Appeal deadline of 29th Dec to SENDIST following EHCP refusal

[Sparky17]

Hi
Sorry but cant get through to anyone at LA or SENDIST or SENDIAS or IPSEA so desperate for some pointers.
The LA refused to issue an EHCP for my daughter - the letter was dated 29th October, so the 2 month deadline is 29th December!!!!
In the refusal letter, the LA said they would arrange a "Way Forward" meeting within 3 weeks of this letter. They didn't contact me so I chased them by phone during the 4th week, and followed up again by email on 23rd Nov. I received an email on 8th Dec advising the LA Ed Psych would contact me to arrange a meeting. It was the school SENCo that then contacted me on 10th Dec, and advised the meeting was scheduled for 12th Jan.
I was concerned that the Way Forward meeting was after the 29th Dec appeal deadline so I contacted the Mediation Service by phone, and followed up again by email on 14th Dec asking what I needed to do to get a certificate. They emailed me back on 14th Dec asking for contact details, I emailed back on 16th Dec with address, and contact numbers, but have not heard anything back. I cant get through to anyone in the mediation service today, and have had to resort to emailing them again. I do not know now what to do. I am worried that I have not been as proactive as I should but I am a single, working Mum and have recently been ill and diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
The 29th Oct letter states "you have the right to appeal to the tribunal, but are not able to register the appeal without a certificate. if you decide not to use mediation during or following contact with the mediation adviser the adviser will then issue a certificate within 3 working days. Once in possession of the certificate you will be able to lodge your appeal either within 2 months of this letter or within one month from receiving the certificate (whichever is the latter)"
Am I right in thinking that I will still be able to appeal to the tribunal (despite the 2 month 29th Dec deadline) as I have not been able to get a certificate (despite trying). And is there any way I can register my appeal without a mediation certificate? and if so how can i do this? They say we have rights but make it impossible to exercise these rights!
thank you so much for getting to the end of this and for any pointers you can give me!!! xxx

Send the Tribunal an email explaining the situation in chronological order.
Send an email to the Mediation service and also ring them saying that you need the certificate. They will normally send the certificate through within a few days.
Alternatively send in the appeal to SEND saying that the mediation certificate will follow within a few days due to the Christmas break.
You can say that you have been holding on serving the appeal as you were waiting for the LA to act but to date they have not done so which has caused additional complications in this issue.

The Tribunal may well not registrar the appeal but that normally takes 10 days for it to go through and so so long as you get the certificate in then you will be successful.

You will also have a record that you did submit the appeal in time - it just was not complete.
Scan it and email it in tomorrow - job done.
Good luck.

Thanks Nigel1 really appreciated!

Just to add that if this goes really wrong then just asks for them to assess again. As soon as they say no go straight to the mediation people. So what ever happens you have not lost all rights to appeal. But that would be worse case as its going to cause delays

Hi I am sorry Nigel1 & 2boys but can you give me clear instructions on how/where I get the form from to make the Appeal to SENDIST I just cant see where the form is and I'm in a panic / cant see anything clearly.

In some ways im thinking it might be better to start again as the assessment process was not properly completed (no Social Services involvement (and I now think that is important as I have MS), and the Comm Paed didnt see her (as too many children to see) and sent in a useless report based on when he saw her at my request a year ago when I was trying to get her referred to GOSH for her APD Auditory Processing Disorder diagnosis. I now know I could have complained and asked for further assessments to be done but it is now too late (I am now trying to get the Comm Paed to refer us to the Neuro disability unit at GOSH - but not sure I'll be successful with that)...

Don't worry - the mediation service have Just contacted me and issuing certificate today, so I now have 30 days to get appeal in....

hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/GetForms.do?court_forms_category=Special%20Educational%20Needs%20and%20Disability%20Tribunal

The one you need is 3rd from the bottom, its a pdf.

Good luck

To be honest the NHS and education don't talk to each other properly. Also my sons pead was horrified that he didn't have a statement - but didn't write a strong enough report either.

I wouldn't waste time if you don't need to hoping that the NHS will get their act together. Ask for them to write / talk to each other but appeal now.

Best case is that they do write something strong and the LA drop the appeal.

I'm sorry your in this situation as appeals take forever.