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!

the school who's pushing for more funding for him to go to resource provision

@LanaKiwi7 what placement do you want? If you want an ARP that needs to be in the EHCP rather than the school just having more funding. But if you don’t want an ARP don’t let the school force you into it.

Provision in F is taken from the evidence, so it’s normal for the key parts of the ed psych report (and other evidence) to be in F. Though not whole waffly pages copied (Although that isn’t unheard of either from LAs, but for those who go on to appeal, SENDIST do not like it).

Well I've been told that he won't be able to be in the classroom and will tell the council they will say they can't meet his need unless he goes into RP but it specialises in SEMH and his primary area is C&I. I wanted him to integrate within mainstream with a 1:1 but I'm not sure whether I'm in denial or what.

@SearchingForSolitude I sent some corrections and suggestions back to the EP who said the LA's SEN team should amend the report and the SEN team in turn replied that the EP should do it, so no one made any.

I won't worry too much about the section A parents' concerns as they're not referenced elsewhere in the plan.

The section F seems like a giant mess though, and fairly incomprehensible in parts.

I've seen the plan for a friend's child and it stipulates really clear ways to support working memory, other executive functions, C&L, etc. I'm tempted to copy parts of it into our plan and ask the LA to amend. But
I hear you about not getting caught up in a lengthy back and forth about changes at this point.

If we end up having to appeal and SENDIST agree that it's completely woolly, could sections B and F be redrafted in full? And would that be done by the LA again?

I was so hoping we'd be able to avoid another appeal.

@SpaceInvader321 it is the EP who should ensure the report is detailed, specified and quantified. The SEN team is not qualified to amend an EP report. That would make it look like it was the EP’s professional opinion/what they had written.

Definitely request amendments. Unfortunately, if you don’t have evidence to support them, the LA is unlikely to amend.

If you appeal B&F, any outstanding contested content by the time of the hearing will be ruled on by SENDIST. It is a bit more complex than that (e.g. sometimes parties are sent away to discuss further to try to agree more content) but that’s the gist.

@LanaKiwi7 why won’t DS be able to be in the classroom? I would be pushing hard against a SEMH ARP with a primary need of C&I if you don’t want it. If you do want an ARP is there a C&I unit (or ASD if DS has ASD or S&L unit if that would be appropriate)? The school can claim they can’t meet needs all they like. That isn’t the same as the LA agreeing.

If the LA said they would provide an EP to re-assess a child (last EP report done 2019) and then they back track and say no - after a year - I have heard it mentioned on a FB forum that I can commission one independently then pass the cost onto them in this scenario.

Anyone know the rules around this - what legals I could quote, how I would go about the process? I want to do an EP report in Y10 for transition but I do think he also needs one now to inform provision as he's dyslexic (and every other SpLD you can name) and now working 7 years behind chronological age.

Costs are sometimes reimbursed by going via the complaints process and then the LGO if necessary. There’s no guarantee you will get any or all of the cost reimbursed. Have you formally requested a reassessment of needs? A reassessment of needs will include advice and information from an EP and if the LA refuse a reassessment of needs you get the right of appeal. However, since you are already in appeal, I would look an independent EP assessment now. If you can’t afford one, you could approach Parents in Need. They can sometimes help.

Oh my goodness, we just got our draft through - bang on 5 weeks since mediation - and it is so bad. So, so bad. Copy and paste job from the outdated EP report - and not one “provision” states “who, what, when or how long” Literally not one thing

Says he struggles on a Monday morning as one of the first sentences so a “trusted adult” should be available for him - he hasn’t been in the building since January and doesn’t trust anybody in that place.

so angry, disappointed and so desperate to get off this emotional rollercoaster

I spoke to the LA today and apparently they will now ask OT for advice but because my DD is not known to the service, the advice will be generic. Better than nothing I guess…

Had 'familiar adult' under similar circumstances. So literally, anyone who works there 😱

@Sleeplessi I felt the same despair when our drafts came through and I was feeling really overwhelmed with the task of trying to make sense of it all and propose some ways to make it better, all the time wondering WTF the people at the LA are thinking when they put these together.

However, I've managed to get an appointment to discuss some of my concerns with the EP, so maybe you can do the same if it looks like it's needed? Hang in there and take it a little at a time. It's been a couple of days and I'm only about halfway through one of the drafts (I have two DC getting plans). Going through with highlighters and checking that needs have corresponding provisions is working for me, and checking against the original assessment reports to make sure the important things have been captured. Good luck!

@SpaceInvader321 I’m so sorry to hear that you’re going through this too - and twice! It’s just madness

Personal favourites from my DS’s “provision” is that “It may be useful for DS11 to review websites to connect with like minded people”
Erm, not comfortable with this!

And “Using motivators providing a clear structure end point may benefit DS”
What on earth does that mean??

And “A risk assessment may be appropriate for school trips”
I would have thought all school trips should have a risk assessment?

And “Implementation of the provision described below”
This last one was exciting as we thought - oh, the actual provision must be at the end, but no, this was a copy and paste fail from the EP report who had summarised their woolly nonsense at the end of each section

Is this as bad as we think? The whole document is just this vague, unhelpful nonsense. DS is ASD, burnt out, overwhelmed in a MS classroom, pretty much fully EBSNA - is this all we can hope for?

@Sleeplessi it is poor wording. If the whole EHCP is written like that it isn’t worth the paper it is written on. If the evidence is inadequate it isn’t surprising the EHCP is too. But, it can be improved. It may take an appeal though.

I think there is an excellent project here to gather all the really ridiculous stuff from EHCPs and perhaps produce a comedy master version with highlights that we send to MPs/the media to highlight the problem.

Minor point, but having asked to be referred to by name, rather than, Mum, someone has done a search and replace so that section A is now made up of sentences like, 'Emily's IrisGinger says that ...'

@Irisginger , I feel like BBC2 could gather enough material to commission a sitcom - or horror series, depending on how you look at it. But it probably wouldn’t be believable

@SearchingForSolitude in fairness to the EHC head, she’s come back to us after we gave our initial feedback and said effectively “nonsense in, nonsense out”

But the LA employ both the EP and the EHC team so surely they could have picked this up as they were typing something for 5 weeks that they seem to agree doesn’t make sense - it’s a legal document!!

My responses are SO bad, I’m so sorry for that.

Can you send an email to the person who sent you the EHCNA letter asking if your DC has a specific case worker? Has your Hub been updated so you can follow the process of things? I’m not sure if it’s the same in all LAs but the person who sent me the EHCNA letter is also the one who arranges the assessment (or something like that). When you asked how long the EP wait time was, what did they say?

@Sleeplessi gosh that sounds awful and so stressful. @SpaceInvader321 had some good advice so I hope some of those things can work for you. It’s a tiring and stressful process to go through. I hate it and I’m only at the EHCNA stage. I also have to redo this whole process towards the end of the year for DS. God (or any higher being) please help us all!

Does anyone know what the better option is- fairly sure the LA are going to say the only school they can consult with is full/can’t meet need. Are we better to find a private, get an offer of place and then go back to them to see if they’ll fund, or just get them to issue the EHCP (annual review) naming current school (attending 1 hour a day and just been suspended again) but so we get appeal rights?

@Lostatsea10 it depends. If your preferred school is the one you suspect is going to come back with ‘full’/can’t meet needs then push the LA to finalise and appeal. If you have an independent school (if you do, is it wholly independent or a s41 independent?) in mind I would approach them now rather than waiting until after the LA has already consulted.

In the meantime, is alternative provision in place to ensure DC receives s suitable full-time education and anything in F?

That’s really helpful thank you.

No, in short. he’s half way through year 1 and never been school full time. He’s currently in an SRP attached to a mainstream and only in 1 hour a day. We’re just not getting anywhere.

@Lostatsea10 the LA has a duty to ensure DS receives a suitable full-time education and anything detailed, specified and quantified in at (if there is anything). On their website IPSEA has model letters for both these you can combine to send to the LA to request they arrange provision.

If the preferred school isn’t wholly independent being ‘full’ on its own isn’t enough for the LA to refuse to name your preferred placement. The LA has to prove the school is so full admitting DS is incompatible with the provision of efficient education for others or efficient use of resources. Obviously there is a point where LAs can do this but the bar is higher than many LAs admit and they often refuse anyway even when they can’t prove incompatibility and force you to appeal.

This is where we are now in terms of working with the LA to overhaul the provision (and needs!) in DS11’s draft plan.

We need the secondary senco to be part of it as they’ll be delivering the plan and know what the provision should / could be at secondary so they need to be in the draft meeting rather than just his primary with only a few weeks left and obvs a completely different setting to a high school

But for them to attend, the LA need to know which school we want to name

But to name a school, we need to understand their provision so we can figure out which one best meets DS’s needs

But for us to understand it, we need to speak to them

But they won’t speak to us until they are named

This is literally what the EHC team says the process is - I would actually be sacked in my job if I sent this out to someone external.

@Sleeplessi the EHCP should be written based on DS’s needs and the provision he reasonably requires, not what the secondary can provide. If it is in F it must be provided.

@SearchingForSolitude thank you so much

The whole thing makes absolutely no sense!

We submitted ehcna parental request yesterday. Will see how they do at keeping to timescales! Expecting them to decline and have to go to appeal.