EHC Assessment

emmbo

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.

L_Volunteer

Hello @emmbo. You have done really well to reach out to us. I always appreciate the courage it can take to reach out, especially when you are fairly new and finding things quite difficult. 

I can hear you are hoping for some advice. I can hear what a difficult time you have, unfortunately, had with the EHCP process, your local authority and waiting times for the Educational Psychologist’s report.

You are right – your local authority has 20 weeks from the date they receive the request for the assessment to give the final EHC plan, as outlined by the Government.
Unfortunately, as IPSEA highlights, this does not take into account extenuating circumstances (and this was often the reason given for waits during the pandemic).

IPSEA's advice is to complain when this time period has passed, regardless. It states the following for who to write to:

"You can use this letter to write to the top person at the LA, usually the Director of Children's Services. You can find this information and contact details for this person by clicking here. It may help to copy in the LA's monitoring officer and the LA case worker or officer you have been dealing with as well.

Your LA's Local Offer should clearly set out how a formal complaint can be made in its complaints procedure. This can be found on your LA's website. You should follow the LA's complaints procedure as well as writing to the Director of Children's Services. See our making a complaint about a LA page for more information.

Remember to keep a copy of any letter or email you send.

If you don't get a reply after five working days, or if you need further advice, you can book an advice line appointment with IPSEA."

In the meantime, could you ask the Educational Psychologist’s private company what recommendations have been proposed? This may provide an indication of the kinds of support they are considering to meet your daughter’s needs.

Based on this, depending on how the support recommendations fit in with the school’s funding and resources, your daughter’s school could draw up an individual education plan. This could aid their assess, plan, review and do cycle whilst waiting.

Additionally, I am wondering if you would feel comfortable sharing a little more with us about how you and your daughter are coping at the moment. I am familiar with dyslexia and dyscalculia and I appreciate the difficult time you are facing at the moment with not accessing appropriate support.

Since your daughter has dyslexia and dyscalculia, I will also signpost you to some resources where you can find some further, more targeted, support:

• British Dyslexia Association (They cover support for dyslexia and dyscalculia)
• The Dyslexia Association

I hope this at least semi-helps. Please don't hesitate to let us know if there's anything else we can do to support you and your daughter, even if that's just extending a listening ear