EHCP deadline has passed....

[Frogandbear]

Well...the EHCP deadline has passed...and I'm still waiting

I submitted a request for assessment back in September and they gave me a deadline by which time they would reply with a decision. Well that deadline was a couple of days ago now.

I emailed the day before the deadline stating my concern that I hadn't heard from them, etc, etc.

No reply.

I really don't want to phone as I like to have a paper trail of all conversations regarding these matters.

However, I don't know what to do now....

Any advice?

I would call, then follow up with a "for the sake of good order" email confirming what was agreed and politely asking them to reply to acknowledge receipt.

Id forward the original email with a screenshot of the relevant bit of the letter and state you've not had a decision yet. Quote relevant deadlines and state you expect they have already started assessment by now as they haven't informed you to the contrary. Tell them you expect a reply within 24 hours or you'll be escalating it along the complaints procedure.

UPDATE

They emailed me the following this afternoon:

'We are just waiting to receive information from the school, this is due back on the 3rd of December. We will contact you as soon as possible'

HUH?!?

DS is 3 and a half - he doesn't go to school and even if they did mean to say nursery.....I have to wait to the 3rd of December?!? 1. That is a Saturday and 2. THAT'S ANOTHER 3!!!! weeks time

I'm going to stop typing before I blow....

Don't refer to the complaints procedure, they'll regard that as an excuse to do nothing till the complaint has ground slowly through LA processes. Tell them the statutory deadline passed whenever it was, you are worried your child will be prejudiced by any delay in dealing with these things, and you would like to hear from them with a decision by, say Friday; and that if you don't, you will be reluctantly forced to consider judicial review proceedings. If that doesn't work, see if SOS SEN will do a formal pre-action letter for you.

I feel like I'm stuck now

Can I even try and hurry them up? - surely they will just say that it's the school that they've waiting for and put the blame onto them...

Yes, of course you can try and hurry them up, by threatening judicial review. The deadlines are imposed by statute. You don't know that they're waiting for the school, and even if they were, that isn't a reason that is allowed for by the law.

I should say that the chances of you actually having to start court proceedings are vanishingly tiny, but if you did you would get legal aid because you could take judicial review proceedings in your child's name.

I would email again with something like
"I was surprised that you hadnt been able to collect all the information you needed in the time specified by the SEN code of practice 2015. Another 2 weeks will put us well outside the statutory timescales, please inform me as soon as possible when the nursery have responded to you request for information.
Look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.
Regards
Frog"

Send the email every day until you get a response, copy in the SEND team manager and the director of childrens services if you can get his/her email address. A local support group might be able to help you with that!

Good luck