No draft EHCP yet but final EHCP due by 15th February

[lattemum]

My son is in Year 6 and moving to Secondary School in September. We are in the process of getting his Statement transferred to an EHCP - we are at about week 8 of the process. I have been told by the Case Officer that the draft EHCP will be sent out to us shortly. However, I understand the LA has to issue the final EHCP by 15th February. If this is the case we will have no time to consider the draft or ask for any amendments. Can anyone please advise?

They have to give you 15 days to respond and name your school preference, and a further 15 days for the school to be consulted. The reality is that they're not going to meet the deadline, but to be honest I suspect that virtually every local authority in the country is going to be in that position with a very large proportion of their statement transfers because Ipsea and SOS SEN are reporting large volumes of calls where councils made no attempt to begin the process back in October which was the appropriate time if they were going to do the full reassessments required by law. The delay matters because, if you need to appeal against the final version, you may not have time to get the appeal heard before the end of the school year.

I'd suggest you contact them now and tell them you need the draft immediately so that you can comment properly, and that if they don't send it by, say, tomorrow evening you will have to consider judicial review.