EHCP support thread no. 4

[Phineyj]

We've nearly filled the thread again, so here's a new one. Welcome everyone: newcomers, people stuck in the process; battle-hardened veterans of many years...

Here are links to previous threads:

EHCP support thread - www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_educational_needs/4834986-ehcp-support-thread

EHCP support thread no. 2 - www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_educational_needs/4989146-ehcp-support-thread-no-2

EHCP support thread no. 3 - www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_educational_needs/5077140-ehcp-support-thread-no-3

Thank you @BrightYellowTrain and @handmademitlove for the advice regarding the best practice for an IHP. I’ve taken a screenshot of both comments as I have an awful memory!

I’d love anyone’s thoughts on this. DD is due to start primary school in September 2025. I visited LOADS of schools and honestly, they were all awful except for one special school in our area which seems amazing. When submitting my primary school application to the SEND team, I applied for one school and one school only which was the special school.

The LA requested to name the primary school on the EHCP on the 15th of October and gave the school 15 days to respond. I’ve just received an email from the assistant head (she’s also the person who showed me around the school) and said, ‘we are very keen to meet with X to enable us to respond to her consultation. Would it be more convenient for me to arrange to visit her at her nursery or would you prefer to bring her to the school so that she can have a look around too?’

Now I know I’m probably overthinking this, but what do you guys think the best option is? Is it maybe best for them to see her at nursery so they can see how she is in an educational setting? Maybe that way they can speak with the SENCO and 1:1? Or should I take her to the school myself? What would you guys do? I just want her to get bloody accepted!!!

I'm not sure I'd take her to the school in case they say no? Or in case it turns into a very protracted process?

I think a nursery visit could be good, however, as they can see what she's like and how they're meeting her needs.

@Phineyj yes, I did think a nursery visit would probably make the most sense. They’d be able to speak with her 1:1 and see what she’s like on a day to day basis. I’m not there with her in nursery and she’s non verbal so I can only know so much. Maybe it’ll be easier to visit her in nursery and see her in action sort of thing.

I’m surprised they asked to meet her though. I assumed the schools would just read the EHCP and gauge whether they can meet the child’s needs or not. I guess not

I can kind of understand where they're coming from tbh as my DD is delightful in person but comes off the page as a bit of a scary proposition!

Do they contact the school to accept they will take your child even with mainstream setting? Before they issue a ehcp?

@Cinnamoncupcake if the LA issue an EHCP, it is worth trying to get training into F of the EHCP. The PDA Society has a PDA for Educators course and a Working with & supporting PDA children course. The PDA Society also does consultancy work. If MS doesn’t work, there are options other than electively home educating.

The LA must consult with the school before naming them. That still applies to MS. For non-wholly independent schools, it isn’t about seeing if the school will accept them. Schools can raise concerns or objections when consulted, but they can be named even if they object. If they are named, they must admit. You only need an offer of a place from the school if it is a wholly independent school.

@MinnieTruck I replied on the pub thread, but it isn’t uncommon for schools to meet DC. Some independent SS even have assessment days.

Hi everyone.

I have a 4yr old son , the youngest of my 4 children. He's been on the asd pathway awaiting assessment for 13 months so far. He's non verbal and on a part time timetable atm with a 1:1 for part of his time in class.

My 4yr old son whos August born started Reception September . He had had a 1:1 for 7.5hrs of his 15 hrs in nursery funded by the early years inclusion fund.

The application for an ehcp assessment was made 31st July. They agreed to assess mid August. I have access to my local authority ehc hub where I could see all the professionals that were contacted for information, this information/ reports were all due on the 7th November.

All reports bar one has been submitted to the hub. The one that's still pending ( i check daily ) is the Ed psych report. She came to my sons school a few weeks ago. We had a long in depth meeting alongside the SenCo and my sons TA. She then went on to observe my son in his setting.

I haven't been through this process before and I've seen reports of extended delays not only for reports to be submitted etc but to even be seen for some.

The Ed psych report as I mentioned is a week late being submitted. The decision to issue or not is due on Tuesday the 19th Nov and the case is supposedly to be completed on 17th Dec. Now as the Ed psych report is late I'm guessing the decision to issue or not will also be delayed as will be completion thereafter.

Today I've sent emails asking for an update to the case worker for the assessment, to the Ed Psych admin also.
Is there anyone else I should email? I've found an email address for the Deputy Principal Ed psychologist who was one of those mentioned in the hub but she allocated the request to the Ed psych who visited my son and closed her own request thereafter. Shall I email her?

I haven't a clue what I'm doing and feel like a fish out of water so to speak.

Any help, advice etc would be appreciated.

Thank you

Email.the Director of Children's Services at the Council with one of the Ipsea template letters.And yes do email the head Ed Psych.

@BrightYellowTrain thank you for taking the time to explain everything. I will wait for the phase transfer review and see what happens.

‘IPSEA's Tribunal casework volunteers provide individual support for the families whose cases they take. This free and specialist support can only be accessed by referral after booking an appointment on our Tribunal Helpline, and is only provided for parents who meet our criteria.’ Does anyone know what that criteria is?

@Ponche it is mostly families who are in difficult circumstances who receive casework support. Some who are added to the list don’t make it to the point of being allocated to a caseworker.

I've emailed the deputy ed psych and the case officer. Both have replied via email reassuring me the Ed psych report will be uploaded next week. We shall see. If it's not i will be emailing the director of children's services.

Quick Q about whether this is specific and quantified enough for OT. We have the report uploaded to the LA portal, it's generally pretty good and a very thorough assessment was done, including sensory.

There are various 'adaptive' recommendations which don't need to be quantified any more than they are I think (e.g. leaving lessons a minute early; sitting at the end of the row in assembly; using a scribe in exams). It also recommends a programme of OT as follows:

Occupational therapy should take place in school.
Direct
• X will require 1 x 1 hour therapy session with an occupational therapist, to demonstrate the fine motor skill programme and balance skill programme, with X and her teaching staff = 1 hour.
• Termly reviews by an occupational therapist 3 x 1 hour = 3 hours.

Indirect
• 1 x 60 minutes admin to devise fine motor skill programme, to be provided to school by the occupational therapist = 1 hour.
• 1 x 60 minutes admin to devise balance skill programme, to be provided to school by the occupational therapist = 1 hour.
• Admin time for liaising with parents, staff and other members of the wider team, as well as goal setting and reviewing/updating programmes 3 x 1 = 3 hours.

X will require support to implement the programmes throughout the day by a member of the teaching team.

It's the 'support throughout the day to implement the programmes' that's a bother - but on the other hand the programmes have not been devised yet so it is difficult to say what that should be. Is this best left until the programmes are devised and then if school don't do it include in the next AR? Also she's in primary now but year 6 so saying who and and how is going to be different this year and next.

@Muvva1981 I originally replied on your thread but you should send the IPSEA model letter to the DCS now. If the LA is going to issue, you should have had a draft by now.

@Macramepotholder is better than many LA reports. However, it could be improved and, other than time for the reviews, there is no ongoing direct OT input. For example, amending “will require” to “will receive”. Who are “teaching staff” and “teaching team”? What exactly does “support to implement” look like? Will it be 1:1? What fine motor skill programme and what balance skill programme? “Throughout the day” could mean 1 minute a few times a day. Provision should be based on needs, not on the school.

I'll have a pop at getting it amended then, as it's gone to the LA portal already I think I have to do it through them (?). It's an independent OT company (outsourced) so don't have any skin in the game particularly.

Seems to be saying they would need to design the fine motor skills programme but I will also ask them to define it i.e. what it should cover and which teachers (for now I think class teacher and SENDco, there are no TAs anyway...)

Also! During the assessments DD has said things that are not true but have been included in the reports (my favourite was 'I organise myself using checklists' which made me and her dad fall about laughing). It's part of her excessive use of scripting.

I understand that the assessors need to include the child's voice and that's really important because parents may also not always be accurate in their description of the child for various reasons. I've done a note in section A to pick up on all of these but any other suggestions?

Speak to both the LA and the OT directly if you have their contact details.

How is the class teacher going to implement the provision during the day whilst also teaching the class? The SENCO is unlikely to be able to either. That is unrealistic.

Speak to the OT about what DD said and how it isn’t true but scripting.

I've had our independent ed psych report back, and I am waiting on nursery senco to confirm it's been sent to LA, including the DS EHCP caseworker. I hadn't yet told caseworker we plan to fight for specialist, but the EP has clearly written that it's our preference and why we think it's the better option (of course she's recommended certain things needed in a setting herself, but she hadn't specifically written either specialist or mainstream in there).
Would this potentially cause issues as it doesn't have the EP's words "a specialist provision is needed"?

You don’t need the nursery to send an independent report to the LA, you can do it yourself.

The recommendations in the report should be clear about what a placement needs to be like despite it not saying SS (there’s a right to a mainstream education). For example, a class size of 8 or less or SALT and OT on-site and embedded within the curriculum across the whole school day.

It's a long-winded situation where LA refused to pay the EP directly or reimburse us as parents, but they agreed to reimburse the nursery for the costs if they paid, but only on receipt of the report from them. If they don't do it in the next couple of days, then I'll be having a stern word with the SENCO and sending it anyway.

Oh good, yes, there's a lot of recommendations including the small class sizes, a sensory breakout space that he can access at anytime, that feel like no mainstream is going to be able to facilitate them.

Is small class size quantified? If not, that needs amending. Your definition of small will not be the same as the LAs.

LA phoned me at 5pm telling me EHCNA had been declined because 'there's still more that school can do' ... well, he hasn't been in school since September so how exactly does that help?

I knew it would be declined as most are. I'm prepared to appeal. But it still feels like a kick in the stomach.

Everything is so hard.

All school do is offer him to come in for 10 minutes, and say they have no other alternatives to offer. Apparently they don't offer alternative provision to his age range (key stage 3).

Request for AP under section 19 is on my to do list this weekend... bet I know the outcome of that one too 🙄

Sorry to hear you've had dispiriting news @10pfreddos.

I don't think that can be correct, that there's no alternative provision for KS3. I guess that means "haven't looked"...

Sorry it wasn’t good news, @10pfreddos.

The school may not offer/use AP for KS3. They don’t have to and some do not. Some schools don’t use AP at all for any age.

But the LA must ensure those unable to attend school still receive a suitable full-time education. If the LA refuses to provide s19 provision, delays or ignored you, threaten JR then get a pre-action letter.

@Phineyj @BrightYellowTrain

Thank you both. I assumed they just didn't want to spend the money but maybe they are being truthful 🤷‍♀️

Either way, will have a glass of wine tonight and prepare myself for the next battle!

@10pfreddos both can be true. They might not offer/use AP for KS3. That might be because of money. Some APs can be expensive.