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]

@Runningshoes99 it is worth you reading your registration documents and the practice directions. Not everything you list is included within your 100 page evidence limit. You don’t have to include all the LA’s evidence.

You submitting your appeal doesn’t mean you can’t have representation later. For example, some decide to only seek help when the final evidence deadline is approaching, some only seek help for a position statement, some only seek help as the hearing is approaching. Not getting representation now, doesn’t mean you can’t further on in the process.

I think the whole point, surely, is selecting and collating the evidence that best supports your case? You're advocating for your child here.

@Runningshoes99 sorry, I was distracted earlier. Of course, you won’t have the registration documents yet, you haven’t submitted your appeal! Apologies. You can see the practice directions here. When the LA submits their response to the appeal, they have to include various bits including any information they relied on when making their decision that you haven’t already sent.