EHCP support thread no. 3

[Phineyj]

A new thread for when no. 2 is full up.
Link to thread no. 1: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_educational_needs/4834986-ehcp-support-thread
Link to thread no. 2:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_educational_needs/4989146-ehcp-support-thread-no-2

I am the mum of an 11 year old girl with SEN and have spent the last 20 months battling for my local authority to issue an EHCP to support her transition from primary to secondary school. We are currently after draft stage after two tribunals. I've had so much useful advice and moral support from posters on here.

This new thread is here to help everyone, whether you're just starting out or are a battle-hardened veteran of years of this.

There is no such thing as a stupid question and there are many acronyms and technical terms so please ask for an explanation of anything that you don't understand.

SEN: special educational needs (sometimes SEND: special educational needs and disability)
SENCO: teacher at school charged with overall responsibility for students on roll with SEN
ECHNA: education care and health needs assessment - the process of a local authority commissioning reports to find out a child's needs
EHCP: the education care and health plan that details a child's needs and the agreed provision to meet them; a legally binding document
SENDIST: the special educational needs and disability tribunal - an independent appeal panel which considers parental appeals against Education Authority decisions about special educational needs.

@BusMumsHoliday lovely news. Request the LA seeks advice and information from SALT during the EHCNA. The report from the ADOS won’t set out needs, provision, outcomes in a way that is necessary for an EHCNA and won’t be sufficiently detailed, specified and quantified.

If the OT wasn’t written with an EHCP in mind, you should also request the LA seek advice and information from OT too for the same reasons.

You can ask the LA to delay the EP assessment. They would probably oblige given the pressure on EP time. However, the EP report should take into account the transition. The LA should seek advice and information from the school.

As well as informing you the LA should notify SENDIST they concede and have agreed to assess and this ends the appeal. You don’t need to do anything else.

if you yourself book in assessments it's quicker than letting the LA fart about.

This isn’t always possible. NHS services often have long waiting lists and many have a higher threshold than reg 6(1)(h). If the LA commissions an outside provider rather than the NHS, in most places, they won’t accept parental referrals.

*BrumToTheRescue *sorry it’s late but thanks for the link to the appeal stats. You are amazing with your constant support and expertise to so many here thankyou. Do you like wine/ champagne? I’d love to club together and get you a bottle!

@BrumToTheRescue in my area (which I acknowledge may not be typical) the LA contacted the SLT and physio and EP and OT - only the EP was in house. The SLT and physio were from the local primary care Trust and the OT was from an OT charity commissioned by the LA because either the LA or the primary care Trust didn't have enough capacity.

I didn't commission any of these assessments - the LA did - but I had to book in the appointments, do pre assessment phone calls/forms and then check that the reports were sent through and check them for accuracy. I did step into a bit of a turf war between the LA, PCT and OT over who "owned" the report but it was eventually resolved.

I was a bit surprised to essentially be doing the LA's job for them but I have found a lot of these services (not the LA!) will speak to parents and are pretty helpful if you're polite, professional and persistent.

@mollyminniemo that is very kind of you but really there’s no need. You are more than welcome. Many years ago, during the hardest time of my life, I received support from MN’ers I could never repay. It wasn’t SEN related, but this is a way I can give back. I also feel passionately all children should receive the support they require. In order for that to happen under the current system, parents need to know the law. It is a despicable system that fails the most vulnerable, but it is the landscape we live in at the moment.

@Phineyj As I said, that isn’t always possible. In many areas, parental NHS referrals would join the long normal waiting lists rather than be within the EHCNA timescales and the advice would not be sufficient for an EHCNA.

BTW PCTs were replaced by CCGs following the Health and Social Care Act in 2012 and, more recently, are now ICBs. As a side note, ICBs are no less bureaucratic than the LA and just as penny-pinching.

I think we have slightly misunderstood each other. They weren't parental referrals.

Also I know it's not a PCT but I couldn't describe it any more accurately as the new name has my borough name in so X Healthcare.

But anyway thank you.

Evening all
Appealed dc ehcp b f and I. La conceded immediately on I which was fantastic. Had two expert report back, awaiting others due any day. Our experts are requesting large amounts of money to secure place at tribunal, understandable although date is next Feb. Now we've got I we're not entirely sure we want to carry on with the rest and instead of spending our money of solicitors fees, we using solicitor sorry didn't mention and experts we considering trying to work with la and then get consent order to settle. Anyone done this? Or am I being over ambitious! Thanks

@246810k personally I don’t think you need a solicitor. If your reports speak for themselves having professionals attend any hearing isn’t essential. But I wouldn’t withdraw the appeal either.

@Phineyj you booked the assessments so they are classed as parental referrals. Unless you mean the someone referred and you received e.g. a letter asking you to call to book but presumably that isn’t the case otherwise you wouldn’t have posted “it's quicker than letting the LA fart about” because the LA still has to contact services to seek advice and information.

I only posted to make the point that parents do have a little bit of agency. You can't try to move anything along if you don't know what/where/when/who. Something I discovered was my LA allocate the EP appointments on a Friday so it's worth calling on Friday mornings to remind them you exist.

What I assume happened was:

1. The LA contacted the various services (I could see who and roughly when from their 'portal')
2. The services contacted me (in two cases) or I contacted them (in two other cases - knowing they had probably been contacted as they were on the list on the portal)
3. I booked in times for the assessments to take place (I'm a teacher & can't easily get time off unplanned)
4. I made sure I got the emails of the people who did the assessments so I could check and chase up the reports
5. I let school know about the assessments that would take place at school

The services did indeed prioritise EHCP assessments. The SLT and physio said as much. And I don't think the EP and OT do much else.

That is exactly what happens in the majority of cases. It doesn’t stop the LA wasting time in actually seeking advice and information, so it isn’t quicker than letting the LA fart about because you can’t book an assessment until the LA has contacted services. Otherwise what happens in many areas when you call e.g. SALT is you would be told you could make a normal self referral (if you can in that area and therefore join the ordinary long waiting list if DC meet the eligibility criteria) or that the LA need to contact them to seek advice and information from them for the EHCNA (without having to meet the normal threshold and within the EHCNA timescales - or not as the case may be).

You can't try to move anything along if you don't know what/where/when/who.

I haven’t posted anything to the contrary.

BrumToTheRescue you really are amazing. Sorry to hear you went through an awful time but good to hear you are (hopefully) through it. I agree, kids already so vulnerable and suffering potentially huge set backs socially/ educationally in their lives due to SEN on top of this being failed and held back even more by this broken system. Parents already at wits end then have to fight for them to just get a fair chance. Thank goodness there are people like you around.

@mollyminniemo sadly, it wasn’t something anyone ever gets over or through, but we live with it and things are more settled.

Thank goodness there are people like you around.

This is how I felt many years ago during those horrendous days and why giving back is important to me.

Yes, and to me. Which I why I started these three threads (or I suppose this one giant thread divided into three threads), to try to help others.

I don't, of course, have an overview of what different LAs do.

I am one parent who has been through the process once. And fortunately I just have the one child! Massive respect to those who have to do it more than once.

I am going through this hell for a second time with my daughter.
The LA refused to issue 2 years ago.
I've spent 2 years collecting evidence of my daughters struggles and special educational needs.
School applied for an ehc assessment in March 2024....LA agreed to assess.
We have been waiting for an EP for months. I was told by the LA there is only one list for an EP and everyone joins the list in date order... No exceptions.....everyone treated the same.
I then found out that if the LA refuse to assess and you go through mediation you get an EP within 2 weeks... This has happened to 2 family's in my area that I personally know... But my daughter has to wait months for an EP???
How can that be correct.??? The LA disadvantaged my daughter by agreeing to assess her..... I'm absolutely at my wits end... I can't stop crying.. My daughter has needed an EHCP since she was 3.... She has been through so much because of the schooling system... Barely able to attend... Has serious problems with language, communication, sensory stuff, can't do her school work and massively struggling socially... I have reports to prove it all but she was put on the EP waiting list at date order.
I don't understand the system at all.. How can the LA refuse to assess someone then choose to put the at the top of the list for an EP over riding 100s already waiting patiently. I know the family applied a month after the school applied for my daughter.
I'm at breaking point... No one cares about my daughter. No matter what I do. No matter how much she is struggling... The LA have no idea of the trauma they cause to families.... I've been fighting for support for 6 years....
I can't believe how so many children are denied a proper and suitable education. I cant believe how we are forced to jump through hoop after hoop.... It exhausting.

Probably a really stupid question but wondering if anyone can help me with this. On the letter I received yesterday from LA it talks about the named school for your child.
DS has been accepted to mainstream primary school for September but all the work for EHCP was done by nursery.
Do I need to get in touch with the caseworker and tell them where he's going to school or will they have that information anyway because obviously when we applied for school it was with same LA?

@Onegentlepeer did you email the Director of Children’s Services reminding them of the statutory timescales and threatening judicial review? And requesting alternative provision?

@Crystallizedring the LA will know but it won’t do any harm to let them know. If the LA go on to issue an EHCP, the school named in section I will override the place made via the normal admissions.

Brum... Not heard anything... But I definitely think it's a judicial review. I will email again today.

@Onegentlepeer if the LA ignore you again or delay further you need a pre-action letter. If you give the LA 5 days to respond to your email you will be over the 20 week timescale too.

I'm already on the hunt for a solicitor. I've sent another email.

@Onegentlepeer SOSSEN can help with a pre-action letter. They have a wait so you may want to look elsewhere. In which can use can try Coram, Sinclairs, Simpson Millar, Birkett Long, Watkins, Watkins & Gunn, Bailey Wright and Just for Kids. It is a matter of perseverance until you find someone with capacity to take you on.

The last bit of our appeal is resolved. LA have agreed the changes we wanted on Sections B and F, which are actually hangovers from the last annual review that they failed to finalise. I've signed the consent order saying everything has been resolved so that should be the end of it.

It really shouldn't have taken this long to sort everything out, but there we are. It all worked out in our favour in the end.

@UnendingSaga brilliant.

I'm absolutely amazed. First draft is actually...drumroll...okay!
For extra support DD needs they've focused on SALT and some social and mental health sessions (the type of content, aims and length of these has been specified!), and there are a few bits they want me to do (get OT involved etc) but nothing that's beyond me.
I was expecting a fight. I was expecting "vague and woolly". It seems like the case worker intends to get the EHC sorted before DD goes back to college in September (provided they accept her back with an EHCP).
Sadly I feel like this was all needed 10 years ago.

@QuickFetchTheCoffee check very carefully because it is very rare for an initial draft to include all special educational needs to be in B and each and every need have corresponding provision in F and outcome in E. and for F to be detailed, specified and quantified in F. Whereas, it isn’t uncommon for parents not to realise F is not enforceable until they need to try to enforce it. The EHCP should not require you to do anything. If OT needs to be involved, they need to arrange that.

Meeting with county council booked for this week to discuss dds needs following refusal to assess. Any tips on what I need to ask / discuss?

Are you appealing the refusal to assess? Is this mediation or a separate thing?