EHCP support thread no. 5

[Needlenardlenoo]

Another thread is nearly filled so here is a new one for when we need it. I am the original OP but have name-changed due to admin (let's call it spring cleaning). We got our EHCP finally in June last year and are in a state of cautious optimism two terms into the year 7 transition. There has been no contact from the LA at all to us, but perhaps no news is good news, sometimes. The next challenge is going to be the annual review. I am feeling a bit paranoid the LA might try a cease to maintain. Anyway, onwards and upwards and best wishes to all!

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
EHCP support thread no. 4 -
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_educational_needs/5197351-ehcp-support-thread-no-4

Can anyone help with a question about transport? Ds1 is on year 5 and the draft ehcp has just been sent to us to review and name a school. His mainstream primary did all they could, but he hasn't been able to attend for a few months.

They went a link to "the local offer" and there is a school that seems like it will be able to meet ds needs. It is 16 miles away and goes through primary and secondary. Ds is at the older age of primary. They say they will only provide transport to the nearest option, which it is under their criteria.

Assuming we manage to get him in and transport agreed, would they still have to provide transport for secondary? There is a much closer secondary on their list, but we don't want to keep changing schools and ds isn't good with transitions.

@HarryVanderspeigle an all-through school being named now, for primary, doesn’t guarantee it will be named for secondary. There should still be a phase transfer review and the EHCP naming the secondary placement must be finalised by 15th Feb of Y6.

If the school is named in the EHCP and the LA refuses to provide transport because they claim it isn’t the nearest suitable school, you can challenge it. Even if there is a suitable school nearer, it doesn’t automatically mean the LA is relieved of their duty to provide transport. This is a good article about parental preference and transport. If the LA finalises and includes wording in section I stating they have named school 1 as parental preference on the understanding you will arrange transport but believe school 1 can meet needs, you can appeal.

I hope you have the draft soon, @Paintingflowers.

@thatsnotmygarden thank you

And eurgh why do they make it so complicated! He is unlikely to even start a new school before year 6, so we can't be changing again in a year. Not if he is to actually receive an educational, which is not happening currently.

@HarryVanderspeigle you can lining up your evidence to support naming the placement for secondary now.

Following up on my previous post as I'm really despairing. We are now only a few days from our tribunal hearing for B, F & I. The wholly independent school we want came back with concerns about being able to deliver any of the one-to-one provision that I've laboured to detail, specify and quantify in the WD. Our solicitor has basically advised that if we don't change the WD then we risk the school withdrawing their offer. We have EP and psychiatry reports saying a MS unit is not appropriate and DC needs a small school with a ratio of 3 staff to 10 children max. I think we will easily win the argument against the MS unit, and so the cost of provision shouldn't matter. I know provision is supposedly enforceable if it's detailed, specified and quantified, and can be fully funded, but the independent school's issues don't seem to be about funding.

There's also a chance the LA will try to change their preference to a new state ASD school at the last minute, but I don't think that school would be right for DC either as I understand that they are mostly taking children working well below the ARE. I also think that school is already oversubscribed and fielding dozens of consultations a month and doesn't have space.

I feel like we're trapped and I just want to cry. The MS unit absolutely 100% is not suitable and we have strong evidence for that. The wholly independent school is exactly the setting DC needs and DC's taster days there went very well. I know other parents with kids there and they are happy with the school. The school says they will deliver what DC needs but the WD needs to be reworded. We're basically being asked to trust the school or lose the offer. Trusting the "professionals" has never worked out in DC's best interests. I feel like we'll very possibly end up with a lot of unenforceable provision on top of an eye-watering solicitor's bill (which I had, perhaps naively, hoped would ensure we ended up with a watertight Plan and all the support DC needs) and another appeal in the not-too-distant future.

Hi @SpaceInvader321 I'm so sorry, that sounds really stressful. I think I'd be inclined to take the lawyer's advice though. If the alternatives are so poor, and the school seems a good fit, hopefully everything else can be worked out in time?

Thanks @Needlenardlenoo. That's what we're hoping. The teachers we met when we visited and the ones DC had on the tester days all seemed very kind and attuned to ND. It's just so frustrating to devote so much time, energy and money to trying to get the best, most unquestionably deliverable EHCP and then be stuck in what feels like another high-risk situation.

If you go down the route of watering down the provision in F, you need to make sure the case still stands up to scrutiny because the placement named in section I is the logical conclusion of B&F. If the wording in F is too vague and too much provision is removed, the risk of the LA’s proposed placement being named increases, so if you do reduce the provision in F you need to make sure the case still stands up to not naming another placement.

I’ve been sent a termly SEN support plan from the school. It included 1 out of the 5 speech therapy targets, so I asked for the others to be included.

I was told this:

“Thank you for you suggestions regarding the SEN Plan. As these are written termly if we include all of these items on his Summer SEN plan it will be very lengthy and, as you said, there is some overlap with his EHCP.

All of these things are included in his weekly interventions already and we use SLT report to inform his speech and language interventions.”

Is this right? I’m not sure why only one of the speech therapy targets was included on the termly plan.

It may be the one that is the primary focus this term?

BTW, despite when some LAs fail to comprehend, the EHCP should contain outcomes, not targets.

@thatsnotmygarden

Thanks! The speech therapist has 6 Summer Term targets before she reassesses next Autumn Term. One has been put into the plan, but not the others? I’m not sure why only one target has been put in the plan.

Are you sure the SALT set all 6 targets as short-term targets just for this term? 6 targets for one term is quite a lot when you consider SALT is only one element of a child’s SEN, unless they are smaller targets/sub-targets of a larger target. If each area of support had 6 targets, you could end up with loads each term, which wouldn’t be feasible and isn’t normally the intention of termly SEN support plans.

We have had some good news, in that the LA appear to be happy to finalise the EHCP and name our preferred setting which is a brand new wholly independent SEMH provision. We are now having a back and forth about when they are approving her to start (she was offered to start in May, the LA want to wait until September which we are challenging). Getting there, 1cm at a time!

I’ve just received my DC EHCP draft and after paying privately and for an advocate we are probably £5k invested into this and the draft is underwhelming. My DC won’t receive anything more than a non diagnosed child. Awaiting on the advocate to go through it.

One step closer.

Drafts are often poor. Don’t lose hope. Focus on needs, not diagnosis because EHCPs aren’t based on diagnosis.

Got the final EHCP, no setting named, only type, mainstream.

Despite mainstream not working and I don't think they have consulted any schools.

Apparently my request for a personal budget is being considered.

They also haven't added anything to PfA, although she's in year 10.

I just appeal now right? Or wait for this decision on the personal budget, or for them to consult schools?

I've phoned Iask, hopefully they get back to me, plus I've asked the caseworker to tell me which schools they are consulting.

Just feel totally fed up and like there's no point in any of it now really, they're going to drag this out and she'll be done with year 11 before anything gets sorted.

For some reason the tags in my pp disappeared. My post was for @TripleRocks and @airhostess, respectively.

@Icantpeopleanymore appeal. Don’t wait.

In the meantime, ask the LA in writing how they intend to fulfil their duties under a) section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014 (if there is anything detailed, specified and quantified in F and it isn’t all vague and woolly), and b) section 19 of the Education Act 1996. Also remind them case law (MH v Hounslow [2004] EWCA 770) dictates where the LA names mainstream as type they should also normally name a particular placement.

EHCPs can continue until 25, or 26 in some cases, so don’t worry about the end of Y11.

Thank you @thatsnotmygarden I will. The caseworker got back to me and said by the end of next week they'll have a decision on the personal budget, which clearly will be no because they've not consulted schools so they can't grant it without any schools not being able to meet need surely?

In the meantime, I've visited a local ap, medical needs school, seemed nice, I'm not convinced it'll work for her though, they're offering outreach to get her in. I'm going to suggest going to see it in the next couple of weeks, but if she can't, then I'll go back to them and ask them how they will provide education if this hasn't worked.

@Icantpeopleanymore PBs aren’t only for when schools can’t meet needs. Although if they are going to give a PB it should be in section J.

The speech therapist put 6 targets on her plan with at least 3 interventions of at least 10 minutes per week. The SEND leader phoned me about the Summer Term plan and in the conversation i asked about evidence of his speech work. She said they don’t normally show this to parents. So I said said it’s ok and don’t worry if parents don’t normally see evidence.
But then she pulled me over at the end of the day to show me a folder. It was a school folder for all children in the school doing ‘language for thinking’. The folder only showed evidence for 2024 when I looked at the dates and dates were very spread apart. I saw a month gap between some recordings.
I asked to see recent evidence. SEND lady got very angry, I heard a raised voice in a classroom where my son was waiting my son then came out and witnessed the SEND lady angrily telling me to come back next week.
Have I done something wrong? I just burst into tears when I got home.

Of course you haven't done anything wrong @BangerMasher. It's May! There should be evidence of what took place in 2025. Follow up with an email.

You haven’t done anything wrong by asking.

Thanks @thatsnotmygarden it says I've requested one in that section.
Caseworker said she's named a type to allow the plan to be finalised and they PFA will be in the review next year.

Just spoke to my DD about the medical needs provision, flat no to even looking at the outside of it on a dog walk. Has agreed angrily to have a go at either academy 21 or UK virtual school though.

So back to the LA I go and hopefully they'll be more weight behind my request for education now DD has the EHCP, I'll wait for the decision by the end of next week and then appeal. Not holding my breath though. I've already put in a complaint that hasn't really been dealt with, although I think it did move the EHCP process along a bit and the referral for outreach, but my main complaint was they are not providing suitable education provision if they're only offering something she can't and won't access.
So I'll update the complaint and take it to LGO for not providing education under the acts you've given me, thank you.

I need the time to pull myself together, feeling very disheartened right now and like it's all pointless. Struggling with my son at the moment now too, not sleeping or giving me a minute away from him, dealing with his school who of course see no issues there at all whilst every morning and evening he's crying because he doesn't want to go. He's 10 and the thought of what this could look like by year 7 is terrifying. I can see a future where I can't work, can't buy a house of my own, my daughter still living with me because I can't see her getting anything in terms of work or education if things continue as they are...

Everything just seems pointless at this point. Why have I worked for 25 years to build a career, own a home etc, working on my house getting it ready to sell so I can try to buy something small just for the three of us with a hefty mortgage anyway, when I'm basically a prisoner to my children's needs and their dad sees none of it, his life isn't impacted at all and meanwhile I have no social life, no friends, no time for anything other than this constant fight, for what? It's going to be months till this is resolved and then the council will probably just fuck about not paying for providers etc anyway.

@Icantpeopleanymore I'm so sorry you're feeling rotten. I remember feeling similar. I've only got the one child and DH is an involved dad (this does not extend to doing any admin at all though unless it involves football, priorities eh?!)

Do you have any support in real life? Colleagues at work were kind to me when times were hard and I got a lot out of participating in someone's PhD research. It was cathartic being able to have a moan and I felt like I was possibly helping others.

I looked at Academy21 a while back and was quite impressed.

@Icantpeopleanymore sorry you are feeling so rubbish right now. You can do this.

PfA should be included now.

You don’t need to wait until you have the PB decision to set the ball rolling to appeal. Even if the LA agrees a PB, the EHCP would still name a type and B&F will still need improving. And because the EHCP is poor, the PB is unlikely to be sufficient either.

To enforce provision under s19 of the Education Act 1996 (and s42 of the Children and Families Act 2014 if there is anything detailed, specified and quantified in F), you would be better threatening JR, then getting a pre-action letter, and pursuing JR proceedings if necessary. The normal timescales of the complaints process and going to the LGO isn’t a suitable remedy because it takes too long.

Academy21 wouldn’t be my first choice virtually provider.