Parents/young people can request mediation if they are unhappy with the social and/or health care elements of an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). If the parent/young person is also disputing the education element of the plan, there should be a single...
Parents/young people must have a mediation certificate before they can register an appeal about EHC needs assessments or the SEN element of an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). There is no requirement to consider mediation or to have a mediation...
Pupils with an EHCP are not subject to the usual admissions process for school/college places. Instead, parents can request the placement they feel would best support their child/young person’s needs. Where can I find out about schools/colleges in my...
Annual Reviews Local authorities (LAs) must review EHCPs at least once every twelve months, and should review every six months for a child under 5 years. The process and timescales for EHCP annual reviews are outlined in the SEND Regulations 2014. In...
As pupils prepare to return to school and college, we’ve put together a series of five articles on matters that parents/carers may need to address in the next year. In our first article, we examine the content of Education, Health and Care Plans...
An update to an article that we first produced in 2018 and following the recent case of R (on the application of L and others) v Devon County Council [2022] EWHC 493 (Admin) which has put to bed the Loop! A reminder of parent and young persons’...
Children with special educational needs (SEN) are 5 times more likely to receive a permanent exclusion than pupils with no known SEN. While the rate of permanent and fixed-period exclusions has come down, there is clearly more to be done to ensure that...
The National Autistic Society describes autism as a ‘lifelong, developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with and relates to other people, and how they experience the world around them’. Autism is a spectrum condition...
The long awaited High Court judgment in R (L) v Devon CC [2022] EWHC 493 (Admin) finally provides clarity on the process of amending Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) after annual reviews. In short, if the local authority proposes to amend the EHCP...
I spoke with SNAP Care on 9 February 2022 about EHCPs, and what you need to know about when a Plan can be ceased, and when one is ceased, by the local authority (LA). Here are some of the questions and answers: If a young person (YP) reaches 19 years old...
