Draft EHCP

[wevecomeonholidaybymistake]

At what point in the process did you receive your draft EHCP?
We're nearing week 18 and haven't had it yet. I'm emailed and called several times and been told it's getting done and will be sent in the next few days but still nothing.

You should get it around week 15. The LA has to complete the EHCP within 20 weeks of receipt of the request for it. Once it has issued the draft, it has to give you at least 15 days to comment on it and express you preference as to a school place, and it has to consult schools and given them 15 days to reply. They also have to build in time to consider your comments and make further amendments if they agree. If both you and the school were to take the full 15 days, that's over four weeks on its own, so logically week 15 is about the latest that they can issue the draft.

I would suggest you contact them to point out when the deadline is and say that you need to hold them to it to ensure that your child has the support he needs from the beginning of term. If you don't get the draft by week 18, tell them that you will have to consider judicial review proceedings to protect your child's rights.

There's a useful information sheet about judicial review here.

Thank you. I have pointed out to them about the 20 week deadline and my concerns he won't have support in place when he goes back in September.
Would help if they actually returned phone calls and answered emails!

The threat of court proceedings may well wake them up a bit. If it doesn't, contact SOS SEN about getting a formal pre-action letter sent: they can't ignore that.

Unfortunately ignoring deadlines seems a recurring theme with LA's. My LA ignored it and then tried to use being over the deadline as a chance to push through an appalling draft. Good luck.

On the day it become 18 wks I phoned up and asked for update, was told another 3 weeks. So I asked for their complaints procedure and who my solicitor needed to speak to - I had one preorganised sitting on ds case. They rang me back and hour later and send out draft that day.

It was a pile of rubbish but that's another story

It was nerve-wracking but our Draft turned up about week 20 due to professional reports being late. Unsurprisingly the final version ran late - possibly week 26 or 27 - which was due to staff sickness. Phoning and emailing on a daily basis and then taking it up with a team manager seemed to finally sort things out. I was gutted as I had thought we had plenty time to get the final plan in place so that school could get ready for the new year. That hasn't happened - but I think they may have used the funding confirmation to be able to employ an extra TA so that is hopefully one positive step.