Extra school support without EHCP?

[FrancesPow]

Hello everyone.

My DS (4.8) is in mainstream reception. He has been managing with minimal support at school but his teacher has raised concerns about engaging him in certain activities - apparently if he's not interested he'll just walk off and does what he wants.

He got a dx of ASD on Monday and I had quite a good meeting with his teacher and the SENCO this week; they are going to apply for an EHCP in the hope that it'll be in place by the start of Year 1. In the meantime they were going to go to the head and ask for some extra support for him while that goes through. They said she had been waiting for a dx before agreeing to fund extra help. I caught up with his teacher at pick up yesterday and apparently the head has said no to extra support for him.

I'll be asking for a meeting with the head to ask her to explain why but do I have any grounds to demand further support? In our area the school are expected to fund up to 12 hours of support even without EHCP (not sure if this is how it works everywhere) but without an EHCP is there any way to ensure they do this? Am I just in for a fruitless battle with the school that does nothing but piss them off?

What doesn't go in our favour (though I realise that it's good in the grander scheme) is that DS has already made great strides in reception, and his behaviour isn't generally a problem in class, so the head probably feels he can manage without one to one. Even so, his teacher feels he'd benefit from it.

Is it worth fighting or should I wait for the EHCP?

Hi Francis, welcome to the board, I need to sleep now but will come back tomorrow

From my experience the school will find it virtually impossible to get a EHCP without having first given him extra support. The school have to show what they have done to support your ds out of their Sen budget and why he needs more support than they can provide. If his teacher feels he needs more support then you really need to meet with the head to discuss this. Both my boys with ASD coped in reception but struggled in year 1. Good luck x

Thanks, I was worried that not having much support now would go against us with the EHCP application.

Can anyone suggest any useful arguments to use with the head? I think she'll just say 'sorry, no money', which is a bit hard to argue with.

I guess the reason that the HT has said no is because your Ds has made progress!

Unless he stalls or his rate of progress slows then he is unlikely to be given additional support.

The system is set up so that children usually have to fail before any additional support is put into place.

It is the failure to make progress that triggers the support.

If the teacher really believes that your Ds needa more support then she needs to put the case to the HT but that is going to mean that she will have to admit that she cant support him using her own strategies. Many teachers find that difficult to do.

Sorry if that sounds negative but I have been in the system for many yrs and my Dd's have been in 5 different schools!

Sorry lots of typos in that

It's so unfair, isn't it? I'm pretty sure Year 1 is going to be a real struggle but I guess the HT isn't in the business of allocating funds 'in case'.

Is there any mileage in the argument that the teacher and TA won't be able to give enough attention to the rest of the class if they're always dealing with him?

Looks like I'm at the beginning of years of battles with the school and LA (sigh).

The key really is getting the EHCP but even then the school have to pay the first however many £'s towards his support.

My concern with your situation is that when the senco approaches the HT and says s/he is going to apply for an EHCP that the HT will veeto it and say give it more time!

The senco should know that additional support should have been in place before the ehc request goes in because they have to be able to show what they have tried that didnt work!

The LA wont write an ehcp just in case either! We had exactly that situation when Dd3 was transferring to secondary, she wasnt coping in primary so we knew it was unlikely that she would manage secondary without a statement (now ehcp) but the LA said they wanted to wait and see because she was going to an "outstanding" school!!

It failed, she now has a statement but is now home ed because she simply couldnt cope!

Good luck