Getting an EHCP

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Victoria Bennion: There are lots of terms that you might have come across like IEPs and EHCPs. Today we're going to talk about what they are, why you might need one, specifically, why you might need an EHCP, because that's our experience. And if you do think you need one for your child, how do you go about getting one?

What I have come across, and I know you have come across too, Natalie, is EHCPs. So that's an education, health, and care plan.

Natalie Tealdi: Yes, that's correct.

So this is something that is put in place for those children who, so you don't need to have a diagnosis for this, but it's when special needs are likely, isn't it?

Natalie Tealdi: So it provides guidelines that. The school need to regularly review,

Victoria Bennion: it's a legal document that the local authority is legally required to provide the support that's outlined in the plan. So it's really important. In fact, if your child is going through a diagnosis, it's the EHCP that's going to get them the support they need, not the diagnosis.

Natalie Tealdi: Yeah,

Victoria Bennion: It's really important.

In my experience, schools are not always very keen to just jump right in and start to apply for an EHCP.

Natalie Tealdi: That's also my experience. I think there's a lot of paperwork involved.

Victoria Bennion: yeah.

Natalie Tealdi: It's a lot of work and teachers already have a lot of work.

And I mentioned it to his teacher who was also the senco. And I said, does he need an EHCP? And she said, no, not every child, even if they have a diagnosis, needs an EHCP. It might just be we can make adjustments in class. So I said, okay. And then. Everything was just deteriorating at such a rate at school that it wasn't long before they said to me, actually maybe we should carry out a needs assessment for an EHCP. And this was going with us hand in hand. With the referral process. By this point, he was on the waiting list to see the core diagnostic team.

There was a parental part, I remember having to write and then. Once the council receive that from the school saying that you do not have to do it through the school, say the school refuse, or you can decide to do it yourself. You can do a parental EHCP request to the council

Once they receive it, they have six weeks to let you know if they are going to carry out the needs assessment. It's a very strict timeline that they have to adhere to. So a lot of eh, HCPs are rejected at that stage, which is really shocking as I know a few parents that's happened to, and it's so clear that their child needs support. But I really think it comes down to money and resources rather than the actual,

Victoria Bennion: Yeah,

Natalie Tealdi: I think it is quite common

for the first one to be rejected.

Victoria Bennion: that is your first hurdle. And so if it is rejected, you have the right to appeal

Natalie Tealdi: It's a specific period, isn't it, for appeal,

Victoria Bennion: Yeah, it's all very structured. You need to know the dates by which you can appeal, by which different things have to take place by, once the assessment is agreed, there's a window by which time they have to gather the information, so your child might see an educational psychologist or different health and social care professionals and it's seven to 12 weeks.

Natalie Tealdi: Yes. That's just what I was gonna mention actually. I remember a lot of chasing it was like I was managing the process really in some ways. And you do need input from professionals if you can get them. 'cause it helps to make the case stronger. But I remember chasing up, have you had this from this person?

Have you had this from this person? Because I don't think you can just rely on it to just get done.

Unfortunately and probably due to workload, but you know, if we kind of have, it is part of the fighting process. You need to be on it.

Intermediate bit where he was supposed to be in the classroom because he was just finding it too hard. And she came in, I think it must have been the break time and we were supposed to be meeting in the office reception and he just wouldn't engage with her. She brought games to play, so that she could observe.

And I remember at one point him managing to get outta the office. Think he reached up and pressed the button and he was running up and down outside

Natalie Tealdi: really not coping.

Victoria Bennion: Really not coping. He just, at that point, he really didn't want to be in the school buildings. It was very very hard.

To the meeting, and this is what really shocked me. So after all that display, you could see how much he was struggling. He couldn't make eye contact. His teacher was very supportive, very understanding, and she said to the educational psychologist, if he's in the classroom, he's like a rabbit in headlights.

So you can imagine if a child can't even access a tiny school, how do you expect them to even set foot in this bigger school? I can't remember what I said to her, but it was something along those lines and she shut me down really sharply and made it very clear that she would be put in, in the report that he should go to a mainstream middle school, even after what the teacher said.

Even I believe at this point he'd had. At least one appointment with a clinical psychologist, because he was referred through the CAMHS route, it, it took a bit of a different, order of the appointment. So the first person that we saw was a clinical psychologist, and she had even put in there his inability to cope in a mainstream school and.

And

Natalie Tealdi: when you can hardly get him in the door in the

first place,

it just doesn't make sense.

And the pediatricians were really good. I told them that we were on this timeframe and we were so anxious about school provision from the September, because we're in the summer term by this point, so they fitted an appointment in, they told me that he would be getting a diagnosis, but it had to be with another.

for us it gave me a reason.

Yeah, I, I think unfortunately it does and it did give me that reason to say we are appealing.

Also, although I believe that if a child is on the pathway, they should be treated as if they have a diagnosis. I'm not sure that that is always the case. So, that's the route that we did.

We had a date for tribunal. I did agree to mediation because I wasn't sure if I would be looking really difficult if I didn't. And then I remember having the date and then the council delaying the date saying that they weren't free. And also he was feeling really, really desperate in this time because all my son's friends were talking about which middle school they were going to.

And for a child who's extremely anxious anyway, he's got

Natalie Tealdi: and you couldn't reassure him either.

So now we're talking, we are in July, the month that he is due to leave school and have no education provision in place and. I remember them sitting there looking at it, and I was just horrified that the mainstream middle school, which my daughter was attending at the time, had said that they could meet his needs when they were asked.

And actually when they came into the room, the SENDCO from the school, she listened to the head teacher of the first school of what a day looked like for him, and she said, no, we can't meet needs. We don't even have. A TA in most of the classes, there would be no support. We have one class where

And I didn't hear. And I didn't hear, and I was thinking, did it go through? So I remember chasing, phoning, and chasing, and we had a provision lead at the time for the EHCP. to me, no, this hasn't gone to panel. Uh, It's not going to panel. He has an EHCP, which. Contains funding and he got upper band B, which I think is the most that you can get at a mainstream school.

I had to go back to the middle school and say, this is what the council had said. Again, it's like you pushing all the time.

It was so many phone calls, so many phone calls,

Natalie Tealdi: and caring for your son

who is highly anxious.

Victoria Bennion: I was trying to juggle that with work and

And caring for him who's really, really anxious and really struggling. And, I emailed the Senco and updated her and everything and she rang me and. We were just so lucky at this point that she said she had a relationship with a specialist provision, which I was aware of, and they were opening a new site At that point, I don't think it was clear what that site was gonna be for alternative provision or just an extension of the specialist school, and she said if I could get there on Monday.

So I guess when the middle school emailed them, they said they couldn't meet need. That must have been, a conversation. And we are now, in the

summer holidays.

Natalie Tealdi: You still don't know what's happening in September

Victoria Bennion: All the kids have left. No, all we, we were. Do you know, I think it wasn't quite the summer holidays.

We were like a couple of days off. We weren't far off. And so I just, I wasn't sure what else I could do, but I didn't want him to lose his place at a school that could clearly meet his needs, was exactly where everyone wanted to be. And yet it didn't have it on his EHCP that it could be funded.

so

had done this,

Natalie Tealdi: were going through this at a very similar time, so yeah, I think we were sort of weeks apart in the process, weren't we?

Victoria Bennion: Yeah.

And you'd written to your mp, but I'll let you tell that in a minute. So I thought we have a different MP 'cause we live in slightly different

And um, yeah. So I wrote to the MP and I set it all out, all the twos and throwings with the council, the diagnosis of how we wasn't gonna have any place to go to.

Everything. Remember getting the phone call on the 17th just to say it had been approved.

I don't think the Provision Lead was very happy. She said This rarely happens, that I get to deliver this news. But Specialist Place has been agreed, but only for two years that he can have it for two years. That's how we got there. So we then were able to cancel the need for the tribunal. But that was the process. And that was months and months and months.

But we did get there. But how much, like you were

saying, how much you have to drive it

Natalie Tealdi: Yes.

Victoria Bennion: Did you have to go to tribunal? Were you at that point

or, or was specialists named

Natalie Tealdi: specialist was not named, mainstream, was named so my son was outside for the best part of two, two years in mainstream

school. I mean.

I, I mean, literally outside on the field for

most of the day, every day for two years,

Victoria Bennion: Playing

in the mud kitchen. I

remember

Natalie Tealdi: even

when it was freezing wet, you know, he just could not cope inside.

They did, have a little desk for him, which was just outside the toilets, which, he would would do a tiny bit of learning slash play with a ta. She was actually the became his one-to-one because it was necessary, which then obviously put a strain on the rest of the class. But that is what he needed.

And it was clearly not going to work. Then he was actually suspended twice from school as well.

You know, he was five years old. I dunno how you can suspend a 5-year-old, but there we go.

He was on shortened days anyway, so he started late, came home early. Home was difficult as well 'cause he wasn't coping at home either. There were other changes going on in the home. , he just wasn't coping at all. I remember lots of meetings, and then a alternative provision was also talked about, and we did try that but it was quite a fight to get alternative provision and then it was quite clear that that wasn't gonna be the right place. , And I'd started looking at specialist schools. I'd visited some, but still they were saying mainstream. And that's when I wrote to the mp. 'cause I was just desperate. 'cause I just could see this was not gonna work.

you know, additional

needs.

Victoria Bennion: Did you have

a diagnosis at that

point or were, you on the pathway?

Natalie Tealdi: we were on the waiting list. We had a letter to say it was likely to be diagnosed because I'd had a lot of contact with a behavioral nurse. So she was able to get a letter written to try and help our case

It was a lot of phone calls, a lot of chasing, and in the end, his diagnosis came just at the point we were at the EHCP. You know the last bit?

Victoria Bennion: Yeah.

Natalie Tealdi: And I don't think it quite coincided. 'cause we did go for appeal. I I can't remember how the dates kind of lined up, but I remember saying to the council, he is not going back to that school in September.

There was one that was gonna be an hour drive away, and I knew he wouldn't be able to get in a taxi. So that would mean me driving

an hour.

And how old was he

Victoria Bennion: at this point, six?

Natalie Tealdi: He was just six. They were expecting him to get in a taxi and I really wasn't comfortable with him getting in

a

taxi for an

hour.

each way. It would've been so, So two hours a day

on top of a school day when he is not even coping,

so luckily we got a specialist school we wanted, which was closer and I I drive him there. But yeah, day before some holidays we found out and I did get the MP involved and he was He was so good. We were very lucky,

to be quite on it

Natalie Tealdi: There are people that can help, organizations that you can speak to.

Victoria Bennion: Absolutely. I go to a support group once a month, and the knowledge in that group and just the support was really, really helpful to me. And also SENDIAS I had quite good experience with them. I remember calling them and asking them at different points, what should I do? And they were really, really good. If you are going it alone, or even if you just want to know your rights, what you are entitled to the IPSEA website is a really good resource and I've looked on that a lot of times, and they have advice about doing a parental EHCP request, I believe there's also template to letters that you can use and all sorts. So if we

link

to those in the

show notes.

Natalie Tealdi: Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. And it can be done, that's the

thing.

Victoria Bennion: it

got a fight. And

I remember, no, I remember other parents that I was talking to at the time said.

Their feeling was that the local authority didn't take you seriously until actually had a tribunal date. They weren't really gonna focus their mind. They're just gonna try and fob you off until that, which is sad, but just, it's sometimes helpful to know that, to know that, . And for both of us getting that has been just life changing for both the boys because now they are in, placements that can meet their needs. And that's massive and I'm very grateful for that.

Natalie Tealdi: , my son's a completely different person.

There is lots of support available.

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