EP and Pead unable / unwilling to state severity

[2boysnamedR]

Ds has asd and was diagnosed soon after he turned three. He starts school in September is going through special school / ehcp panels.

He is non verbal - has about ten words he uses sometimes.

School places are allocated on severity of learning difficulty but no one will tell me his level of learning difficulties or his autism.

I asked the EP what his level of learning difficulty was. They wouldn't / couldn't say.

Then I asked what kind of setting was needed - again wouldn't say.

So all paperwork will state his needs but not his level of need - I asked if he's going to end upon MS - couldn't say! They can only record my opinion he will implode there.

Would a private EP be able to tell if he is non verbal and unable / unwilling to engage with them?

I'm not appealing again unless it's for the final goal. Ie changing his setting perminatly. I'm not doing any appeals to assess etc. I would rather keep my mental health intact

I don't even know if my son will get a ehcp yet. I have been sitting on my hands for a while. I hear the result of his panel late March but I can't appeal without the ehcp and God knows what going on with that.

If you don't get through to ipsea try looking everyday to check for slots for their ringback service as they are released weekly

yakki, there's information on the SOS SEN and IPSEA websites about how to appeal, and SOS SEN also does some helpful workshops for parents. By law your local authority was supposed to complete the EHCP within 20 weeks of when you requested assessment - are they within that deadline? It sounds like you need to ask them to get on and finalise so you can sort everything out via the tribunal.

Thanks GruntledOne, I'll look at the websites. They have gone way over the 20 weeks time frame (there was a dispute over when they received the request because we submitted the paperwork just before summer holidays but they had it uploaded to their system end of September). I literally call and email them every day to chase them but the same answers are given "we are short staffed" "please bear with us" etc.

I wouldn't accept that as a answer. Lodge a formal complaint ASAP via their official complaint procedure. Say they got the request on x date, there fore you should had a reply by y and you want a answer now. Staff shortage isn't a reason to ignore their satatory duty. They normally have reply with two weeks to a complaint