letter on IPSEA. Please tell me the complaint at least goes to someone else within the LA? I can’t be dealing with these numpties

@MinnieTruck email the DCS directly then. You could also copy in the Monitoring Officer. Formal complaints should follow the LA’s complaints’ policy. This may be on their website and may tell you who will deal with it.

Very frustrating. In the end I paid not very much to a private OT with a helpful specialism and having pursued this to appeal, the LA are now shelling out for a more comprehensive package of OT than might have been suggested had they followed the CoP and done the assessment in the first place. I may follow PPs lead and complain to the LGA and seek a refund. As it stands am having to use DCs DLA to gather evidence to force another branch of Government to follow the law, which is a national scandal.

Gosh, I thought my LA were shit but they did manage to commission an OT assessment!

I'm sure these underlings are told by management to just say no to everything.

@SearchingForSolitude got you🫡 I’ll have that done by the end of the week, thank you.

@Irisginger sorry to hear that you’re also dealing with a load of faff, it’s awful really. Good news about the OT though! I’d definitely find out if you’re able to get the private OT assessment refunded to you as clearly DD needed one in the first place. I may look into Legal Aid for an OT assessment but it’s just one thing after another. I feel like there’s too much on my plate atm😅

@Phineyj I agree. Everything is just a straight ‘no’ and that’s it. Glad to hear your LA is at least better than mine in that regard!

With the EHCNA, when would be the next chance to appeal? I’m guessing if the LA come back after the assessment and say that DD doesn’t need an EHCP, I could appeal that decision? I’m quite interested to see what the EP wrote about DD but apparently my LA will only update the hub by the deadline. Which is in July…..

@MinnieTruck the next time you will have the right of appeal will be when the LA refuse to issue or when they finalise an EHCP.

Email the EP and the LA requesting a copy of the EPs report. If the EP/LA refuse you can submit a SAR. For any future assessments, at the end of the assessment, request the professional sends you a copy of the report once it is written. Don’t be fobbed off by the professional telling you they can’t because the LA is the client.

@SearchingForSolitude that’s what I thought in regards to the appeal. I actually asked the Psychologist to send me a copy of the report but she said it’ll be available on the Hub straight away. Annoying. I’ve just sent an email now so I’ll see what they come back with.
I still need to do the complaint about social care and the one about my reasonable request for the EHCNA being declined. Going to try and do both before the end of the week!

@MinnieTruck every week there’s more and more to do 😫. How long was your wait for an EP?

Drafts plans have finally arrived after much chasing. I've printed everything out and am preparing to dive in with my highlighters and editing hat.

At a glance, section F looks quite vague. Almost everything is to be delivered by "School staff" "throughout the school day".

And there are lots of things like:
"be able to use a laptop"
"be offered movement breaks as necessary"
"be offered a range of developmentally appropriate activities to develop handwriting skills"
"Instil a sense of belonging for DC so that they feel and believe that they are a much valued member of the school community"

There's also this: "The effectiveness of the support and its impact on DC's progress should be informally reviewed at least termly, taking into account their progress and any changes to their ambitions and aspirations, which may lead to changes in the type and level of support. The education provider and DC together should plan any changes in support."

Can they say that? I thought changes in support can only be agreed at AR?

They also didn't offer a co-production meeting. When should we expect them to do this? Our school said we should expect to meet together with them and the LA.

@SpaceInvader321 are the reports woolly? Or has the LA watered down the wording?

If you want a meeting you should ask.

Termly reviews with the school can be helpful and are lawful, not to amend the EHCP, but to discuss any problems, things coming up, etc. They shouldn’t be amending the EHCP following every termly review though. Both mine with EHCPs have termly MDTs. The SEP shouldn’t be left for the school to decide. There are times some flexibility is required, but not to the extent F is vague, and nothing you have mentioned suggests that applies to you. There is a lot of case law on F being detailed, specified and quantified, flexibility etc. LAs can make amendments to the EHCP outside ARs (or early reviews or reassessment of needs), but the LA must act as if the amendments were proposed following a review e.g. consult on the draft (Reg 28 SEN Regs 2014).

@Ponche the LA sent me an email on the 19th of March to say that they’ll now assess due to the result of the appeal. I then had a call on the 4th of April from the EP who then went to DDs nursery on the 9th. I met her at the nursery too in order to answer her questions face to face. So all in all it was 3 weeks from receiving the email from the LA. Not that long!

I also know that speech & language have sent their advice to the LA already. They saw DD on the morning of the 9th so everyone’s been quite quick with things. Has anyone seen your DC yet?

@SearchingForSolitude Thank you as always.

The LA's EP reports were pretty woolly. I sent them some feedback and requested corrections but they didn't make the changes, so just copied the original wooliness into the plans.

We had some private reports done that were more specific but these were largely ignored, except where the LA's EP referenced some of them.

Also, in the 'Parents' Concerns" section, they've pasted in what we wrote in our original EHCNA request a year ago, so it's already outdated.

Can we get these things fixed without having to appeal the content?

@MinnieTruck that’s really good they’re not taking too long. Apart from the EHCNA letter on 5th April, I’ve had no contact from the LA (part from when I sent an email asking how long the EP wait was and asking for OT input).

I just have a generic email address, not a specific one for a caseworker. The letter had a name on it but didn’t say it was the caseworker and there was no specific email address.

Just not sure what’s normal at this stage (week 8), regardless of EP delays or not. I’ve seen timelines online of what should happen when but have not been contacted by the LA for any further information.

@SpaceInvader321 you should try to get the wording tightened up by requesting the LA make amendments (by going back to the professionals where necessary to make their reports detailed, specified and quantified), but ultimately you may have to appeal, unfortunately. Don’t get into a prolonged back and forth with the LA. A prolonged ‘discussion’ rarely negates the need to appeal. If they are going to amend them will do so. Rather than a back and forth that goes on and on, push them to finalise then appeal.

When you say parents’ concerns do you mean section A? If so, you can request this is amended, you can’t appeal section A, but don’t worry too much about it. Or are you in one of the LAs who likes to put ‘parent says…’ elsewhere?

My son's EHCP section F is all the recommendations copied from the EP report. Is this right? It's literally word for word. We've got a meeting tomorrow with the school who's pushing for more funding for him to go to resource provision so want everything to be tip top 😊 thanks!