EHCP

As a result of the third  national lockdown, government guidance to school’s has again been updated.  A full copy of this guidance is available here: Actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)      This guidance applies to all schools in England, including special, independent, and residential schools, but  excludes maintained nursery schools and pre-reception [...]

Re-opening Schools and colleges should now be fully open with all pupils attending school full-time, except those who are clinically extremely vulnerable during the current national lockdown. The government requires early years settings, schools, colleges and universities to remain open during the current national lockdown.  The current  guidance for settings says that children and young people should continue to [...]

Local authorities must not make children or young people with EHCPs go through the usual schools admissions process. The law sets out a separate process for pupils with EHCPs. The SEN and Disability Regulations 2014 define this as a transfer from: (a)  early years education to school (b)  infant school to junior school (c)  primary school to middle [...]

An Education Health & Care Plan replaces Statements of Special Educational Needs in England, as a result of the Children and Families Act 2014. By 1 April 2018, all Statements of SEN should have been replaced with an EHCP following a legally prescribed transition process. In Wales, Statements of SEN remain in force and are governed [...]

The first step in the process is to request an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment of the child. An EHC Needs Assessment informs a Local Authority’s decision on whether it needs to issue an EHCP for the child or young person. Once a Local Authority agrees to carry out an EHC Needs Assessment it must [...]

An EHC Needs Assessment is an integrated assessment of the education, health care and social care needs of the child or young person. A Local Authority must seek advice on a child or young person’s needs, the provision to meet those needs and outcomes expected to be achieved. Advice can be sought from: the child’s parent [...]

These are newly introduced elements of EHCPs. Local Authorities can now be requested to identify a ‘personal budget’ for a child or young person that an EHCP is maintained for. A personal budget is an amount of money identified by a Local Authority to deliver provision set out in the EHCP where the parent or young [...]

The Children and Families Act 2014, which is the legal framework for EHCPs, states that once a young person reaches the end of compulsory school age, all rights that were previously held by the parent, pass to the young person, subject to the young person having mental capacity, as per the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Once [...]

The SEND Tribunal is the legally identified route of redress against Local Authority decisions for specified matters concerning EHCPs. It is an independent national tribunal which hears parents’ and young people’s appeals against Local Authority decisions about the special educational needs of children and young people. Specifically, parents/young person can appeal to the SEND Tribunal against [...]

Local Authorities are required to arrange free and suitable home-to-school transport for children of compulsory school age who are ‘eligible’ to their nearest suitable qualifying school. Eligible children is defined under four categories: Children with SEN, a disability or a mobility difficulty Children whose route to school is unsafe Children who live beyond the statutory walking [...]