Following an EHC needs assessment, or after an Annual Review, your Local Authority (LA) will finalise an EHCP naming your child’s school placement in Section I.
This blog will explain your options if you are not happy with the school that is named.
It is worth noting that overall, 98% of parents who appeal to SENDIST (Tribunal) find that SENDIST rule in their favour.
What are My Options:
If you are not happy with the contents of Section B (needs) and Section F (provision) in your child’s EHCP, you can:
1. Accept the school placement named in the final plan and work with the school to meet your child’s needs.
2. Request mediation to discuss this decision with the LA and ask them to reconsider. (It is worth noting that mediation meetings for school placement are rarely successful.)
3. Appeal to SENDIST (Tribunal).
This webinar event will help you to understand your options if you are not happy with the school named in your child’s final EHCP and provide a full resource pack to support you to appeal. Help! I'm not happy with the school named on the EHCP
1. Accepting The Decision
The LA has a legal duty to ensure that all provision in your child’s EHCP is provided.
Meet with your child’s SENDCo and discuss the provision that they can provide. If you are not satisfied that they can provide all of the provision in Section F of the EHCP, it is worth making a formal complaint to the LA to enforce them to make the provision. This blog will help you to do this Enforcing Your EHCP
If you are not happy that the school are willing or able to make appropriate provision for your child, consider requesting mediation or going to appeal.
2. Using Mediation
You have a right to request mediation within 2 months of the date on the letter from the LA sent with your final EHCP. To request, ring the number on the LA letter and ask them to arrange mediation.
Mediation is an informal way of trying to settle the dispute between you and the LA. There is no financial cost, and an independent mediator will support you and the LA to discuss your child’s case and review the decision the LA made. It is worth noting that rates of success for changing the school named in an EHCP through mediation are very low, so you may want to miss this stage and lodge an appeal.
If you are not happy with the school named in your child’s EHCP, it is extremely likely that there are deficits in the wording and identification of needs and provision in Sections B and F of the plan. To identify these, you will need to conduct a thorough review of your child’s EHCP or have this done professionally.
These webinars and extensive support packs will support you to identify all the necessary improvements to Sections B and F of your EHCP -
You will be issued with a mediation certificate at the end of mediation. If the LA refuse to make the changes necessary to your child’s EHCP, you have one month from the date of the mediation certificate to submit an appeal to SENDIST.
You can also request changes to Sections B & F (Needs and Provision) C, D, G & H (the Health and Social Care Sections) and Section A (Parent and Child’s Section) of your EHCP at mediation.
3. Appealing To SENDIST
You can go straight to appeal as soon as your LA finalise your EHCP, or after attending mediation. You do not have to go to mediation first, but you do have to consider using mediation. If you consider it and decide that you do not want to mediate, but lodge an appeal immediately, you will still need a mediation certificate. To obtain one, ring the mediation company, explain that you do not want to use mediation and ask them to issue a certificate straight away.
As soon as you get the certificate, you can lodge your appeal. You have two months from the date on the letter from the LA refusing the assessment, or one month from the date of the mediation certificate – whichever is longer.
During your appeal, you will need to prepare your case. If you have not already done so for mediation, you need to identify all the deficits in the wording and identification of needs and provision in Sections B and F of your EHCP. To do this you will need to conduct a thorough review of your child’s EHCP or have this done professionally.
These webinars and extensive support packs will support you to identify all the necessary improvements to Sections B and F of your EHCP -
Submit your appeal by completing a SEND35 form which can be found here.
Send it with the following:
· The LA letter that came with the final EHCP.
· Your mediation certificate.
· Any evidence.
You can also request that SENDIST advise on Sections C, D, G & H (the Health and Social Care Sections) through as part of a Tribunal appeal.
The Webinar Event already signposted in this blog will provide a full package of support for parents to prepare for challenging the school named in their child’s EHCP. In the easy-to-follow webinar, Anna and Sarah talk you through, step by step, giving scenarios, examples and detailed explanations of each part of the process.
The accompanying support package gives you timelines, examples and resources, and ‘fill in the blank’ templates to make the appeal process as uncomplicated as possible.
Find the Webinar Event and resource pack here Help! I'm not happy with the school named on the EHCP
This is part of our Events Department, which aims to provide affordable support for upskilling. We Empower Families to have knowledge and thereafter the confidence with SEND and EHCP issues to advocate for their own children and young people.
This resource from IPSEA will also be useful. Appeals about the contents of an EHC plan
So where do I go from here, how can Empowering Families of Children with SEND Ltd help me?
If you require additional support, Empowering Families of Children with SEND Ltd also provide fully bespoke 1:1 Mediation and Tribunal support with Anna & Sarah as part of their professional service, for details click here: Bespoke 1:1 support from Anna & Sarah
You can find testimonials to our bespoke service on our website and Facebook business page - here
Finally, you will find lots of useful video clips and free video and ‘podcast’ resources in our YouTube library here.
We are, and always will be Stronger Together.
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