EHCP but still not getting help, what next.

[Violet44]

My son got EHCP in November and have been waiting patiently for things to be put in place. Senco told me he had money for 9 1/2 hours support. She asked me in for a meeting to go through his IEP, before half term, I was not happy with it as half the targets weren't taken from EHCP. She said he was getting lots of support but it didn't total the 9 1/2 hours she'd said, and then when I asked who was doing this she said teacher or ta, so I asked how that impacted rest of class, she said it was often group work, so I then asked what the money from his EHCP was being spent on she said cover for those teachers but am sure it's not and I am being fobbed off. She said she had to save some money for the speech therapy but she already said she was going through nhs for that. I have sent her a long email saying he needs help focusing and they needed to use some of the funding to give him support but she has ignored this. We are halfway through year 2 and basically nothing has changed, I can't sit back and let this lie but am not sure what to do. Any advice appreciated.

It very much depends on the wording of the EHCP and how easy it is to pin down what is supposed to be happening and what actually is happening. If the EHCP specifically says your child must have 9.5 hours 1:1 support then you need to ask precisely how and when this is happening; if it isn't, you should point out to the school that he has to receive that support by law, and if he doesn't you will have to go further to enforce it. If that doesn't work, contact the local authority whose duty it is to ensure this happens, and if necessary contact SOS SEN about taking action to enforce it.

However, it may be that the support is more vaguely phrased and actually does allow for group work. If that is the case, it will be difficult to establish they anyone is acting unlawfully. You could perhaps ask for an early review with a view to tightening up the wording of the EHCP to make it more enforceable and, if the LA won't do that, appeal to the tribunal for that purpose.

The EHCP doesn't actually state what support he gets, but our borough allocate points and give the funding to the school, it should be spent on him though. Have emailed the guy from parent partnership for advice.