My LA has said my son’s special educational provision can be made in school if lots of adjustments are made and his therapy program is changed. By making it possible for school to make his provision, does this mean provision in school is appropriate? Expand With adjustments and changes to your son’s therapy program it may be possible for his needs to be met in school, but that does not necessarily mean it is appropriate. There should be evidence to back up any changes to his therapy programme too, it’s a good idea to speak to his therapist to check that all of his needs will still be met if the suggested changes were made. Even if they would be, the question is not whether it is possible but whether it would be inappropriate for the special educational provision to be made in school. This will depend on your child’s needs and provision. For example, if you son needs occupational therapy in a particular environment and equipment but there are no schools which would have a suitable room for the therapy sessions to be held in, then it might be inappropriate for this particular special educational provision to be made in school, and might have to be delivered elsewhere. Sometimes it will be inappropriate for some but not all of a child’s special educational provision to be made in school. Please see 'Can I ask for my child to attend school part-time?' for more information.
I want to go to college after I finish school but I am worried I will lose all the support school have put in place for me. Is this the case? Expand No. If you have special educational needs you might need some extra help in college and your college should do everything it can to find out what you want to achieve and how it can support you to achieve that. For example, if you need a key adult to support you in classes, then this should be put in place. It is similar to the support schools have to provide but there is more focus on helping you prepare for the future. The college should work with you, and your parents, to decide what support you need and how to provide it. Your college should have someone who makes sure pupils get the support they need, and you could arrange to speak with them about what support the college offers. You could also look at its SEN policies online. You can find out more about how college can support you here. If you have an EHC plan, the local authority must review and update it so it includes where you learn when you finish school. There are rules about how this must happen. See here for more information.
My college has said it has given me all the support it can but I need more. What can I do? Expand You can ask for your local authority (“LA”) to carry out an EHC needs assessment. This is an investigation into your educational, health and care needs and how to support you. You can use our template letter to help you with this, or your college can ask for you. The person at college whose job it is to make sure pupils get help and support (sometimes called a SENCO) can help you with this request. Your parent or carer can also help you make the request. Your college should be doing everything it can to make sure you get the support you need, including thinking about making a request for an EHC needs assessment. After the EHC needs assessment, it may be possible to get extra help beyond what college can offer through something called an EHC plan. You can find out more about EHC plans here.
My sixth form has said I need an EHC plan. What is this? Expand This is a plan which lists the education, health care and social care needs you have. It is a legal document which you can rely on and enforce. It must say what: special educational needs you have, help you require to meet these challenges, setting (or type of setting) you will attend (unless education otherwise than at/in a schoolapplies). The first step will be for you, or someone at your sixth form, to request an EHC needs assessment. Your parent or carer can help you too. You can find out more about EHC needs assessments here. You can find out more about EHC plans here.
My sixth form asked for an EHC needs assessment for me but my local authority has said no. What can I do? Expand You can ask the local authority (“LA”) to meet with you and someone called a mediator to talk about why the LA said no. This is called mediation. If the LA changes its mind or agrees to something else (providing more support, for example), then this should be written down in a mediation agreement. The LA must then do what it said it would do by the deadlines set out in here. If you do not want to meet with the LA like this, you can ask a judge to look at all the facts and decide if the LA should have said yes to the request. This is called an appeal. If the judge thinks the LA should have said yes, then the judge can order the LA to do the EHC needs assessment. That means the LA has to do it. On the LA’s letter refusing the EHC needs assessment request, there should be information about mediation and how to appeal its decision. You need to think about mediation before you can appeal to the SEND Tribunal. You can find out more about mediation here. You can find out more about how to appeal here and here. You can find out more about getting support with your appeal here.
Can I have an EHC plan after I finish college? Expand Yes. EHC plans are available for those up to the age of 25 who need one. The first step in getting in EHC plan is having an EHC needs assessment carried out. This is an investigation into your educational, health and care needs and how to support you. You can adapt our template letter to request an EHC needs assessment yourself, or your school or college could request one for you. Your parent or carer can help you too. After the EHC needs assessment the local authority (“LA”) will decide if you need an EHC plan. The LA must provide you with an EHC plan if you won’t get the help you need (known as your special educational provision) without one. You can’t have an EHC plan if: you are on a higher education course (level 4 or above) you are 18 or over, have left education and don’t want any further learning you are 25 or more (unless the LA decides to keep your plan going until the end of the academic year in which you turn 25). You can find out more about EHC plans here.
Can my EHC plan keep going when I’m 25? Expand There isn’t an automatic right to keep your EHC plan when you are 25. But your local authority (“LA”) has the power to keep your EHC plan going until the end of the academic year in which you turn 25. Guidance, which the LA must follow unless it has a good reason not to, says support should generally stop at the end of the academic year so young people can complete their study (paragraph 9.207 SEND Code of Practice). This means: If you go to college, the LA could keep your EHC plan going until the 31st July after you turn 25. If you are an apprentice, the LA could keep your EHC plan going until your apprenticeship training finishes or the day before your 26. birthday if you’ll turn 26 before it finishes. (If you moved onto a level 4 or above apprenticeship your EHC plan wouldn’t be able to cover this though). If your education or training isn’t at college and isn’t an apprenticeship, the LA could keep your EHC plan going until your course ends or the day before your 26 birthday if you’ll turn 26 before it ends.
My child is in primary school and has a draft EHC plan. It’s appropriate for their special educational provision to be given in a school, but we haven’t been able to find the right one yet and nor has our local authority. What can we do? Expand Make sure you know what the law says about naming schools in EHC plans, in case the local authority (LA) has misunderstood it and so you know what your options are. For example, the LA might be able to name a school you would like your child to go to, even though the school has said it couldn’t take them. Your LA has to send you the final EHC plan within 20 weeks of you or your child's school asking for the EHC needs assessment. If there isn’t a school the LA can name in your child’s EHC plan by then, the LA can say what type of school it thinks will be appropriate for your child to go to: For example, section I of their final EHC plan could say “mainstream primary school” or “special primary school” rather than the name of a specific school. Whilst the LA can finalise the EHC plan in this way, it should continue to try to find a specific school. The LA must make sure your child gets a suitable, full time education and all of the special educational provision in section F of their final EHC plan too. Once an appropriate school is found, the LA must add its name to section I of the EHC plan. There’s a legal process the LA must follow when it changes an EHC plan. It must send you the changes it wants to make and give you at least 15 days to reply to: tell the LA any changes you want to see in the EHC plan, ask for a specific school/setting you want your child to go to (or say you agree with the one the LA has found), and ask for a meeting with the LA if you want one. If the LA says it uses a different process, you can tell it this is the legal one that it has to follow because of regulation 28 of The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014.
My child’s annual review meeting is coming up. Does everyone invited to it have to attend? Expand No. The person who is going to hold the review meeting must invite certain people, but they cannot compel or insist that they attend. The people who must be invited to attend are: you as the parent the provider of relevant early years education or the head/principal of the school, post-16 institution or other institution your child attends an officer of the LA who exercises education functions in relation to children and young people with SEN a health care professional (identified by the ICB), and an officer of the LA who exercises social care functions in relation to children and young people with SEN. Other people could also be invited but these are the ones that must be invited. However, annual reviews must take into account your views, wishes and feelings. This is a legal requirement under regulation 19 of The SEND Regulations 2014. So, if you think it is important that a particular person attends the meeting, you should say so and why. LAs and other public bodies have a duty to act reasonably, so explain why it is important for a particular person to attend, and they will have to consider this in deciding whether to attend or not. For example, if you want your LA SEND officer to attend, say so and why. They will have to take into account your views and wishes and these reasons to be acting reasonably. In addition, the Code says that “As part of the review, the local authority and the school, further education college or section 41 approved institution attended by the child or young person must co-operate to ensure a review meeting takes place. This includes attending the review when requested to do so.” (para 9.173). Remember that people can attend review meetings remotely, which may help a professional who would like to attend but will struggle to do so ‘in person’. You can ask for the meeting to be held remotely to accommodate this, or if the meeting is to be ‘in person’, ask for that person to be allowed to attend remotely.
School has told me when my child’s annual review meeting is going to take place, but I cannot make that date. What can I do? Expand Firstly, speak to school. See if the review meeting can be arranged for a different date and offer to school dates when you are available. That said, it may be, due to your child’s needs or circumstances, that it is really important the annual review meeting takes place when planned, even if you cannot attend. The meeting can still go ahead without you there. If this is the case, then you should make sure you provide school with as much information as possible when you are contacted for information. You should make clear what progress you think your child is making, and what changes you might like to see to the EHC plan (and why). Once the meeting has taken place, you will receive a copy of the report from school detailing the discussions from the meeting and any difference in opinions. If you disagree with anything in that report, send an email to school and the LA quickly letting them know your views. If the LA makes a decision following the annual review meeting which you disagree with, you can appeal it, and will have the right to mediation.
I would really like my child’s youth worker to attend his annual review meeting. Can they? Expand Yes. The following people must be invited to the review meeting and information from these people must be obtained: you as the parent a representative of the school or other institution attended an LA SEN officer a health service representative, and an LA social care representative Other people can also be invited. This can include professionals working with your child, youth offending teams and job coaches for example. You should make sure your child’s youth worker has received a request for information and an invitation to attend. If they haven’t, ask school to send this to them. If they can’t attend then they should still be able to provide information and advice to be circulated for the meeting. The Code is clear that “The school (or, for children and young people attending another institution, the local authority) must seek advice and information about the child or young person prior to the meeting from all parties invited, and send any advice and information gathered to all those invited at least two weeks before the meeting” (para 9.176).
My daughter’s school has said it cannot hold the annual review meeting, it is too short staffed. What should happen? Expand Your child’s school should have been told by the LA at least two weeks before the start of term which children with EHC plans will require an annual review meeting (para 9.172, the Code). This means that school should have known when your child’s review was coming up and planned for it. If the school has not planned for the review, or is unable to carry out the review meeting for some reason, the meeting must still go ahead. It is the LA’s responsibility to make sure that the annual review process is carried out in accordance with the law. So, if school cannot arrange the meeting or attend it for some reason, the LA will need to step in. You can refer your LA to regulation 20(1) of The SEND Regulations 2014 should you need to complain.
My child is in Year 5. The deadline for the next annual review of my child’s EHC plan is 15 April. When my child starts year 6, what effect will the phase transfer review have on the deadline for when the next review needs to be completed by? Expand When your child is in Year 5, the annual review will need to be completed by 15 April as usual. When your child starts Year 6, your LA should start the phase transfer review process in the autumn term to make sure that it leaves enough time to carry out and complete the review before the phase transfer deadline of 15 February. As an example, if the phase transfer review meeting is held on 1 November, your LA must tell you its decision about the plan within 4 weeks of that meeting (29 November at the latest). Your LA must tell you if it is going to maintain the EHC plan without any changes, change the EHC plan (and what changes the LA is proposing), or cease (stop) the EHC plan. If the deadline for the LA to tell you this decision by is 29 November and the LA sends to you its decision on 25 November, then the review is concluded on that November 25th date. This has the effect of re-setting the clock for annual reviews. The next annual review for your child’s EHC plan in Year 7 must be completed by 25 November, not 29 November or 15 April. The dates for reviews to be completed by for your child would look like this: Year 5 – by 15 April 2024 Year 6 – by 29 November 2024 Year 7 – within 12 months of 25 November 2024 Year 8 – within 12 months of the date the Year 7 annual review was concluded. Remember too, if your LA is going to amend your child’s EHC plan in a phase transfer review it must: send to you its proposed amendments at the same time it tells you its decision to amend the EHC plan give you at least 15 calendar days to comment on the draft plan, ask for a particular school or other institution is named and request a meeting with the LA, and send to you the final EHC plan within 8 weeks of its decision letter (this date must always be by the longstop date of 15 February). In this example, if the LA decided to amend the EHC plan, it must send a final version of it within 8 weeks of its decision letter of 25 November (and not by 15 February).