Ehcp form questions, how much detail?

[elliejjtiny]

Ds is 7.5 and has moderate learning difficulties and some long and complicated health issues.

School senco sent off an ehcp request form just before the school broke up for Christmas. It included mine, dh and ds's opinions too. Today we got a letter from the council sending us a form for us and a form for ds to complete and send back by 5th January. Then they will go to panel in 6 weeks and decide whether or not to assess him.

I'm wondering how much detail to put in. I don't want to spend hours looking up details and writing loads of stuff down if they don't need it but I don't want to let him down by not writing enough. I'm stressed about the timings as well. I've got 4 other dc as well as ds and one of them has autism, struggles with sleep and eats bits of the plaster on the walls if he's not watched constantly. I normally do forms when the dc are at school but I can't this time. I'm dyslexic so forms are not my strong point.

Put everything in. Too much info is better than not enough when it comes to ehcps

Thankyou, I'll put it all in. What should I do about the child's views section? Ds is 7.5 but has the academic skills of a 4/5 year old. Should I get him to write some wobbly words and help him with the spelling, write it for him or just get him to draw a picture? He can nearly write his name without help but not much else.

You could scribe for him? For my DD i just wrote she can't express her views but I think she would want ...

Ds is 16 and I wrote all his contributions for him in the child's view section. He has 'high functioning' ASD and can write, but would have really struggled to fill the form in. I did talk briefly to him beforehand.

I would submit as much information as you possibly can, including any reports you have from professionals. Ds has just been granted an EHCP and his previous school told me it would never happen and that applying for a needs assessment was a waste of time.

Thankyou both. Ds happily dictated to me his list of "people who are important to me" and then said that the rest of the questions were boring. I have answered most of the parent questions. I've only got one report that's less than a year old and it's a lot more positive than the school one. I'm thinking it wouldn't help ds's case.

You could also point out (if appropriate) that the questions are beyond his level of understanding.