Advice over EHC assessment process needed please

emmbo76
emmbo76 Online Community Member Posts: 2 Listener
edited March 2023 in Education and skills
Hello 

I am hoping for some advice please. 

My daughters school initially requested an EHCNA with the LA 2 years ago due to her not not progressing as expected at school. I paid for a private Ed Psychologist report which concluded a diagnosis of severe Dyslexia and Dyscalculia and the school provided lots of IEP’s and reports. Despite this the LA refused to assess saying they needed more evidence and to follow a graduated response. 
We accepted this decision and the school completed weekly IEP’s, provided extra 1-1 support and whilst my daughter did make some progress it was still way below in line with her peers. So 12 months after the initial request to assess was refuse we applied again. This time between myself and the school we sent multiple supporting documents as evidence to support the request. 
The LA failed to make a decision to assess within the statutory 6 week timeframe. I emailed the caseworker and got not response. When they did finally make a decision I was sent a letter advising they had again refused firstly stating they hadn’t been given enough info which is not true but the most unacceptable part was the fact that they referred to my daughter by the wrong first name throughout the letter. I complained to the LA as once again the failed to meet deadlines to respond and when they finally did they advised they would look review the complaint and gave me the details of the reviewing officer which believe it or not was the caseworker I had complained about! Obviously I pointed this out so a different office was allocated and again timescales were not met however eventually my complaint was upheld. 
I appealed the 2nd decision not to assess and reluctantly agreed to try mediation but once again the LA failed to arrange an meeting so I was issued a certificate and made the appeal to the tribunal. 
The LA did oppose the appeal however the tribunal went in my favour and ordered the LA to assess. This was back in August last year. I believe all information should have been provided within 6 weeks and a decision to issue or not within 10 weeks followed by a draft then final plan if agreed with in 14 weeks. It probably comes as no great surprise given the above that none of this has been adhered to. The LA failed to arrange a Ed Psych assessment due to a backlog and this was finally completed on 19/12 online. I have still not received the Ed Psychs report and after emailing I have been told the LA are still waiting but will chase it up. They used a private company so I emailed them and was told they completed and sent the report to the LA within 2 weeks of the assessment. I informed the LA of this to which they replied they had received it that day and it now needed to be quality checked before it could be added to my daughters file which would then go to panel for a decision as to issue an EHCP or not. I haven’t heard anything since. 
I am wondering if I should complain due to the length of time this is taking and the tribunal order not being adhered to and if so who should I complain to?
Thanks in advance for any advice/replies. 

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