Kent County Council

Overall rating from parents: 3/10

Number of Reviewers: 1

Overall rating from parents: 3/10

Number of Reviewers: 1

Overall rating from parents: 1/10

Number of Reviewers: 1

Overall rating from parents: 1/10

Number of Reviewers: 1

Overall rating from parents: 1/10

Number of Reviewers: 1

Overall rating from parents: 2/10

Number of Reviewers: 1

Overall rating from parents: 1/10

Number of Reviewers: 1

Date of last review: 28/04/2023

Location
South East
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Reviewed by Reviewer relation to LA When was this experience Did the LA agree to assess on the first request? Did the LA issue an ECHP? How long did the ECHP take to be put in place? Did you need to use mediation? Did you need to use tribunal? How would you rate the content of the ECHP in specificity and relevance to your child’s needs? If a change of placement was decided through the ECHP –how would you rate the suitablilityof the new placement? How clear was the ECHP process? Please rate the communications your received from the local authority in timeliness and quality of information? Overall Rating Review summary / Comments
michelleherrington30 Parent 14 Jan 2023 Yes Yes 6-12 weeks Yes No Good Poor Poor 3
Reviewer relation to LA: Parent When was this experience: 14 Jan 2023 Did the LA agree to assess on the first request? Yes Did the LA issue an ECHP? Yes How long did the ECHP take to be put in place? 6-12 weeks Did you need to use mediation? Yes Did you need to use tribunal? No How would you rate the content of the ECHP in specificity and relevance to your child’s needs? Good If a change of placement was decided through the ECHP –how would you rate the suitablilityof the new placement? How clear was the ECHP process? Poor Please rate the communications your received from the local authority in timeliness and quality of information? Poor Overall Rating: 3 Review: Initially my child’s EHCP was declined even though it was incredibly clear for all to see it was needed.

I tried to go through mediation but no one from KCC was available so was told by the mediation company my next step was tribunal.

After filling in tribunal paperwork, someone from KCC called me for a discussion. After a lengthy discussion the lady over turned their decision and an EHCP was granted.

The whole process, nearly broke me mentally. It’s an absolute disgrace for any parent/ guardian to go through. Report Content
Initially my child’s EHCP was declined even though... click to read more
teriandaaron Parent 09 Jun 2023 Yes Yes 12-18 weeks No No Poor Average Poor Terrible 3
Reviewer relation to LA: Parent When was this experience: 09 Jun 2023 Did the LA agree to assess on the first request? Yes Did the LA issue an ECHP? Yes How long did the ECHP take to be put in place? 12-18 weeks Did you need to use mediation? No Did you need to use tribunal? No How would you rate the content of the ECHP in specificity and relevance to your child’s needs? Poor If a change of placement was decided through the ECHP –how would you rate the suitablilityof the new placement? Average How clear was the ECHP process? Poor Please rate the communications your received from the local authority in timeliness and quality of information? Terrible Overall Rating: 3 Review: KCC have caused much stress AND anxiety and constantly do not meet timescales.

EHCP final was not SMART and all of the professionals recommendations were essentially ignored.

Huge decline in caseworker support over the last 2 years - our initial caseworker was excellent and very helpful and responsive to emails and phone calls which we were grateful of with the daunting process of parental application facing us.

Very rough outline of our experience….
We applied as parents after years of asking how our son was in school due to awful, lengthy meltdowns once back at home …then came lockdown anyway ….primary school confirmed our ASC / Masking son was making academic progress and was fine in school and we’d have no chance of being granted an EHCP!!! His primary need is communication & interaction/SEMH.

27/7/2021 LA agreed to assess

25/10/2021 LA Draft EHCplan received

07/01/2022 Final final EHCplan with school placement with specialist resource provision received

Primary school could not meet our sons need.
Transition to secondary school September 2022

Annual review took place on 4 November 2023 to date 9 April 2023 we’ve not received any acknowledgement from LA

We are waiting to hear if the LA will maintain/amend or cease the EHCplan we have requested lots of amendments based on existing evidence

We have had zero reply to our emails sent to caseworker and eventually found out we did not have a caseworker as they had left the LA.

Email after email ignored.

Due to a decline in our son’s mental health and the urgent need for OT therapy due to emotional shutdown - we requested an emergency AR - date agreed was 10/05/2023
This took place with school / parents / child / advocate and OT.
We are requesting a personal budget to support OT therapy.
We now have a case worker who I contacted to introduce myself on 5/05/2023 an actual LA reply came on 10/05/3023 but only to request details of my Son to find him in the system.

17/05/2023 As per your request re: personal budget, I cannot assist you further until the Annual Review paperwork comes through along with a funding form request. After that, I will take the request to the panel meeting for their approval.
Meanwhile, if &&&& passes through difficult times, I personally advise you to seek more support from school, they should be able to provide counselling sessions which are very helpful.

1/06/2023 caseworker confirms receipt of AR paperwork and PB request

1/6/2023
Casework confirmed ‘I will try’ to submit all paperwork to panel 7/07/2023 and Wouk’s contact me no later than 9/07/2023 for an update ….
This is where are at the moment …waiting! Report Content
KCC have caused much stress AND anxiety and consta... click to read more
moschops04 Parent 19 May 2023 No Yes 12 months No No Poor Poor Terrible Terrible 1
Reviewer relation to LA: Parent When was this experience: 19 May 2023 Did the LA agree to assess on the first request? No Did the LA issue an ECHP? Yes How long did the ECHP take to be put in place? 12 months Did you need to use mediation? No Did you need to use tribunal? No How would you rate the content of the ECHP in specificity and relevance to your child’s needs? Poor If a change of placement was decided through the ECHP –how would you rate the suitablilityof the new placement? Poor How clear was the ECHP process? Terrible Please rate the communications your received from the local authority in timeliness and quality of information? Terrible Overall Rating: 1 Review: Reassessment of need took 12 months with me (parent) chasing timescales constantly. The whole process was diabolical and stressful. Case workers kept changing, no one answers emails. The new sen hub was useless as they are just gatekeepers that take a message and pass on, then nothing happens. The whole of kcc sen department is a joke. My child has been under kcc ehcp for 8 years and it’s 100 times worse now then it has ever been. They have caused so much stress and constantly don’t meet timescales. Kcc also change the law to match their unlawful policies. Report Content
Reassessment of need took 12 months with me (paren... click to read more
july.farley Parent 06 Jan 2018 Yes Yes 42+ Weeks Yes Yes Poor Poor Poor Poor 1
Reviewer relation to LA: Parent When was this experience: 06 Jan 2018 Did the LA agree to assess on the first request? Yes Did the LA issue an ECHP? Yes How long did the ECHP take to be put in place? 42+ Weeks Did you need to use mediation? Yes Did you need to use tribunal? Yes How would you rate the content of the ECHP in specificity and relevance to your child’s needs? Poor If a change of placement was decided through the ECHP –how would you rate the suitablilityof the new placement? Poor How clear was the ECHP process? Poor Please rate the communications your received from the local authority in timeliness and quality of information? Poor Overall Rating: 1 Review: better several years ago, now the service by KCC is atrocious, been waiting nearly a year for EHCP final now! and 8 months for corporate complaints responses. Communication Is terrible only respond when suits KCC. been forced to 3 tribunals. caused child to be 5 years behind in learning from all failures including causing my child to be home for 18 months with no education...happening again!!
KCC do not care about our SEN children.
often place children in inappropriate schools and traumatise the child, when makes their needs even greater.
Many of their schools are unfit for purpose.
DIRECTORS have no clue on the damage they are causing!! Report Content
better several years ago, now the service by KCC i... click to read more
daniellechapman2120 Parent 22 Feb 2023 Yes Yes 12-18 weeks No Yes Poor Poor Terrible 1
Reviewer relation to LA: Parent When was this experience: 22 Feb 2023 Did the LA agree to assess on the first request? Yes Did the LA issue an ECHP? Yes How long did the ECHP take to be put in place? 12-18 weeks Did you need to use mediation? No Did you need to use tribunal? Yes How would you rate the content of the ECHP in specificity and relevance to your child’s needs? Poor If a change of placement was decided through the ECHP –how would you rate the suitablilityof the new placement? How clear was the ECHP process? Poor Please rate the communications your received from the local authority in timeliness and quality of information? Terrible Overall Rating: 1 Review: live in Kent and have a 5 year old son who is autistic and we have just recently been through the EHCP process which ended up in us having to fight Kent County Council at court to get our sons needs met and an EHCP issued.

Please accept my apologies in advance as it's rather lengthy.

Our son was diagnosed autistic at 3 years old, he has a formal diagnosis of ASD (autism spectrum disorder) with severe delays in speech and language and communication, he has difficulties with social communication and moreover he has difficulties with restricted and repetitive behaviours, he also has delays in self care skills and disruptive sleep patterns, ehlers danlos syndrome joint hypermobilty. We started the process of applying for an EHCP for our son when he was at nursery as it was clear that he has significant special educational needs in quite a few areas and that he would not manage in a mainstream setting without a lot of help, provisions and interventions as well as a differentiated curriculum. Our sons nursery applied for the EHCP on our behalf and this was applied for in December 2021 when out son had just turned 4 years old. Kent County Council notified us in January 2022 that under section 36 of the Children and families act 2014 they had decided to proceed with a statutory assessment of our sons special educational needs. In February 2022 an EHCNA (education, health, care needs assessment) was carried out by KCC and was conducted by their own educational psychologist. A joint assessment meeting was then held at the end of February 2022 which was attended by ourselves as parents, KCC’s educational psychologist, our sons mainstream nursery SENCO and 2 members of the SEN nursery our son had been at following KCC granting him a local offer of a 2 term observation and assessment placement following a multi agency planning meeting. During this meeting ourselves as parents and the SENCO, educational psychologist, SEN nursery staff and speech and language therapist all discussed what our sons special educational needs were and what provisions and interventions he needed in order to access a suitable education for his needs and in order for him to thrive. Following this meeting an appendix 5 was issued which was to be used by KCC to form our son’s EHCP, the appendix 5 contained all the special educational needs he has as identified by professionals and what provisions and interventions are needed for him again as identified by professionals. In April 2022 we were given a draft copy of our sons final EHCP and this is where all our troubles started. When we received the final draft we noticed that most of his moderate and severe special educational needs had been left out along with the most important provisions and interventions. I questioned this with KCC and I was wrongly told it didn’t matter as the appendixs were legally binding so as long as it was in the appendix all would be okay. This is not and never was the case. When I found this out after his final EHCP had been issued, I tried to work with KCC to get the amendments made however they refused outright saying despite their own professionals stating our son needed them, they weren’t going to implement them as they didn’t agree and due to funding issues. We were left with no option but to lodge a SEN 35 appeal with the Tribunal service. We lodged our appeal in June 2022 and the Tribunal service accepted our appeal and issued us with a full hearing date of February 2023, they issued an order that KCC work with us on a working document to try to resolve the issues. Despite repeated calls and emails to KCC SEND team they never responded and worked with us, calls would not be answered, voicemails not returned, if a member of staff did happen to pick up and take our details we’d never get a call back. Emails went unresponded to. To this day I’m still outstanding a reply to an email I sent in July 2022 and I’m outstanding a reply to an email I sent in September 2022. KCC failed to consult our preferred SEN school as set out by the Tribunal (they said our son would have to attend mainstream) they failed to work with us on the working document (this is an editable EHCP where its to go back and forth between parents and the local authority where each side makes amendments and then the other side agree or refuse) in November 2022 I finally had enough of getting absolutely no response from KCC I approached the Tribunal service to see if they could assist us in getting KCC to work with us like they were meant to be doing. The Tribunal service ordered a TCMH (telephone case management hearing) for December 2022 that both ourselves as parents and KCC had to attend the point of this hearing was to find out each parties position and to set timescales for KCC to respond to us with the working document and consultations from our preferred school. Unfortunately KCC breached this order and I had to go back to the Tribunal service to get KCC to comply. Finally in January 2023 at the 11th hour of their court ordered deadline KCC sent us over the working document, where they were still refusing to include and implement the provisions and interventions that our son needed, along with the court evidence bundle. February 2023 was our full tribunal hearing, during the hearing KCC still were contesting inputting the provisions and interventions that their own specialists stated our son needed. When asked by the judge why they were contesting these as the judge and specialist panel members deemed the interventions and provisions to be reasonable, just, appropriate, what our son needed and non contentious as well as highlighting to KCC that their own educational psychologist stated these were needed KCC couldn’t give a reason and simply stated they didn’t agree and had been told by their seniors prior to the hearing not to agree to these provisions or interventions. During the hearing KCC lacked understanding, knowledge, and empathy regarding SEN, ASD, our sons struggles or what he needed. We received our final court order in March 2023 and the judge and tribunal found in our favour for each and every one of the provisions and interventions we were seeking for our son and ordered KCC to implement these and put these into his EHCP. The Tribunal found in favour of KCC on placement and ordered our son to attend the mainstream that KCC had named as they deemed the cohort at the SEN school to be of a much lower aptitude than our son. From September 2022 – end of April 2023 our son has been at a SEN observation and assessment placement which is just for reception aged children. He has only just transitioned over to his mainstream placement. KCC put us through 11 months of hell, anxiety, frustration, the whole process was made harder than it ever had to be and put a huge amount of pressure on me and my health and mental health. It's completely drained me, I am now physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted and worn out Report Content
live in Kent and have a 5 year old son who is auti... click to read more
lisaannemarielloyd1984 Parent 10 May 2023 No Yes 1 year to gather evidence No No Average Poor Poor 2
Reviewer relation to LA: Parent When was this experience: 10 May 2023 Did the LA agree to assess on the first request? No Did the LA issue an ECHP? Yes How long did the ECHP take to be put in place? 1 year to gather evidence Did you need to use mediation? No Did you need to use tribunal? No How would you rate the content of the ECHP in specificity and relevance to your child’s needs? Average If a change of placement was decided through the ECHP –how would you rate the suitablilityof the new placement? How clear was the ECHP process? Poor Please rate the communications your received from the local authority in timeliness and quality of information? Poor Overall Rating: 2 Review: The LA refused to access initially even though my child had a diagnosis and both the school and I were saying he needed extra support. It took a year for us to gather more evidence and then finally an EHCP was agreed, this was only because my son was forced to fail in that time. It is now clear the criteria of EHCPs are being changed and we will now fight for my son to attend a Sen school even though he has an EHCP in place. Report Content
The LA refused to access initially even though my ... click to read more
lucy.hurdle87 Parent 28 Apr 2023 Yes Yes We are nearing week 25 and haven’t had a draft yet. No No Poor Terrible Terrible 1
Reviewer relation to LA: Parent When was this experience: 28 Apr 2023 Did the LA agree to assess on the first request? Yes Did the LA issue an ECHP? Yes How long did the ECHP take to be put in place? We are nearing week 25 and haven’t had a draft yet. Did you need to use mediation? No Did you need to use tribunal? No How would you rate the content of the ECHP in specificity and relevance to your child’s needs? Poor If a change of placement was decided through the ECHP –how would you rate the suitablilityof the new placement? How clear was the ECHP process? Terrible Please rate the communications your received from the local authority in timeliness and quality of information? Terrible Overall Rating: 1 Review: We are now nearing week 25 and still haven’t received our draft EHCP. Our caseworker and the general office never answer the phones and it takes 2/3 emails before I get a response. I was told in early March that KCC had agreed to issue an EHCP and every time I chase the draft I am either ignored or told it’s being worked on and should be with me “next week”. Terrible service and terrible communication. Report Content
We are now nearing week 25 and still haven’t recei... click to read more