Bored of waiting?

Are you tired and angry and bored of waiting for a response?

So you have been issued a Draft EHCP after the LA have carried out an EHC assessment..

The LA have taken your views within the 15days you had.. and you sent them back.. and now you are WAITING.... and getting frustrated.

The LA may be amending the plan, but they are allowed to ignore your requests at this stage, so that might just be their excuse...

They may be taking time to contact schools.. which can delay them, especially in the holidays..

We are asked all the time.. What can I do to speed things up..

So below are some parts that are important from the SEND code of practice;

Firstly the annoying part.. Take a look below and you will see that the LA have to issue the final plan as "Quickly as possible..." This is very frustrating as it is not specific at all....

Finalising and maintaining the EHC plan Relevant legislation:

Sections 39, 40 and 43 of the Children and Families Act 2014 and Regulations 13 and 14 of the SEND Regulations 2014

9.125 When changes are suggested to the draft EHC plan by the child’s parent or the young person and agreed by the local authority, the draft plan should be amended and issued as the final EHC plan as quickly as possible. The final EHC plan can differ from the draft EHC plan only as a result of any representations made by the child’s parent or the young person (including a request for a Personal Budget) and decisions made about the school or other institution (or type of school or other institution) to be named in the EHC plan. The local authority must not make any other changes – if the local authority wishes to make other changes it must re-issue the draft EHC plan to the child’s parent or the young person (see paragraph 9.77). The final EHC plan should be signed and dated by the local authority officer responsible for signing off the final plan.

But don't dismay, as if you look back to the beginning of the SEND code of practice you will see details of the whole timeframes and reasons for valid delays;

9.40 The whole process of EHC needs assessment and EHC plan development, from the point when an assessment is requested (or a child or young person is brought to the local authority’s attention) until the final EHC plan is issued, must take no more than

20 weeks (subject to exemptions set out below).

9.41 The following specific requirements apply:

• Local authorities must give their decision in response to any request for an EHC needs assessment within a maximum of 6 weeks from when the request was received or the point at which a child or young person was brought to the local authority’s attention

• When local authorities request information as part of the EHC needs assessment process, those supplying the information must respond in a timely manner and within a maximum of 6 weeks from the date of the request

• If a local authority decides, following an EHC needs assessment, not to issue an EHC plan, it must inform the child’s parent or the young person within a maximum of 16 weeks from the request for a EHC needs assessment, and

• The child’s parent or the young person must be given 15 calendar days to consider and provide views on a draft EHC plan and ask for a particular school or other institution to be named in it

9.42 Where there are exceptional circumstances, it may not be reasonable to expect local authorities and other partners to comply with the time limits above. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 set out specific exemptions.

These include where:

• appointments with people from whom the local authority has requested information are missed by the child or young person (this only applies to the duty on partners to comply with a request under the EHC needs assessment process within six weeks)

• the child or young person is absent from the area for a period of at least 4 weeks

• exceptional personal circumstances affect the child or his/her parent, or the young person, and

• the educational institution is closed for at least 4 weeks, which may delay the submission of information from the school or other institution (this does not apply to the duty on partners to comply with a request under the EHC needs assessment process within six week