Ed Psych Assessment for transfer to Secondary school

[FrayedHem]

DS1 is Yr6, statemented from reception, currently transferring over to EHCP. He is banded as complex needs, 25hrs LSA support.

He has not been seen by Ed Psych since preschool; due to the above transfer the school have requested an assessment. The EP are not keen and are querying whether this is a good use of resources. We are going to name a specialist base for his school so we are in need of as much evidence as possible.

Is reluctance to assess a common thing? It is proving difficult in being able to contact EP department directly and I'm generally a bit mystified on their accountability.

Any advice or experience would be great.

They don't have a choice. By law, there has to be a full EHC needs assessment on transfer from a statement to an EHCP unless you, the LA and the providers of any other advice relied on agree that advice already in existence is sufficient. The LA should also get a social care report, and anything else that is appropriate, e.g. SALT and OT. Have a look at the Transition Regulations and Transition Guidance; also regulation 6 of the SEND Regulations which sets out exactly what advice they're supposed to get for an EHC assessment.

If you have any difficulty persuading the LA to do all that, contact SOS SEN.

Thank you so much, I will use those links to make it clear I will not accept the EP not assessing. Looking over my paperwork DS1 was 3yrs 6 months at the last EP assessment. How that could be sufficient for secondary school transfer I don't know!

The only input DS1 has is from the Specialist Teaching Team who are thankfully more helpful and are actually guiding the school through the process.

Thanks again

It's my understanding that it should be up to the school to decide if the EP assesses as they have to pay for this resource. I have never heard of an EP refusing to assess who has told you this? I was in the same situation with transfer from statement to echp in Y5/Y6 with no EP input since dc was 3.6 years. There was no issue with EP assessing late into Y5 as school was happy for this to happen - well actually they may not have been happy but they did not refuse my request.

No, it isn't up to the school. The law says there has to be an assessment on transfer from a statement to an EHCP, unless the parent agrees it's not necessary. The school has no say in it whatsoever. The LA has to pay for the assessment.

Oh ok - I think it was just a coincidence then that I happened to ask for an EP assessment around the same time as statement / echp transfer.

I still don't understand how an EP can directly refuse or question use of resources surely that it for the school or LA to question.

I know there has been an ongoing problem with my LA not having enough Ed Psychs. DS1 should have been on some kind of list but wasn't and rather than address that, they seem to be trying to avoid doing what they are required to.
I'm not going to let it drop, but I am concerned they are going to drag their feet.

Just to add - I'm a bit wary of saying who told me about the "use of resources" on an open forum as I'm not sure they were supposed to, but it's a verified source.

To update, I've had a response from the EP Service. A meeting has been arranged but begrudgingly so. There is a lot of finger pointing and I am frustrated that a seemingly simple request is necessitating so much time being spent on it.

You should also be able to speak to the EP and outline your concerns and then discuss the school you feel will best meet his needs. You can also have any inaccuracies removed from the report.

I hope they're going to be doing more than a meeting? They are supposed to be providing advice about your child's difficulties and the specific and detailed provision required to meet them, so the EP needs more than a meeting. However, you can use the meeting to remind him about that. If he denies it, refer him to the bit in paragraph 9.69 of the code of practice referring to what has to be in section F of the EHC Plan.

Thanks for the replies.

It was an incredibly frustrating phonecall, with the EP following up with an email trying to prove their version of events, and then the area SEN officer ringing to back the EP up. I suspect the meeting is another exercise to prove their versions of events; that hinge on a conversation with a school employee who has left.

There isn't any intention to meet DS1 as "assessments are like placebos" and the school telling them at AR that no new EP input needed counts as them being actively involved. The reports from school and the specialist teaching team are sufficient enough for panel to consider specialist placements.
I am pretty pissed off.

I think you will have to obtain to your own independent report and make it clear to the LA that this is your intention.

Any EHC plan must have a comprehensive description of the child's needs and so provision is properly described. It is appalling that they will not reassess your son to provide this.

My LA were not going to reassess my daughter when her statement transferred to EHC plan but did back down fairly quickly and in the end we did obtain an EP report although it was poor and did play down my daughter's difficulties.

Do ensure you email following any phone calls with a summary of what was said and create a paper trail.

Go along to the meeting with a copy of the Transition guidance, regulation 6 of the SEND regulations, and paragraph 9.69 of the Code of Practice and ask them which part of that says they shouldn't assess, and how the LA can comply with its duty to set out provision in detailed and specific terms if the EP doesn't do her job properly. Take someone with you to make notes, and circulate your version of the minutes before anyone else does - you can be sure that their version will be very selective.

I should probably have mentioned in my OP that DS1 is very unlikely to engage in any formal assessing and would probably refuse to speak to an EP at all. That really is the crux of DS1's difficulties as he just shuts down and I wanted that officially witnessed and recorded by the EP. I'm not sure if we can afford a private assessment but I'll make some enquiries.

I could kick myself for losing control of the transfer, getting DS1's statement was problem-free. I'm woefully uninformed on the process and It hasn't helped that our county pushed back all the transfer dates as they were so behind.

This has been a massive wake up call and hopefully I can get it back on track. Thanks again for all your help, I feel like I can take this on now.

The EP did no assessments or scoring in my daughter's assessment, he just wrote xxxxx refused to cooperate and then listed observations and facts reported by the TA. It was a very poor, unhelpful report but we did get useful reports from the OT, physio and SALT.

I hope it all gets sorted soon op

That's really helpful vjg13. Did you need to get the EP report amended at all? I'm just wondering what sort of proof they accept. Though of course I have to get them to do one first!

Asides from the school, we only have the specialist teaching team involved so we are light on professionals to get reports from. Unfortunately we also have an ongoing TA support debacle(!) and if the EP relied on their input it would be farcical.

Thanks redheads that's really kind. or

And if anyone lurking has a transfer or is trying to get an EHCP - don't be a fool like me and make sure you are fully in control. The LA has merrily told me on several occasions that it will be a mere formality and not to worry at all

You aren't a fool, Frayed, your LA lied to you. They're by no means the only one that is doing that.

That's nice of you to say Lady, but really I did know better and yet I just allowed it to drift. When DS1 was dx with ASD I was all about getting him statemented (thanks to these boards) and they all (preschool/SALT/Paed) told me to wait until he was in school as there was no way he'd get one. And in fact he got 25hrs with no argument (although the content was pretty woolly).

If there is one positive, the EP phonecall was very enlightening on how they view themselves. I'm actually quite looking forward to the meeting and will be making good use of those links you've given me.

FrayedHem, I did ask some inaccurate statements to be removed. He added a few paragraphs, with 'The parents report.... " and did change a few sentences. It was a poor report, I had to remind him that language for provision should be clear and unambiguous and no "access to" "opportunities for" which he also removed.

My daughter's transfer has been a farce, we waited well over 20 weeks for the first draft which was dire and about 42 weeks for the final plan. I really tried to educate myself on what should be where and had the draft checked by Education Equality who were incredibly helpful and they actually rewrote lots of it.

The local independent supporter was useless on checking the draft and had we listened to her we would have accepted the first draft.

Sorry to hear you've had a poor transfer experience vyg13. I do wonder how it would be if certain professionals dedicated the same amount of time to supporting the process that they do to avoid getting involved how different it all would be!

I've had a look at the Education Equality website and it looks just what we are going to need, thanks for the info.

I've found out today that other parents in my area with a similar transfer situation were contacted directly by EP at EP instigation; visited at home - child assessed and parent consult and have 5 page+ reports.

I am looking forward to the explanation next week!

To update, a very very long meeting was had. EP is going to write a report, did make several (good) suggested amendments to Sections E&F on the plan, but throughout was adamant that there was sufficient information on DS1 from everyone else (school, specialist teacher and parents) to not necessitate any EP involvement. I bluntly said it wasn't for the EP Service to decide as it was enshrined in law.

Overall, DS1's case is now getting the LA attention it should but what I think of the system and service is unprintable!

Thanks again for all the help