EHC plan Advice and Information

[sky111]

Hello,

My son (M) has received a draft EHC plan.
Has the LA completed its duty by simply requesting Medical and Social Worker advice that they currently hold?

The reply back from health is

'M is not currently known( or been known within the last 6 months) to any health services. We are also not aware of any other health agencies that are involved, therefore we are unable information for the health component.

Social advice is a one liner...........
'No current involvement within the last 6 months'

Can the LA rely on both these health and social service advice when the LA know there are health and social care needs which are currently not supported by the LA ? M has not being provided with education according to his SEN for over a year even though M's SEN is still valid . His school placement was withdrawn and no other placement was put in its place. There was also no school advice sought as school could not give advice due to long time lapse. A case of Judical review has time lapsed.

Thanks

Hello, I'm not really sure if I can help but just bumping for you in the hope someone more knowledgeable comes along.

Is there anything in any reports you have from professionals outlining your son's health needs? I've just had a look in my son's EHCP and the social care bit has a similar response to what you've said, but under health needs it lists the health related things that have come from the paediatrician, neurologist reports etc.

No. They're supposed to get advice, clearly something that says so little isn't advice. It might be acceptable f there is genuinely no health or social services involvement, and no reason to believe the child has relevant health needs, but that's not the case for you. Have a look at regulation 6 of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 which set out the advice they should be obtaining, and quoting them to the LA.

Are you sure time has lapsed for judicial review? If it's an ongoing failure (which a failure to arrange a school place is), in effect time never lapses. I'd suggest you contact SOS SEN about that.

I think there is a loophole that the LAs exploit. The EHCP process requires then to contact services to gather information. The intention was clearly to get a multidisciplinary assessment, but it's not working out like that in practice. I head that in many cases the services simply reply "not known to service" and the LA claim to have discharged their duty. IPSEA advise initiating your own referral with the relevant services before starting the EHCP process to close the loophole if you want input from a particular service. Apparently there is a heading in either the Children & Families Act 2014 or the supporting Regulations which indicates that the information should be "obtained" but it's not specified in a numbered paragraph which is easy to refer to. Sorry it's not as clear as you would like....

Thank you Friolero, LadyConstanceDeCoverlet and tartanterror.

Whereas M's statement is detailed with information from Educational Psychologist, SALT and OT independent reports and these reports were incorporated these with quantified and qualified provision, the draft EHC plan has no SALT, OT and the LA Educational Psychologist report contains meaningless words like 'access to' support over and above'.
LA summed it up quite nicely with their reply............

 We have received educational psychology advice, medical and 
 social care advice. We will issue the final plan with the information 
 that we have received within the required timelines.

I don't want to face another tribunal with a bunch of hypocrites in a room, accept LA can give and take support, withdraw school placement but continued to pay the fees for the independent school placements knowing that M was not at school and then the LA write a EHC plan which is worth less than toilet paper. I challenged LA about withholding information requested about M under Subject Access request, and the reply I received was.....

    Some information does not appear to have been disclosed to you    
    and this appears to have been an oversight. I have seen no 
    evidence during my investigation that information withheld for any 
   other reason than simple human error. Please accept my apologies 
    on behalf of the Council for this oversight. 

Previously I had tolerance for all individuals I have met whose work is connected with disability and special needs, now I am extremely cynical.

I'm so sorry to hear that! I'd be fuming too! The transfer from statement to EHCP isn't meant to be an excuse to downgrade support. It's rubbish that they will make you go to tribunal. I know it's not the done thing on MN but I'm sending you ((hugs))

You mind find this info at Ipsea helpful
www.ipsea.org.uk/what-you-need-to-know/model-letters/model-letter-7#top

Thank you for hugs tartanterror, appreciate your post.

Sazale, great link with model letter.
While LA considers getting advice, should I get the EHC plan finalised?

No idea but there are IPSEA call back slots available for next week - book here