With regard to the EHCP:
If the EHC Needs assessment has been done properly, the LA should seek advice from all of the following people:
- the child’s parent or the young person;
- educational advice (usually from the head teacher or principal);
3.medical advice and information from a health care professional;
4.psychological advice and information from an educational
psychologist;
5.advice and information in relation to social care;
- advice and information from any other person the local authority
thinks appropriate;
7.where the child or young person is in or beyond year 9, advice and
information in relation to provision to assist the child or young
person in preparation for adulthood and independent living; and
8.advice and information from any person the child’s parent or
young person reasonably requests that the local authority seek
advice from.
This list is set out in Regulation 6(1) of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 (the “SEN Regs”):
All the professional reports should identify all of the needs i.e difficulties or disabilities the child has (which will go in Section B of the plan) and there should be provision to meet each one of these needs (which will go in Section F of the plan).
The provision should be very specific and say who should be doing what, how long for and when.
You should have been given copies of all the professional reports.Go through all of them with 2 highlighters. Highlight all of your son's needs (eg poor organisational skills, difficulty with time keeping, slow processing) in one colour and then all the provision to meet the needs in another colour.
For example you might have a Speech and Language Therapy report which says "X has great difficulties with social communication." This would go into Section B of the EHCP. The SLT might go on to say "X needs a social skills programme devised by a qualified Speech and Language Therapist and delivered for one hour each week." This would go into Section F of the Plan.
When you have done this for each one of the reports, go through the draft plan and make sure all the needs you have highlighted in the reports are in Section B and make a record of any that have been omitted.
Then make sure all the provision you have highlighted in the reports are in Section F and again make a record of any that have been omitted.
Give the LA a copy of your records of missing information and tell them that everything that has been missed out needs be included in the final EHCP.
If any reports are vague or woolly and use phrases like "requires access to", "would benefit from," "regular" "high level of" tell the LA they are not acceptable and they need to go back to whoever wrote the reports and make them more specific, so that the EHCP can be amended with the specific information.
www.ipsea.org.uk/what-to-do-when-you-receive-your-draft-ehc-plan
www.ipsea.org.uk/what-an-ehc-plan-contains
www.ipsea.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=afd8d11f-5f75-44e0-8f90-e2e7385e55f0
Information on choosing a school with an EHC Plan:
www.ipsea.org.uk/choosing-a-schoolcollege-with-an-ehc-plan
Information about schools may be found on the Local Offer of your LA and that of any neighbouring LAs.
To search for schools by local authority:
get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/
Section 41 special schools:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-special-schools-and-colleges
Independent special schools:
www.specialneedsguide.co.uk/
If you choose a school out of area -information about transport to and from school:
www.ipsea.org.uk/children-of-compulsory-school-age-aged-5-to-16
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/575323/Home_to_school_travel_and_transport_guidance.pdf
If you want to talk to somebody about all this you can book an appointment with the IPSEA advice line. You might have to keep checking for a vacant slot though, as they are put on at different times of the day.
www.ipsea.org.uk/advice-line