Applying for a Personal Budget

[Pheath]

Hi

Appreciate any advice.

My 10yr DS (dx of ASD and ADHD) was issued with an EHCP last Dec which is quite vague and unspecified. Despite a good independent SLT report specifying the level of speech therapy he needs our LA have only listed a universal provision in Section F with some some targeted intervention of a communications group run in house at school. At the Annual Review last April we suggested various amendments incl adding more SLT to Section F but all amendments were refused.

We would like to apply for a personal budget for the private group SLT my DS has been attending for a year and that we've been paying for up until now. Our therapist has written a summary of why he needs a higher level of specialused support with SLT than the school can provide. However the LA are saying that you can only get a personal budget if the need is outlined in Section F. It feels like a Catch 22 ie. you can't get a personal budget if the need isn't stated in Section F but the LA refuse to incl the need to begin with.

If anyone has any ideas how to take this forward or whether I'm on a hiding to nothing would be so grateful to hear!

Thank you.

You need to appeal. The SALT needs to be in F. When you say last April, do you mean April 2024 since DS was only issued an EHCP in Dec 23? If so, has the LA informed you if they are going to amend or not? They should have and if they aren’t going to amend, you should have got a letter with the right of appeal. Did you?

Thanks for yr response Brum. Yes AR was April just gone ('24). We're planning to appeal after the Phase Transfer Review in the Autumn as we have no new evidence to present at this stage but will have in the Autumn plus will more than likely have to appeal placement by that stage too.

Do we stand no chance of our request for a personal budget for group therapy if the there's just universal and a bit of targeted SLT in Section F cited at present?

LA refused to amend after Annual Review.

You are very unlikely to get a PB for group therapy if that isn’t detailed, specified and quantified in F, I’m afraid.

Thanks again, that's helpful to know even if it's not the answer I wanted to hear!