LA refusing to use independent OT report as too old, pressuring me to finalise EHCP

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Hi, I'm wondering if some of you lovely knowledgeable people can advise me. I'm at the stage where we have the EHCP with the school we want named for my ASD daughter.

However, the EHCP was very badly written, woolly and incomplete. They ignored our OT report completely and when I queried it they said they can't put the recommended blocks of OT in as the report was over 18 months old (during the EHCP assessment process I asked about this and was told it would be fine).

I said they should have arranged an up to date OT report if this one was not going to be good enough in that case. They then said they would take recommendations from our NHS OT report - which is older!

These recommendations are for BEAM, sensory circuits etc which she had in mainstream and were not sufficient for her sensory processing disorder.

They are putting a lot of pressure on me to finalise as their deadline is Wednesday. However on the phone I said I wanted to check over their changes before agreeing to them. They agreed to this but when they send the draft with their changes to my amendments they added a message saying it's too late to make any further changes!

This was during the day yesterday so all I had time to do was email back saying I don't want it finalised and that they have left out a professional recommendation re 1:1 OT.

I hope this makes sense - my head is spinning. Part of me just wants to give in as we have a school where she will be very well supported, but part of me wants them to do the right thing especially as we have been paying for ALL her education and therapy for the last 3 or so years as we couldn't get any appropriate support at all. I also want the EHCP to reflect her needs accurately especially as secondary isn't too far away.

Thanks for reading, and any help you can give.

Do you think an NHS assessment now would back up your independent OT report or just rehash the old NHS report?

Thanks for responding lougle - I guess it would back up the NHS one as she still has a sensory processing disorder, handwriting difficulties, gross motor difficulties etc, and sensory issues still have a great impact on everyday life. The NHS report and independent one both basically say the same things although the indi one is much more detailed The NHS one detailed the issues and the then OT told me that there was no therapy available on the NHS for kids with these difficulties, so she didn't put a recommendation for 1:1 therapy, while the indi one does.

I mean it would prob back up the indi one!

An 18 months old report is considered old. It is recommended that a child gets an assessment every 6 months or so.

If they don't put in your recommendations, you may well have to appeal to the tribunal.

They are supposed to give you at least 15 days to respond, so they should be moderately flexible about that - however, they are also supposed to finalise the EHCP within 20 weeks of when the initial request went in, so they are under some time pressure. You're perfectly right, if they weren't going to accept your OT reports because it was too old then they should have commissioned a new one - have you asked them why they accept the older one? However, if the new OT report is likely to say the same as the old, there probably isn't much to be gained from making them get one and you might as well go to tribunal with an update from your OT.

Incidentally, if the OT failed to recommend something the child needs because they don't have the resources to supply it, she was in breach of her professional conduct rules. It's presumably too late to do anything about it now, but if you are told anything similar in future you need to confirm it in writing and consider making a formal complaint to the Health Professions Council.

Thanks for those responses notgivingin and Ceto - it's so hard to know what to do half the time and we have been told so many things over the years that have later been found to be untrue!

Update: they are going to finalise tomorrow and want to go with the recommendations form the older report as the more recent one is too old???

Is it best if we now get a full independent OT assessment/review do you think?

IME, the LA ignore an independent professional's report, even if it were issued last week - this is just one of a long list of any possible excuses, they could come up with. A common excuse is

"You paid the independent professional to say that...."

The real issue is that they don't want to specify any provision, and especially speech and language therapy and/or OT! An independent professional is more likely to specify the provisions in their report, than an NHS one, who is under the cosh from their manager!

The question really is how strongly do you feel about this - can you afford another up to date OT report, and are you willing to appeal to the Tribunal about it?

(I personally have never regretted getting provisions specified, because whenever I didn't, sooner or later no speech therapy, OT or whatever gets provided and DD has ended up crying her eyes out for weeks/months on end, because she can't cope with staff, who have had no training by that professional in the nature of her difficulties. However, that is just her! Your dc may be more resilient!)

Thanks checklist, so given that it would take ages to get an NHS OT reassessment, we really have to get an independent one. And the LA would then have to accept those recommendations would they? My DD has very understanding staff at the moment but her sensory processing disorder has always affected her daily life greatly which is why I don't really want to give up on OT

Independent reports are useful when your lodging your appeal...e.g. When the tribunal orders you to submit your evidence. Before that... it's pretty useless as the LA will ignore it.

Checklist I'm sorry to hear how tough it's been for your DD - how awful that it has to be like that .

notgivingin thanks - does that mean I need to get an independent OT assessment booked ASAP and that it should be with an OT who can take on tribunal work?

Yesssss ! The very good ones book up early ! Find one who has experience in tribunal work and reports. It will be very specific! SOSSEN, if you call them, have a list of Independent OT's that other parents have used.

Good luck :)

Thanks notgivingin