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!

@Alltheyearround you can insist information and advice is circulated correctly the meeting is rearranged if it isn’t in order for the correct procedures to be followed. You can ask to rearrange it in order to have legal representation, but the LA doesn’t have to agree.

You can and should request to be informed of any assessment beforehand. You can refuse consent, but be careful. If you refuse the LA may ask SENDIST to order it and LAs like to raise parents refusing with the judge and make them look unreasonable.

Even if you are in appeal the AR process has to continue, just because the LA has invited other professionals doesn’t necessarily mean SENDIST will see it as a case management meeting. And it is standard for any amendments to become part of the WD process.

The report from the EP should have been uploaded yesterday but due to an unexpected delay, it should be uploaded by the end of the week. It doesn’t make much difference but I appreciate the EP getting in touch with me directly to let me know. It’s the little things!

I’ve FINALLY sent my complaint to the Director of Children’s Services in regards to my reasonable request (LA seeking advice and information from OT as part of the ECHNA) being declined. I CC’d in all the relevant people - the LA’s Monitoring Officer, my local Ward Councillor and the idiot that declined my request.

The DCS got back to me really quickly and I can see that he included the LA’s SEN Lead Specialist and has asked them to look into the concerns that I’ve raised. They will provide me with a response directly as soon as possible. I also submitted a formal complaint about the unlawful practice through the council’s complaints department. I’ll have to wait and see what happens with both situations.

@SearchingForSolitude when you told me to include the DCS into my response back to the LA stating that it was unlawful not to assess DD because she wasn’t known to the service, I had actually mistyped his email address🙃 makes sense why I didn’t get a response from him back then.

@Ponche how are you getting on? Have you heard from the LA yet? If not, have a look on the template page on IPSEA which I’ve linked and see if there’s a template that links in with your situation (there may not be).

https://www.ipsea.org.uk/template-letters

I think we have some positive progress! We reviewed the woolly draft Plans with the LA's EP the other day and she pretty much approved all of our suggestions and corrections and quantified things more clearly. I still need to read over it to make sure we caught all the gaps.

I asked our case worker about arranging co-production meetings with the schools and she said case workers don't attend and we should just meet with the SENCos ourselves and send her any additional changes we'd like made.

I have contacted SENDIASS to see if they can also attend but they said they have very limited availability, so I don't know if they'll be able to make it. How important is it to have them involved? We have one super lovely, highly competent SENCo and one less so.

Hi @MinnieTruck , great to hear things are moving forward for you. Last week I called the LA and they said they will seek advice from OT but it will just be generic advice as she is ‘not known to the service’. I will be complaining about this in a couple of weeks.

I asked for an update on EP timescales and they couldn’t/wouldn’t give me one. Just said 9th May is the deadline for the EP to complete their assessment and they will chase the EP team after this date. And said 17th May is the deadline for the decision to issue.

I don’t see them meeting these deadlines as it’s 1st May and I’ve heard nothing about them arranging an assessment. I think they don’t want to tell me how long the wait for an EP is as it would obviously take them over statutory deadlines and they probably don’t want to admit that in writing or verbally and have me quote that in a complaint.

As of last week, the LA hasn’t received any advice/information from services they had requested it from. If the deadlines aren’t met, I will be complaining etc but just waiting for now.

Separately, I have started the NHS OT referral process with nursery - we need to get some paperwork in place and try the strategies for 3 months before requesting a referral. So hopefully by the end of August, I will be able to request this referral. And then for any future EHCP appeals/reviews etc at least she will be known to the service.

DD will probably be moving to a school nursery in September as they will be able to use the inclusion funding to give her full time 1:1 support (even without an EHCP). At her current nursery, the inclusion funding is used to provide an enhanced ratio of 1:4. So I’m also planning this transition and making sure the right support will be in place before making a final decision.

Really quick, possibly stupid question- finally have all the documents together to send off to the tribunal for refusal to assess. For form 35a- can I just write 'please see enclosed documents' in the boxes? I've got a pretty lengthy letter!

@Macramepotholder Yes, that's how we did it.

@SpaceInvader321 you don’t need SENDIASS. In many areas, they are more of a hindrance than help.

@Macramepotholder that’s fine.

@MinnieTruck I hope you get a response quickly.

Thanks all, it's gone off. Is the 30 day deadline for the LA to respond from the day SENDIST accept the submission (email receipt says this is running at 10 days currently)? Just wondering when to mark in the calendar to chase.

@Macramepotholder it is within 30 days of the LA receiving the documents from SENDIST.

@Ponche

Just said 9th May is the deadline for the EP to complete their assessment and they will chase the EP team after this date

Wow! Yet it’s the second of May and you haven’t heard a peep from the EP, that’s awful. You’ve definitely got a lot on your plate so good luck with it all. I was also thinking to get a GP referral to OT for DD. I’ll see what happens with the complaint first though. Keep us updated with the EHCNA when you can😆

@MinnieTruck thank you! No-one has got back to the LA yet with any advice/information (speech and language, early years SEN team, CAMHS etc). Even the generic OT advice hasn’t been received. I just called the LA to ask.

I rang the EP team and apparently someone will call me back later as I asked when to expect an assessment given the deadline is next week.

@Ponche that is ridiculous. I can already think of two templates that I came across yesterday on IPSEA that fit your situation.

Definitely complain when you can! It’s quite annoying to have to do it but this is such bad practice. Why have all these deadlines when they clearly aren’t trying to meet them? Bullshit

@MinnieTruck I know, it’s so frustrating and such a waste of time. Endless chasing by email and phone but still not getting anywhere.

Do you mind letting me know which templates you have in mind and then I will dig them out and start drafting my complaint.

Thanks a lot!

@Ponche I’ve just had a look and one of the templates that I had in mind actually doesn’t apply (sorry about that!) I think I remember you saying that you had a generic response from the LA which acknowledged that they’ll carry out an assessment isn’t it?

I’d use the template below if the LA go past the deadline and still nothing has happened. I used a similar template yesterday and IPSEA also recommended complaining to the council via their own complaints process. I did that too and it was relatively straightforward

https://www.ipsea.org.uk/asking-the-la-to-seek-information-and-advice-during-ehc-needs-assessments-model-letter-20

As of now DS is currently out of school. Still on roll but waiting for 15 day consultation to end with school we have named, they’ve not responded yet. However current provision can only offer 1 hour a day in total isolation- 1 room, 2 adults and no access to class or peers. I refuse to send him in to that.

I know it’s illegal, but no one seems to care quite frankly and the school and LA are just completely doing whatever they like.

I just want to pull him out altogether and say fine, you win. But that’s the wrong thing to do for him. I’m so so tired.

You could try pointing out that if they issue an EHCP, the Code of Practice requires them to describe in full each and every one of your child's needs, and ask them how they propose to fulfil that duty without evidence from someone who has properly assessed their needs.

Hello all,

I have previously sent evidence to the tribunal & LA. Today, the LAs solicitor has contacted to advise the LA has decided to issue an EHCP and the appeal has been accepted. The tribunal date was set for 20/12 and the solicitor has sent me a document to sign confirming that they’ve accepted the appeal. I’m very happy with this, just wondered if anything I should be mindful of? The appeal was based on LA rejecting need for EHCP following assessment.

I do have some extra evidence to send before the tribunal deadline, should I still send it, just incase? Anything I need to know about submitting extra evidence or can I just sent the PDFs to LA solicitor & Tribunal?

Thank you!

@Zyq thanks a lot, I will quote this in my complaint letter.

@MinnieTruck no worries, thank you very much. I’ll get started on amending this. They called me back, two month wait for a remote EP assessment, longer for face-to-face. Apparently complaints/getting MPs involved has made no difference in the past.

Sounds like I will also need a pre-action letter to get things moving. But SOSSEN have a long wait, don’t really have £600 to get one from elsewhere and doubt we’ll qualify for legal aid. And how many pre-action letters are people meant to keep sending? As I’m sure there will be further delays/problems even after the EP assessment.

@Lostatsea10 have you requested s19 provision? Is the LA sticking to the EHCP timescales?

@Ponche sometimes the threat of JR to the DCS works and you don’t actually need a pre-action letter, but, over the time DC have EHCPs parents who enforce their DC’s rights do often need more than one.

@Coatsy when LAs concede the biggest thing to know is it needs to be done via the consent order rather than you withdrawing the appeal. Until you have the consent order you can continue to submit evidence to the LA & SENDIST.

@SearchingForSolitude thank you, I will give that a go next week. I mentioned JR on the phone and am going to get a further update next week. So I will email the DCS after I hear back.

Just worry that it will be an empty threat if I mention JR but am unable to follow through with a pre-action letter.

I’d rather spend that money on therapies or an independent EP assessment but it is what it is I guess. The time and money parents have to spend on getting LAs to carry out their duties is staggering and deeply unfair.

And I’ve got years of battles ahead. It all just feels so bleak.

It's a nightmare currently because there just aren't enough Ed Psychs. We should clearly all be retraining!

I'm still waiting for news of the outcome of the secondary consultations the LA are doing for my DS. I think they must be coming up to the deadline, my caseworker is not replying to my messages at the moment.

If LAs can’t assess in house within the statutory timescales they should be commissioning independent assessments. Yes, there’s pressure on independent assessments too, but money and enforcement action talks, and LAs should be doing more than shrugging their shoulders and saying nothing more they can do.

@SearchingForSolitude

Thank you! The solicitor has emailed the consent order to sign. It’s says by consent that the LA will “secure an EHCP” for our son. I can email the solicitor before signing this.

Obviously I don’t know the exact provisions that will be put in place as part of the EHCP, however I’d assumed another appeal will need to be lodged if we disagree with the provision and possibly another about schools down the line. Do I need to keep this appeal “open”?

I will send in that extra evidence tonight ahead of the deadlines. Do I need to provide additional context similar to the initial evidence or are scanned PDFs likely to suffice now. I think the points were part of the reasons for appeal document.

Hope that makes sense and appreciate the help!

@Coatsy the current appeal only deals with the refusal to issue. Once the LA has finalised the EHCP you will have to appeal again if you disagree with the content/placement. Since the LA is conceding, I wouldn’t just send the evidence. You don’t need to write a position statement or anything like that.

@SearchingForSolitude Thank you, that explains perfectly 😊

Any reason specifically not to send the extra information/evidence?

For reference, the documents are:

Letter from Paediatrician
Letter from Nursery (think they may have this)
Email from local school
Hospital letter confirming Autism assessment

Thanks again!