Are you in the middle of an EHCP application for your child only to have that process disrupted by the global pandemic? In this article you will find the latest legal information as to what you can expected to demand from your Local Authority.
As someone who works with many parents of dyslexic children, I know how important the UK Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is for helping children with dyslexia experience successful academic outcomes. The trouble is, navigating the law that underpins the EHCP system as well as knowing which hoops to jump through to get an EHCP in place, is difficult at the best of times, let alone during this extremely challenging period when our education system is experiencing severe disruption.
Essential information for parents.
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One can be forgiven for thinking that with so much taking place around us our Local Authorities surely won’t be delivering upon their EHCP responsibilities? So what can I expect to be holding the LA to account for? How do I know what is reasonable to accept during my EHCP application process? Are EHCP’s on hold now due to the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lock-down restrictions?
EHCP’s have not been locked-down but there have been some amendments.
I recently attended an annual law conference run by SEN Legal and 3PB Barristers and I was pleased to listen to the talk from Hayley Mason, (Director, SEN Legal Ltd) about the changes that have had to have taken place to the EHCP applications and processes as a result of the current COVID-19 Lock-Down restrictions.
My main takeaways were that the application processes have NOT ceased and that the Local Authorities are still accountable by law to deliver EHCP’s but for obvious reasons there could be extensions to the usual expected timescales for responses to the application. Usually, the “expected” timescale of the whole process is 20 weeks.
The following statement from an article written by Hayley Mason says:
“From 1st May, the processes themselves are unchanged, and parents and institutions can still submit EHC Needs Assessment requests as normal. Therefore, if your Local Authority is refusing to accept EHC Needs Assessment application which we know some LA’s are), then they are operating an unlawful policy. The only thing that has relaxed is, the timescale by which the Local Authority must provide various decisions.”
If you are currently looking to submit an EHCP application or indeed are in the middle of an EHCP application process, then I would like to recommend Hayley’s article which clearly outlines what we as parents can expect from the current EHCP system during these difficult times. Just click the button below to access the article.
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