My friends child is 4 years, due to start primary in September 2025. He is currently in a specialist school with 1:1 and has an EHCP. She has recently got a letter from the council offering places in mainstream schools only. My friend is devasted as knows her child will not cope. He has global learning delay, autism, non verbal and PICA symptoms (not diagnosed but does pick up and eat anything). She has no idea what to do. Can I get advice on what she can do and the steps she needs to take?

My child has been denied a special school, what can I do

My son is almost 4 and will be starting school in September, they have denied special school as he is a band 7 you need to be a band 8

He is non verbal, doesn't understand commands, barely turns his head to his name, the 2 mainstream schools I had to put down have came back to say they can't accommodate his needs, which I understand

My son attends nursery 9 hrs a week with funding of 1 to 1

I have explained no offence to my child but it will be like having a feral animal in the classroom, obviously this is why he needs a special school, he doesn't understand and will do his own thing, it won't be fair to him, the mainstream school or the other pupils

It went back to panel (EHCP) to question the 2 schools

I had time to think and got angry, I wrote an email stating why is the panel ignoring his needs, every professional person in the EHCP advised he had complex needs and why are they ignoring that he needs special school

It has been passed on to the panel

What can I do if they still say no

Naming a CIC in Section I

My daughter has severe SEMH needs and we’ve identified a CIC which delivers alternative provision for children with SEMH, however they only offer part time hours 15 hours over 2.5 days. The LA are saying as the organisation is not a school, they cannot name it. The organisation have said that they have other kids who attend with EHCPs and this is funded through a personal budget. The other 10 hours to make up full time provision we are considering another provider which isn’t a school but an alternative provision provider. We’re anxious to know whether we can have named in section I of my daughter’s EHCP the CIC and also if we can also have named the other provider for the other 10 hours?

Is there any legal basis for an LA to enforce pre-defined costings onto schools spending of the notional budget?

When providing provision maps to support top-up funding requests Derbyshire County Council is requiring provision to be costed at a pre-determined amount rather than the actual cost even when the school is evidencing the cost of what they are already doing (ie from their notional budget). This means that schools are repeatedly working at a loss in relation to this- can local authorities legally do this/ or is there a legal challenge that can be made against them doing this please?

Can I request the EP as an expert witness in my EHCP appeal, or could this backfire?

Our Educational Psychologist (a 2nd-year trainee) wrote a vague Section F provision with many examples rather than specific, quantified provisions. I have emailed three times requesting that it be made legally compliant, but the response I received stated:

"EP reports are written with the intention of enabling education staff to plan and deliver a personalised curriculum within a school or other educational setting. The additional examples that are included within advice help educators to incorporate recommendations/approaches into their lesson planning without limiting their creativity and flexibility, allowing staff to interpret the essence of the recommendation and plan to best effect."

I assume this aligns with LA policy, but my concern is that the vagueness makes the provision unenforceable. My son has an EOTAS package (recently agreed in final/nothing in place), and the LA is only organising tuition for the core curriculum. This means the examples listed in the EP report linking learning to interest (especially computing, which he accesses privately and consistently) are not included in his provision.

I agree with the essence of what she has written within F but due to the lack of detail I am appealing Sections B and F, and I’m wondering whether I should request the EP as an expert witness to clarify her recommendations—or whether this could backfire if she aligns with the LA's stance.

Child's EHCP allegedly states ethnicity - is this needed for an ehcp in section A?

Child's EHCP allegedly states ethnicity - is this needed for an ehcp in section A?

Would ‘broad and balanced curriculum’ in section F mean my son has access to the full curriculum

We have EOTIS Section F states for tutoring included teaching in core education curriculum. He would be in year 7, my concern here is that it’s limited to maths, English and science. He is pda and we have already identified learning needs to be around his interests the one thing he has always continued to access is computing (working towards the curriculum) and cooking. I put in a PB request for computing but “not reasonable required under section F” I will be appealing but I’m just wondering what core curriculum needs to be reworded to so he has access to the full curriculum. Additional where the EP recommendations that were tailored to my son included the use of examples, the LA have stated these are examples so cooking is mentioned twice under learning provision and again under sensory but it won’t be included as “not reasonably required under section F”

Is the SENCo accountable for amending the EHC plan after an annual review meeting?

We have an upcoming Annual Review meeting scheduled in the next few days and recently received an email from the SENCo outlining the roles and expectations for the review.

The email states:
"As [my son's] SENCo, I will edit the EHCP after the review and make amendments where necessary."

However, based on what we’ve learned from other parents, it is not advisable to rely on the school to make amendments to our son's EHCP

As I understand it, the SENCo's role is to compile a report for the Local Authority (LA) after the Annual Review, leaving the responsibility of making any amendments to the EHCP to the LA.

Shouldn't it be the LA, rather than the SENCo, making changes to my son's EHCP?

Since appealing section I and receiving a tribunal date, we have just received an email from our local authority Tribunal Officer, asking what our child's views are on which school she wants to attend and if we wnat to discuss their decision in more detail to get in touch, they want to come to a resolution. Should we engage?

We applied for a specialist school for transition of our daughter to secondary school in September. She has an EHCP with 1:1 in mainstream primary school, but the local secondary school has said they cannot support her needs; we also feel that she would not cope in the large scale setting etc etc. The specialist provision has offered her a place but the local authority has named the mainstream secondary school in the EHCP, hence our appeal. We have requested information, reasons for the decision etc prior to appeal but they would not engage. Now that we are heading towards tribunal they have sent an email asking us for our child's view and if we want to discuss further to come to a resolution. NB. they have only 2 weeks left to submit their evidence pack. This all feels suspicious as we had those discussions in the phase transition meeting with school and the LA, plus all the specialist reports state that our daughter needs to attend a small specialist setting. Not sure to what extent we should reply to this email and engage with the LA now at this stage.

What happens if you turn down two settings offered by the LA (one AP one a school) because you do not think they will meet needs (backed up with professional evidence)? Can I hope to get EOTAS?

I am currently in the process of taking the LA to tribunal for section B, E, F and I. They failed to put in a lot of the EP evidence and failed to do a SaLT or OT assessment despite the EP report stating it was needed and me asking for them to be done.