EHCP school place offer help please

[Sleepdeprivedmamma]

Long long long story short (ish) …

My DD needs a specialist school - she wasn’t offered a place and we were told that she would be offered mainstream but they would look for a resource base. We viewed the only resource base in our area and it really isn’t suitable for our DDs needs
We decided to appeal the decision but have only just sent our appeal.
EHCP team contacted me two weeks ago to say - they believe DD does need a specialist place and they are putting plans in to expand the class in the specialist school we would like her to go to and that she is priority for this.

Friday i got a phonecall offering my DD a place at the resource base - i said thank you but no - we have viewed it , it isn’t suitable we will continue with appeal process. I was just about to walk in to an appointment so ehcp co ordinator said call back Monday to talk

im just wondering - if we say no to this place - how does this affect things?

do we say no to resource base place because a child who wants that space should have it ? If we say no does it seem we are refusing help?

If we say yes - does this stop our appeal? anything but a specialist school would be temporary for us

lost

any advice would be so appreciated x

Check out the current legal status on https://www.ipsea.org.uk/
liads of support, helpful information, advice, sample letters- all sorts.
Their Helpine is good too, if you can get through. Highly trained volunteers, often parents who have been through it and can help from experience.

EHCP team contacted me two weeks ago to say - they believe DD does need a specialist place and they are putting plans in to expand the class in the specialist school we would like her to go to and that she is priority for this.

Do you have this in writing?

Objecting to the ARP won’t change anything. However, the LA can still go ahead and amend the EHCP to include it, but again that doesn’t stop you proceeding with the appeal.

Have you made SENDIST aware this is a phase transfer appeal?

@FloatingBean thank you for replying!
i have it in an email from the ehcp co-ordinator that thats the plan- is this enough?

whats the ARP?

Well her appeal says shes in nursery now and talks about starting school - is there something i should of done to make it clear this is a phase transfer appeal?

@Riv thank you!

It helps you have the LA acknowledging DD needs a specialist placement.

Sorry, an ARP (additionally resources provision) is the resource base.

Let SENDIST know this is a phase transfer appeal specifically using the words phase transfer. This is because phase transfer appeals are being prioritised and you don’t want to slip through the net.

Op I know this is a old thread but in a similar position and love to know outcome if you're wiling to share? Thank you

Hey @246810k

will answer anything you need would love to help , not sure how much help i am though!

have you spoken to your local sendias team? Mine were brilliant speak to them a lot for school/legal advice!

so they actually took away the offer of that particular base - but it wouldn't of changed anything!
so - DD wasnt offered another place untill the last week of term last july - at another resource base that we also didnt want! Our appeal date wasnt untill the end of september so we made it clear in our final statement to the tribunal we did not want her to be at the resource base but she would start there untill the appeal as DD would not do well at all with lack of routine - appeal went well! It was delayed till december but we won! DD starts at our original prefered specialist school in september this year 🎉

i put in a freedom of information request to our ehcp team and there was so so much undeniable evidence (esp the pannel repeatedly saying DD needs a specialist school - the manager of ehcp team refusing to sign for this and i had emails from the team saying exactly that) if you could i really really reccomend doing this - we would of won anyway but this made everything very clear for the tribunal pannel to see i submitted lots from FOI in our final evidence)

hope youre okay its an incredibly stressful time! X

Do you mean SAR rather than FOI?

Be careful with SENDIASS. Some are good, but too many repeat the LA’s unlawful policies.

@FloatingBean @246810k
yes ! So sorry i do mean SAR!

very very sleep deprived with a poorly 2 yr old - a crazy 5 yr old who never sleeps and i’m pregnant! 😴😴😴

Hey @Sleepdeprivedmamma thank you so much for your reply! We have no submitted and foi request and although team offered special place, I imagine in the hope we'd drop appeal they seem to have gone quiet while we've asked for them to confirm details and capacity. Glad to hear you got outcome you wanted!