nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

We want to hear from you: please tell us about your experience of the online community.

EHCP and provision refused by college

April

My daughter is 21 and starting a college course of further education in September. She has an EHCP that details all the help she needs. She has a learning difficulty that makes speech difficult to process, and several other health issues. But, the college says that they can't provide the support this year. I thought they had a duty to supply whatever is mentioned in the EHCP. Is that right? They provided the support in the past (this is her third year). Now I'm thinking that she won't be able to attend, and that is discrimination, isn't it? The college is in another Borough, so perhaps that is the issue? Should I contact my own Borough and ask them to send in the support? I'm very confused.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

April

woodbine said:

It could be that covid19 is the issue?

Thank you for your reply @woodbine but it's not that. They said it was because she is on year 3.

poppy123456

HI,

Just because she has a EHCP doesn't mean they have to provid the support. If they don't have the means to provide it then it's physically impossible. Has your daughters EHCP been reviewed? Was the funding agreed for her support?

The reason i ask is because my daughter is 19 and also has a EHCP and attends a special needs school. She's entering her final year in september and going to be doing work experience as well as a couple of days a week in college, The work experience is part of the college course.

Before they would agree to support this her EHCP had to be reviewed and my local council had to agree to fund the course and the extra support she needs. We had a EHCP review through a video call about 3 weeks ago, with someone from the local council, myself, my daughter and the learning disability support teacher. During the review the teacher specifically stated that there is no other course that's suitable for her and without this, this will be no support available and her education will end.

Once this was done the EHCP had to go infront of a board of decision makers to decide yes or no... a very tense couple of weeks. The end of last week i had a phone call to say that it's been fully agreed and the fiunding will be in place for her to attend her final year.

Contacting your local council is a start or even the disability advisor of the college she's supposed to be attending. They maybe able to give you more information.

Good luck and i hope your daughter is able to continue to attend college.

janer1967

Hi and welcome to the community I am glad Poppy has shared her experience with you and given you something to start to move this forward

Good luck in finding the support your daughter needs

April

@poppy123456 Thank you for your reply. I contacted the council and the EHCP is agreed. There is no reason that the college can't provide the things on the EHCP because they did so last year. They suggested a mentor rather than the care that is mentioned in the EHCP. I wonder if this is a cost cutting thing.

poppy123456

I have no idea how it can be anything to do with a cost cutting thing if the funding is already agreed.

April

@poppy123456. I'm thinking that the college is taking the funds, but not providing the care. I know that my Borough is definitely providing the funding. So my daughter should receive the care mentioned in the EHCP. I just don't know how to force the college to do it.

poppy123456

It's unlikely that they would be doing that and you can't force them to provide the support. What reason did they give as to why they can't provide the support?

It just sounds more like a funding issue to me. Yes, of course the EHCP is agreed because she already has it. It's the funding for the support each year that needs to be agreed.

April

@poppy123456. It sounded like they hadn't looked at the EHCP at all. I contacted them because I wanted to be sure support was in place, and they replied that as a general rule they don't provide support on level 3 courses. Instead they supply mentors who are available from time to time. But my daughter's EHCP mentions support in the classroom, speech therapy, and 1:1 support if they go outside.
This isn't the first time I've had problems, by the way. They don't seem to read the EHCP in much detail because in a previous year they had not provided support for a trip out of college, and my daughter ended up not going. If this college is anything to go by, then mainstream colleges are not really very good at supporting disabled students. Especially those with conditions such as autism.
Anyway, they told me they could provide support for the first few weeks as a sort of compromise! I'm not happy with that, of course. But now the college is on holiday and it's difficult to contact anyone.

poppy123456

My daughter attended a main stream college in her first year. Although it was in separate part of the college and i must admit the support she had was amazing.

I don't know what else to suggest but i hope you'll be able to contact them soon and sort everything out.

April

@poppy123456.
Thank you.
My daughter was in a separate part of the college in the first year too. It was when she entered the main part of the college that the problems began.

Chloe_Alumni

Hi @April, how are things at the moment? I hope you can get this resolved soon.