Reviewer Role
Parent
Date of experience with local authority
Local authority agree assess
Yes
Issue of ECHP
Yes
ECHP Time to put in place
12-18 weeks
Did you use mediation
No
Did you use tribunal
Yes
Rate ECHP content
Poor
ECHP Process Clarity
Poor
Rate Communication
Terrible
Overall Rating
1
Your 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
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