Transfer from a Statement to an EHC plan?

[PoorKwai]

Quick question. DD got a Statement in July, but we are now being asked to go to a meeting to transfer this to an EHC plan. I'm still recovering from getting the Statement to be honest - do we have to transfer? What difference will it make? Could I just leave them to it, or would that be a bad idea?
DD is starting school in Sept, and that is all sorted, so I'm just wondering why. Can anyone tell me?

Yes everybody has to transfer and LA's have their own lists of which groups they are doing first. DS will be done this year even though i want to keep his statement as long as possible but really it will be delaying the inevitable.
This is the IPSEA link for info on transferring from statements to EHC plans.
www.ipsea.org.uk/what-you-need-to-know/transition

You could ask your LA if they would mind waiting a bit as you are finding it overwhelming and see what they say. I know my LA are doing groups in certain orders so parents know when to expect it. There shouldn't be any change in provision just because they are changing onto a EHC plan, it should be exactly the same as what they statement is providing.

Definitely phone IPSEA or go on the website.

It will have to be done at some point unfortunately and they are probably suggesting doing your Dd's because she is at a transition point.

Good luck

The LA transition plan should be on their website. It should aim to do children in year 6 / moving to secondary in 2014/15 but it's not mandatory and you can say you would prefer to wait. Your annual review would be in June / July and when move to EHCP (has be by 2018) they should link the transfer and annual review. We have delayed ours as we were in the annual review when they said they would write to us after the meeting to start the new process! We said we didn't want to go through 2 processes so close together when the guidance was clear there should be one process per year with all reviews etc coordinated.

Bit confused! Can I ask not to do this right now? Does it depend on what my LA's plan is?
If I go ahead, what do I need to know so I don't miss anything!

Kwai the idea is that Parts 2 and 3 should transferred to the corresponding education sections on the ECHP.

BUT, on the down side, what everyone fears is that LAs may take the opportunity either to water down the provision - put in a few woolly words like 'opportunities for', 'regular', 'access to'. 'would benefit from.

Or take some provision from Parts 2 and 3 and try to put it under the health and social sections, which are not enforceable.

So that is the thing to keep sharp eyes out for.

BUT, on the up side, the test for what goes into the education sections is now 'waht does dc for the best possible outcome'. So if anything there should be MORE provision as the test has been changed to something more forceful
If your dc is in secondary, then especially as the years tick on, the long term outcomes should be more and more apparent in the aims and provision.

IPSEA website is very clear.

I don't know if you can get a delay, but you will find out only if you ask...

Hope this helps

I definitely wouldn't leave them to it! I am in the same position: DS (yr 1) finally got his Statement in March after we had gone down the tribunal route. He has good provision but we've been told the LA want to change it to an EHCP at Annual Review even though he isn't in one of the target groups ( though the LA have decided to make Year 1 a target group at local level).

They have already sent in their experts to reassess him and to unquantify and unspecify his provision . We had 3 private reports done 12 months ago from which the provision on his Statement was clearly quantified and specified. My dilemma now is whether to recommission private reports (which I really haven't got the money to do) in anticipation of the LA trying to reduce provision or wait and see what they put in the EHCP and then appeal. I had a meeting with the LA Salt and specifically asked him to quantify and specify in his recommendations in line with the provision already detailed in DS's statement when he wrote his report and he said "well if you don't agree with what I say, you can always appeal". It doesn't bode well...

Does anyone know if I can refuse to have him transferred to an EHCP at this stage?

zen - I'd save your money for the near inevitable appeal, BUT, check what tests your experts want to use and, if it is not too late, forbid the LA experts from assessing using the same ones.

This is OK for EPs where there are different tests that can be used in a short space of time (I think, but check). SALT is harder I think as the tests cannot be repeated within 6 months.
Not sure about OT.

So the ideal is that you end up at appeal with more recent assessments than theirs, but which are immune from the challenge of being repeated too soon, and s giving false positives.

Thanks senvet (and sorry to derail PoorKwai). The LA experts have not carried out full re-assessments (I sat in on SALT assessment and it only took 30 mins, whereas independent experts took much longer.). I was erring on the side of waiting to see what the final EHCP looks like before booking independent assessments, but my only concern is that often you have to book the experts months in advance and if I wait until I want to appeal the EHCP, then it may be difficult to book them within the appeal time frame.

Most of the experts have an understanding cancellation policy.
Book early to avoid disappointment??