EHCP Annual Review
Back in January, I received an email from my local MP, Marie Goldman, alerting me to a Parliamentary Inquiry ‘Solving the SEND Crisis’ which had put out a request for evidence. I submitted the below evidence in February and I did not expect that it would be published as part of the official documentation (and it hasn’t been), but I approached this as our experience being a small grain of sand on the large, long beach of evidence from doctors, professionals and other families. A beach only exists because of each individual grain of sand.
The link to the evidence I supplied is here.
I didn’t think about this again until this week, when we have been doing the annual EHCP review for our son. For those lucky enough to be unfamiliar with the intricacies of the EHCP process, Nick and I, along with the school SENCO, his specialist teacher and his one-to-one teacher, go through the EHCP document and review it in light of the last year, our son’s current needs etc. and update it so it is relevant for the next 12 months. Goals are outlined and we review the success of last year’s goals. This is then sent to the council for them to amend the EHCP for the next year. It’s not an easy meeting, emotionally for me at least, and there is a lot of paperwork and prep work needed from us and the school, but it is crucial and, this year, a great reminder that we have the correct support in place to help our son access and thrive in school.
Someone from the council is supposed to attend this meeting, but despite invitation for both years: this has not happened so far.
We then send the amends to the council to update this crucial, and, I can not overstate this part enough, legal document, and they are supposed to keep the document up-to-date annually , but it is particularly important (and legally mandated) that it is updated at a change of key stage. Last year, which was a change in Key Stage for our son (EYSF to KS1) the council did not think it was fit to amend the document, instead asking the school and ourselves to ‘make edits and amends as we saw fit’. It is unlikely the council will update it this year.
One thing you learn quickly as a parent going through this process is that although something is part of a ‘legally mandated’ process, councils with flagrant frequency ignore it – when I am feeling generous, I imagine this is an inevitable consequence of budget constraints and system overwhelm; but when I am feeling cynical and bitter, which the system often drives me towards, ignoring the process and cruelly pushing parents and those in the system far beyond their absolute limits has become the process. A way to ‘weed’ out those who don’t have the energy, financial backing or time to fight this process. That’s what this process is: a daily fight, which is at the same time deeply personal and brutal, clinical and cold.
The EHCP is a legal document written on behalf of a school child with extra needs to ensure that the educational authority and council will provide necessary support so that the curriculum is accessible for them. It’s hard to feel comforted in this even when you are “lucky” enough to be granted one (because many children with needs are not given one) when the same system flaunts the legality of it all at every opportunity.
I have read many stories, and heard many first-hand from other SEND parents, where the council has refused to update an EHCP across the years of primary school (as they have done so far for us, for instance), so the parents and school work it out between themselves and everything is OK until the time comes for the child to move to secondary school. Then the fact that the EHCP has not been updated for years becomes a weapon the council use to prove the EHCP is no longer necessary, or support can be lessened for secondary school. Forcing parents to take the council to tribunal to access support they need and already had in place.
The whole SEND system, as well as parts of the NHS, seem designed to kick in only when someone is at the point of absolute failure, and not a second before. The more I read about this system, the more I chat to parents, professionals who have experience of this system, the more tragic, dark and obvious this part becomes.
Our review this year was tinged with the idea that as our son is doing so well at school because, and only because, he has the correct support in place, the council may come back and strip back the support he has because he isn’t struggling. The struggle seems to be the proof needed for support, and not success because of the support in place. It fills me with dread that we might be in this situation one day, it’s always looming large in my brain as a fear. My son’s needs are life-long; he’ll always need adaptations of some description throughout his life. My opinion on our situation, and I acknowledge that ours is a privileged one, is that as his needs are based primarily on his vision, the criteria for this is black and white: you are either below the threshold or you aren’t, and this safeguards our position somewhat. If his EHCP was primarily based on his neurodivergent needs, for instance, this comfort wouldn’t exist.
