Waiting on tenterhooks
It’s Monday 7th January and in the UK it is the big return for the New Year. Schools that haven’t already done so are re-opening after the Xmas break, extended Xmas holidays in offices come to an end and the traffic on the M25 will no doubt be the worst it has for 2 weeks. In the Gregorian Calendar today is also 25th December, and elsewhere in the world religions such as the Russian Orthodox Church that use this calendar are today celebrating Xmas with a high holiday.
So why is today so significant? For one child at least, today is significant because today is the deadline by which the Local Authority (LA) needs to decide whether or not to undertake an assessment for an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP).
Six weeks ago, the parents submitted a request to the LA requesting they undertake an assessment into their child’s special educational needs. The initial response from the LA was to say they are unlikely to be successful, before they’d even collected any detailed evidence.
Since then the parents have completed lengthy forms, collated numerous reports from schools and tutors and submitted them all for consideration. Today should be the day they will hear the outcome. I’m waiting on tenterhooks because I’ve helped them through this and I believe they’ve met the legal test for an assessment to be undertaken.
What if they refuse the assessment? Is that it?
For many it is. I know of several families who received the ‘refusal to asses’ multiple times and who waited another year and re-submitted the request, some supported by schools and some unsupported. I know of families whose schools have submitted requests that have been refused, multiple times. And for the most part that is where it stops. Schools and families wait another year and try again.
Unfortunately for the families and children in question they have become victims of a cruel game. A game in which LAs in a desperate attempt to preserve their budgets, refuse many requests for assessment in what appears to be a matter of policy. It’s a bit like having a persistently nagging child, where you no longer listen to their question and reply ‘No’, ‘No’, ‘No’ even when sometimes the answer should be ‘Yes’.
Refusal to assess isn’t the end of the road. With every formal refusal comes the right to appeal. In the school year ending 2017, 32% of all appeals were over a refusal to undertake an ECHP assessment, and this represented an increase of over 25% on the previous year. Judging by recent press coverage and personal experience, I fully expect this number to have increased yet again for the school year ending 2018 when official figures are released. Of those appeals, a staggering 80% have been withdrawn or conceded. Appeals are often withdrawn as the LA concedes the appeal without the appeal ever being heard.
I really hope we don’t hear they’ve refused the assessment today, and if they do we won’t accept it until it has been reviewed by the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST).
An assessment refusal doesn’t have to be the end of the road.
