Is your school a trusted SatNav?
If you are a regular SatNav user, I’m sure you’ve experienced at least one less than ideal outcome from your satnav use. Maybe it was the journey that resulted in you driving along a twisting and turning country lane, because it was a couple of minutes shorter, rather than sticking to main road, or one where the latest road layout wasn’t in your SatNav’s mapping software and you ended up going round in circles until you found your way back on track.
And for every journey that went wrong, there were probably several that went smoothly, or at least as smoothly as you expected, because when we follow a SatNav, we’ve no idea if a different route would have worked out better, unless we sent a friend or family member along that route at the same time. And yes, we’ve been known to do that on occasion 😉
What I see is that school advice in relation to Educational Health and Care Needs Assessments (EHCNA) can be a bit like a SatNav. Very often it is OK. It might not be the best route, however you will generally end up where you need to be eventually.
However, when the SatNav is playing up, the well-meaning bad advice from a school can cost months of inadequate education for a learner. So what might go wrong?
Schools are not always well informed about when an EHCNA might be appropriate. You might hear all kinds of mis-information about not being far enough behind, not having spent enough money, your child not being ‘bad enough’ compared with other learners, or them already having used up their ‘allotment’ of learners with an EHCP (Educational Health and Care Plan). Very often this information is not shared due to any deliberate malice, the fact is that schools are not always as well informed about the law as they might be, and they receive much of their training from Local Authorities.
The school ‘evidence’ might paint the wrong picture. School evidence is a crucial part of the process for learners who are on-roll at an educational establishment. A weak submission by the school can make it very easy for a Local Authority to turn down a request for an EHCNA.
Schools are sometimes reluctant to say that they are no longer able to meet a learner’s needs. It’s akin to accepting failure. Where an EHCP is to be issued, schools will be consulted on the draft plan, and asked if they can meet the learner’s needs, however what if you’re still trying to secure an EHCNA? Few schools will voluntarily put on record that they are struggling to meet a learner’s needs at this point in the process.
In the year from September 2021 – August 2022, 3,082 tribunal appeals were registered against a local authority decision not to undertake an EHCNA. Of these, 1,653 (56%) were conceded by the local authority before reaching tribunal, and a further 1,119 were decided by the tribunal. With the tribunal finding against the local authority in 96% of decisions, this means that over 93% of those resolved within the period went against the LA’s original decision.[i]
That might be reassuring for those embarking on a request for an EHCNA. However, the Tribunals are seeing annual increases in appeals being registered and therefore the time for hearing appeals is getting longer and longer. Taking a decision not to assess to tribunal could result in more than 6 months of waiting.
So is there an alternative?
In the same way that we might sense-check our SatNav’s selected route, we can also sense-check the submission being made by a school, before it goes in.
If your school is supporting or drafting a request for an EHCNA, you might want to ask them to share the content of the application before it is submitted. Explain that you’d like to read through it to see if there is anything else you can add to support it. When you read it, look for evidence of proactive support for your child. Be alert to any impression that your child’s troubles might be poor behaviour or discipline rather than an underlying disability. You can make a contribution, independently of their submission, so having read theirs, you can draft your own contribution, this can be useful to put another perspective on anything they’ve included that you don’t think is accurately represented. It can be difficult to read emotive language about your child that you don’t think is fair. Don’t get into an argument with the school over this, ensure you present a different perspective, preferably evidenced, to counter it.
Having an independent perspective on your child’s success in securing an EHCNA can be helpful. There are many organisations that can help with this. All local authorities must fund a SENDIAS service to provide advice and information for special educational needs. Alternatively, there are national and local charities, such as SOS!SEN, IPSEA and Education Equality. And of course, there are people like me who can also provide an independent perspective.
[i] Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal Tables 2022