Bright Journeys SEND Advocacy - Louise Williams

Have you received one of the decisions below from the LA and need to appeal?
- a refusal to carry out an EHC Needs Assessment or reassessment
providing there has been no new assessment within the previous 6 months
- a refusal to issue an EHC plan after an EHC Needs Assessment
- you have received a final EHC plan and are not happy with the contents and/or placement (Sections B, F and I).
- a refusal to amend an EHCP following an Annual Review and /
or reassessment
- a cease to maintain an EHCP (end an EHCP)

Time goes by quickly, daily life takes over at times and suddenly the appeal window has come and gone.
Make sure you get the appeal in before the deadline passes!

School consultation responses

I see a familiar pattern emerging from families recently with regards to the lack of transparency with school consultation responses from local authorities.
Once you receive your draft EHCP the LA will ask which school/s you would like them to consult with as your parental preference. The LA then consult with parental preference (unless non-section 41 independents, they only have to consider these) along with other (usually mainstream) schools the LA think can meet need. The LA will always try to name the cheapest closest school that can meet need.

The Code of Practice states the following regarding consultation times:

“9.83 The nursery, school or college, and, where relevant, the other local authority, should respond within 15 days. Where a nursery, school or college identified in 9.78 above is named on an EHC plan, they must admit the child or young person.”

What happens here is really important. The LA has full oversight of what each school is responding with, whether they are saying they can meet needs or not. By keeping this information and not sharing it with parents, some LAs are naming mainstream on EHCPs even though parents have requested specialist provisions a these schools have said yes.

Often parents will come to me for support further down the line for tribunal support when this has already happened and then we are discovering after asking for all consultation responses that schools had said yes but now the place has gone or other such scenarios.

Please ensure you request in writing all school consultation responses from your LA so that you have a clear picture of what schools are responding with. If the LA do not respond or delay in giving this information, you can make a specific and targeted Subject Access Request (SAR) to the local authority for this information. Organisations are required to respond to a SAR without undue delay, and in any event, within one month of receiving the request. This timeframe begins on the day the organisation receives the request, even if that day falls on a weekend or public holiday.

If you are being kept in the dark, this is withholding information and putting you (and your child) at a disadvantage. You have a right to know what schools are responding with about your child.
Remember, knowledge is power!
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Please don’t believe everything you read on social media about PDA, even when it’s presented in very confident tones by so-called “experts.”

I’ve just read yet another post this morning that talked endlessly about “behaviours,” “what to do when they refuse,” “how to respond,” and “strategies” that were essentially behaviour modification dressed up as neurodivergent-affirming practice.

If the focus is still on compliance, praise, reward systems, consequences, “planned ignoring,” or managing the child’s behaviour without properly understanding the nervous system underneath it, then it is not genuinely PDA-informed support.

Where is the discussion about reducing language when a child is escalated?
Where is the understanding that too much talking can increase threat?
Where is the recognition that anxiety and loss of autonomy drive the presentation?
Where is the focus on environment, co-regulation, relational safety, sensory load, flexibility, trust, and collaborative support?

Children and young people with a PDA profile are not “being difficult.” They are often overwhelmed, dysregulated, and operating from a nervous system that perceives everyday demands as threat.

You cannot reward a child out of survival mode.
You cannot sticker-chart your way through panic.
And you cannot behaviour-manage a nervous system into feeling safe.

We desperately need more critical thinking around PDA content online, because confident misinformation is still misinformation.

‘We treat everyone the same…’
If you hear this from a school/setting/club please challenge it. If everyone gets the same support (equality)you will end up with individuals’ needs not being met or supported, like in the picture at the top.
Equity, in contrast, recognises that people have different needs and require specific resources/support in order to reach an equal outcome.
A simple visual, but a powerful one.
Louise

I have had a few families reaching out this week to say they have been told by the LA that their advocate/family member cannot attend mediation without their or the mediator's permission. Again, this simply isn't true. The LA are also not allowed to refuse to participate if they disagree with who you are bringing.

Regulation 38(1) of the SEND Regulations 2014 explains who can attend:
'any advocate or other supporter that the child's parent or the young person wishes to attend the mediation,' may attend. This permits the parents to bring who they wish to support them without the LA's or mediator's permission. (including a lawyer - see case law Kumar v LB Hillingdon (Rev 1)[2020] EWHC 3362 (Admin))

Join us on 13 May for our FREE webinar, 'Understanding home to school/college transport'. We'll be explaining:

🔷 Where to find the law and guidance regarding home-to-school transport
🔶 Who is eligible for home-to-school transport
🔷 The different entitlement for children and young people of different ages
🔶 Key points from the latest guidance
🔷 Where to find further support and challenge decisions

This training will be interpreted live in British Sign Language (BSL).

Register your place: https://www.ipsea.org.uk/join-our-free-webinar-understanding-home-to-schoolcollege-transport

Thanks to a donation from the John Horniman's Children's Trust, we are pleased to have a grant to offer this free webinar to parents, carers and young people.

Parents and carers 📣

Our legal team will be on our page tomorrow morning for a Q&A session.

They’ll be answering your questions on any educational issue that is a result of your child’s SEND, and signposting you to useful resources and guidance.

We'll share a dedicated Q&A thread tomorrow morning where you can post your questions. If you’d like us to notify you once the Q&A post goes live, please leave us a comment below 👇