EHCP appeal deadline -dont know how to respond 🫠

[Light11]

Hi everyone,

Inam looking for a bit of a nudge and any words of encouragement.

I started my sons ehcp appeal back in september to change schools with a solicitor, 20k later Inde-instructed (couldn’t afford the lawyer anymore) the LA have conceded a sen school is needed and after many rejections it looks like we have an offer of a placement (yay!).

The tribunal asked me to name my school preference by next week but i just down know how to respond, do I email? Is there a form? I have tried to call ipsea for advice but I can’t get through.

Plewse does anyone know ?

On another note, only one school has offered my child a placement out of a long consultation list, does anyone know how this situation influences the LA? In my mind the idea of them rejecting the placement is less realistic in the absence of choice 🤷🏻‍♀️

thank you to anyone reading this far and anyone who could nudge me to my appeal response, i nearly bankrupted my self with this appeal and not over the line yet.

Other consultations not being positive doesn’t mean the LA will concede I’m afraid. They may push on with one of those schools anyway because non-wholly independent schools can be named even if they object. Or less likely, and less likely to be successful at SENDIST, push on with just naming a type of placement.

You can email your response. You don’t have to use any of the forms to do this unless instructed to do so by SENDIST - even though it is a response to SENDIST asking you to respond to name a school I have known cases where they have come back and told parents say to.

Thank you!

So an emailing is ok then? I thought it would be more formal than that. Interesting about the naming, the schools that have said they can’t meet need have all sent letters and allocated their spaces to other children so I’m seeing that as quite hard to make a case for..

Its very confusing and hope that it will be over soon.

Non-wholly independent schools can be named even if they object when consulted. So sometimes the LA’s proposed school is one who has objected. Although just because it is the LA’s proposed school doesn’t mean SENDIST will agree with the LA and name their proposed school rather than your preference.

Email is OK unless instructed otherwise. I use attachments to the email rather than putting all the response in the body of the email itself. It is still formal.