EHCP support thread no. 6

[Needlenardlenoo]

This thread is to support everyone engaged in the EHCP process. The purpose is two fold: so that you don't feel alone if you're involved with it, and so you can easily find posters who are experienced with the various difficulties to help point you in the right direction, whether that be by giving general advice, telling you specifically what action should, or could, be taken in a particular situation, or countering common myths you will hear, such as:

"Your child is not X enough to get an EHCP"
"The school has to do/pay Y first"
"EHCPs are only for Z situation"
"The local authority do X/say Y/won't do Z" (the SEN Code 2014 applies to the whole of England: it doesn't vary by local authority). [Wales and Scotland have different regimes].

It is particularly important at the moment to understand clearly what your child's rights actually are in law (not what the school or LA or Sendias say they are), when the government are actively trying to remove EHCPs and are leaking stories regularly to the media, with the intention, I suspect, of deflecting attention from their own shortcomings onto parents who are already in a difficult situation. If in doubt, the charity IPSEA has neutral and factual information:
https://www.ipsea.org.uk/

Here are links to previous threads:

Original 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
EHCP support thread no. 5 -
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_educational_needs/5309128-ehcp-support-thread-no-5?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share [please post on here till it's full]

They could have held an early AR. You could have requested one. You would have had a strong case for one if DD wasn’t in school, although there’s no guarantee the LA would have agreed one.

I would request AP. It can come in many forms. It doesn’t have to be traditional provision.

Maybe I’m being a bit sensitive here but I’m already feeling like I fail her continually. I wanted to do it earlier. There’s a long back story so please believe that I have done everything possible for her. She wanted to make her last school work but just wasn’t able to and I had to had to wait until she accepted that.

It wasn’t a criticism of you. Your post made it sound like you didn’t know an early review was possible. I was simply saying it was and could be requested.

And I mentioned requesting AP and AP not having to be traditional because while DD may not be able to engage in traditional AP, AP can come in many forms, including, for example, not having any direct provision. &/or it could be more hours of the Mindjam you mention has been funded until now.

Thank you

Joining the thread now. Daughter just diagnosed with ASD before the summer break. I will be starting the EHCP process once I've met her new teacher and the newly promoted sendco. She’s 9, Y5.

@WhatNextImScared I would make the request ASAP. I wouldn’t wait to meet the new teacher and SENCO. This is especially important since DD is in Y5. You need every day you can get.

Hello, sorry if this has already been asked. My DC got their EHCP in January 2026 (after a long fight). They are now going into year 11 and we are starting to think ahead to post 16 options. Bitter experience suggests that the LA won’t be proactive. When do I need to get them to do the phase transfer review and what shall I expect? We haven’t even had an annual review yet but I think it might need doing in advance of that? Thanks

@BananaPie a phase transfer review should be held in the autumn term of Y11 (or at the very, very beginning of January, although I wouldn’t recommend this).

The AR process should be as follows:

1. Updated advice and information must be circulated at least 2 weeks prior to the AR meeting.
2. Then you have the AR meeting.
3. Within 2 weeks of the AR meeting, a report must be circulated.
4. Within 4 weeks of the AR meeting, the LA must send you the amendment notice/draft/notice of amendment/proposed amendments (whatever the LA/you want to call it) and you must be given at least 15 days to comment on the amendments and state your preferred placement.
5. Then the LA must finalise within 8 weeks of sending the proposed amendments.
6. For post 16 phase transfer, they must also finalise the 31st March 2027.

Start preparing now. Look at your evidence. Look at the existing EHCP. Start building your case. Do you already know the preferred placement?

Thanks so much, super helpful. We don’t yet know the placement - we have some ideas but not sure yet (and potential for it to depend on the GCSE results which is tricky in terms of timings).

The last EP assessment was over two years ago at the end of year 8 - it took so long to get the EHCP in place. Would it be normal / reasonable to have another assessment at this point? Could we request the LA do one? Quite a lot of stuff from the EHCP is yet to be implemented so I’m not sure there will be masses to review. But at the moment the results from the mocks and exam scripts speak for themselves in terms of performance in the absence of the right support and the SEN team at the school are well placed to comment on social and emotional support required.

While you can ask for updated EP advice and information as part of the AR process, it is unlikely this will be a proper full report.

To give you all the information in order to be able to make a decision, you could, in theory, request a reassessment of needs, but personally I wouldn’t.

Is the provision in F not being provided detailed, specified and quantified or is it vague and woolly?

It’s detailed and specific, but just more suitable for a child in KS3 than a child who
will have completed GCSEs this time next year.

If the provision is detailed, specified and quantified but not being provided, you can enforce it if you want.

If you don’t want it provided because it is out of date, you could request an early review. On their website, IPSEA has a model letter you can use.

So school starts next week annual review decision with legal deadline of months ago is still unresolved. Significant changes to support were requested and we have been fobbed off for months with various excuses. To cut a long story short we submitted private report-LA stated they needed their service to check but a SAR has shown this service hasn’t been responsive to e-mails sent requesting this advice and SEN team don’t appear to have proactively chased this in any timely fashion despite my complaints. What can I do? MP is already involved but nothing has moved just empty promises of we are prioritising this, this week and then absolutely nothing has happened on issuing the amended plan (this is after parental consultation on the first draft)

If the LA is in breach of the AR timescales and chasing hasn’t worked, you can look for someone with the capacity to write a pre-action letter.

When you have chased the LA have you emailed the Director of Children’s Services? If not, try that. If you haven’t already emailed the Monitoring Officer, you could try that too.

I might try the monitoring office as they are based in the legal department as apart from the timescales there are many other unlawful practices happening but I suspect they already know all about this and just ignore it

So final EHCP has been issued...... it says mainstream attendance has collapsed, she experiences the school environment as overwhelming and feels unsafe and remains hypervigilant............ her own views on the EHCP state she cannot consistently attend her current mainstream.
Provision includes things like one hour small group teaching every day. Another 30 minute small group teaching every day, multiple small group interventions. Check ins from key staff at beginning of every lesson, before every new task, during all transitions during the day. Flexible eating and drinking times, an agreed low arousal safe space available throughout the day. Key staff to be available throughout the day. These are just some examples of section f.
And they have named the current mainstream 😭😭😭😭😭😭

@rainbow9713 I know you will have paraphrased to post here, but from that wording, I can see why mainstream has been named. It is poor wording. Not exhaustive, but for example, what is ‘small’? Small group isn’t the same as small class. What ‘key adult’? Depending on the exact wording, the check ins may well be able to be fulfilled by the class teacher. ‘Throughout the day’ doesn’t mean throughout the whole school day.

Ah it's daily 1 hour teaching in a small group no more than 6. Then 2 30 minute teaching sessions daily with 4-6 peers.

I am going for a meeting with the school shortly and I sent then 11 pages of questions on Friday. Basically asking about wvery provision and how they will provide it.

The school SENCo and attendance seem genuinely surprised they have been named, I believe they said they cant meet need (thry said they would anyway). I have asked case worker for all consultation responses to help with evidence for tribunal. But I will ask current school if they could hive me a copy of there's. As the case worker is shockingly bad at responding

Make sure you appeal B&F as well as I. The wording definitely needs improving and the placement named in section I is the logical conclusion of B&F. B+F=I. Although they shouldn’t, it is also common for LAs to write B&F to fit the placement they want to name in I.

Unfortunately, schools that are not wholly independent can be named even if they object and directed to admit.

Just back from the school meeting, it is the small group teaching elements that they have said they will be going to SENAR and saying they cannot meet this provision.

Other parts of the EHCP can only be done if my daughter attends extra curricular such as breakfast club and after school. Which me and the school know it will be a miracle of we even get my daughter in the building never mind being there any longer.

I do like the SENCo and my youngest daughter has just started the school. But my youngest daughter is a different child to my older child.

I have been clear and said I will be going to tribunal, that obviously I will work with the school to try and get my daughter to attend. But we all know the battle that has been, and they also said alot of the provisionnis changing environment, which as a 9 form entry mainstream they cannot adapt the environment as much as is needed

Hello, I have finally had the draft ehcp. They’ve not updated B, C, E or F despite new evidence including a LA EP report. They are already well out of time. I don’t want to get into endless redraft tennis. I will say I accept it solely to get schools consulted and the final ehcp and then appeal. Does that sound like a pragmatic approach?
I did directly ask for s19 provision but this hasn’t even been acknowledged.

@CatBusStop propose any amendments that are required. You can do this without getting drawn into a prolonged back and forth. You don’t need to say you accept the EHCP, the LA doesn’t need your agreement to finalise. The LA may well have already started consulting. They don’t always wait for parents to make representations and state their preferred placement. That is why it is a good idea to contact any placements who may be consulted so that they have a full and accurate picture.

If you didn’t email the Director of Children’s Services about AP, do that. If you did, you could look for someone with capacity for a pre-action letter.