EHCP - best for school to apply or does it really not matter?

[Hels20]

I need to apply for an EHCP for my youngest son who is 7 and in year 3. He has severe ADHD and cannot work independently. He is also adopted which comes with its own challenges.

The school is ok - could be better but as with any mainstream primary strapped for cash and time. I wrote the parents’ application but I met with the L.A. EP earlier this week and she said it would be better if the school applied rather than parent. This makes sense to me - although not sure it really matters.

any thoughts? Also - if L.A. rejects application - can the parent lead the appeal or does it then have to be the school?

There’s no reason you need to let school apply. Personally, where possible o also recommend parents apply that way they know the request has been submitted ASAP. Some schools say they are going to apply but take ages to actually submit the request. I suspect the LA EP was trying to delay a request.

Only parents can appeal, not the school.

Apply yourself. I did when my DC's Senco said she wasn't going to as 'he'd never get one' (we did).

Ipsea has some good info here if you've not seen it already;

www.ipsea.org.uk/ehc-needs-assessments

The legal bar for an EHCP needs assessment is quite low - what a local authority (or school) may try and say. Also make sure the LA stick to the legal time scales.

Unfortunately you do have to sometimes become 'that' parent in order to get the support your DC is legally entitled to.

Obviously it's best if a parent can school/nursery can work together when applying as they will have some input into the process - but it's by no means essential.

Schools like to do it as then they can take as long as they like. When you do it, they have a 6 week response timescale which they don't like....

We didn't have a choice, dd is apparently "fine at school" (so fine that she's currently not attending school) and that's all they repeated, despite increasingly awful daily battles to get her dressed and into the car. We've applied, the school then had to respond within the timescales and it goes to panel on 22nd March.