SEN Solicitor Recommendations?

[Huffledor]

Can anyone recommend some good solicitors to support with an EHCP contents and placement appeal please? The LA have stalled the process and aren't communicating and our hearing is in a few months.

You could look at Watkins, Birkett Long, Sinclairs, Simpson Millar, HCB solicitors and Watkins & Gunn.

If it is something you are interested in, you could also look at a Direct Access Barrister. But they don’t hold your hand in quite the same way.

If the LA is not adhering to the deadlines or is persistently not engaging with the WD process, have you contacted SENDIST?

That's super helpful, thanks. The LA is persistently not engaging with the WD process. I've spoken with SENDIST and they suggested I cc them on another email chasing the working document, which I have done. No response yet.

If that doesn’t work, you could go down the SEND7 route. Either to request a TCMH or to order the LA to engage with the WD. No guarantee SENDIST would agree to either, but it sometimes works.

I’d say it depends on how much cash your package / school is worth. I used an advocate and the LA still ignored them as they are useless. It was £8k for the full package and I didn’t write one email in about a year. Solicitors were a LOT more cash. Depends on how much you want to spend whether to use a solicitor or not / advocate.

Also the LA have never engaged with the WD / threaten to be barred etc. Always late on timelines. it’s just all standard practice from LA.

Id be shocked if the LA did anything properly and followed the law 🤪

However good luck I hope you get what ever your child needs.

Just get really good evidence from an EP / OT and salt as the minimum and they can’t argue with that!

Be careful if you use an advocate. Advocates are unregulated and whilst there are good advocates about, there are also ones who do more harm than good &/or are extortionate for what they provide.

I would support the idea being cautious with SeN solicitors and advocates. I have recently had really bad experience with HCB who couldn’t see LA ignores them spending resources (read money) for communication that LA didn’t care about and not listening to the parents, making mistakes in your case and charging for fixing them. More headache than help.

Well, we instructed a solicitor a couple of months ago as we knew it would be a battle to get the independent school we want. Communication with the solicitor has not been great, and we've needed to chase emails several times. We had a call with them today in which they got very defensive and basically told us off for sending too many emails and not trusting that they've got everything under control.

Trusting the 'professionals' is what has led to my child being unable to attend school, so I no longer extend that trust easily.

I think this solicitor knows their stuff and will likely get us the outcome we want, but I feel like they should have been working harder to mend the client relationship, not making me feel like I was being unreasonable. I was really put off by their approach and am tempted to sack them rather than shovel more money into their pockets. We spoke with another solicitor we really liked when we were shopping around and I am thinking of contacting them. However, the hearing date is just six weeks away.

Would you change legal reps at this point (assuming the other solicitor is available)? Or would it be too high risk? There has not yet been any work on the WD as we've been waiting for diagnostic and EP reports, so it's not like that process would be disrupted.

Or do I just need to be less emotional about this? It's a big amount of money for us to be spending, so that adds to my stress.

As difficult as it is, think about this without the emotion attached. Try to think about it objectively. Ask yourself if you have sent lots of emails. Obviously, I am not privy to your emails, but some parents send an unreasonable number of emails because, understandably, they are stressed and anxious. Some also expect replies to emails that don’t require a response. Some expect answers sooner than is reasonable. And some parents are impatient at how long the process takes. I am not saying any of them apply to you; I am saying you need to consider if what they are saying has some truth and if it does, whether your expectations match what they offer. Depending on your contract, sending lots of emails may be costing you money too!

If you are paying for their services, there has to be an element of trust. Bluntly, they don’t need to focus on mending the relationship. If you want to terminate their services, they will have others lining up to fill the space.

Changing representation is possible at this point if the other firm has capacity, but you should check your contract regarding fees. Only you can make that decision based on all the facts. Impossible to say what you should do or what I would do based on a snippet in a thread.

Regardless of how many potential clients they have waiting on the sidelines, I do think it's basic courtesy to treat your current paying client nicely!

Looking through the history, I've only emailed to send evidence or to ask specific questions, or to chase answers to those questions.

The issues that we raised were about inaccuracies in a tribunal Order (wrong school preference) and some potentially woolly language in an EP report. We had to chase on these points several times and it took three weeks for the first issue to be addressed and ten days for the other one. The solicitor was very defensive when we discussed the communication delays and really seemed to struggle to see our perspective because as far as he's concerned there's been no impact on the appeal.

DP doesn't think we need to change, and I think this solicitor will probably get us the result we want but part of me worries they'll carry a grudge into our hearing. So, I guess it does come down to trust now and my reluctance to further reward their poor customer care with more business.

The solicitor is unlikely to hold a grudge.

Earlier in the appeal process, 10 days for a response for something not urgent is not out of the ordinary for firms.