Life as a SEN mum

What is an EHCP?

An EHCP is an Educational Health Care Plan, it is issued by the council to provide support for children who need it. They are not only issued to those with additional needs, but most commonly they are issued to children with disabilities, be that physical or hidden.

Are they the holy grail?

Simple answer, no. You will no doubt have seen lots of talk over the news and on social media recently with people claiming getting an EHCP is “the it” thing to do. Trust me, if we didn’t have to we wouldn’t, the process is tedious and even then there’s no guarantee that a child will get the help they need which brings on more fights to get there needs met.

Our story?

It makes sense to start with James as he was the first child we applied for an EHCP for and the one that caused the most stress.

We applied at the start of his second term in FS2. Everything seemed to be pretty straightforward until the time it came for a decision to be made. If you’ve never been through the process, there is a legal time limit for these decisions to be made, however, councils are very good at having a long line of excuses for why it’s taking longer.

After having got past the 20 week mark we started chasing it up. This is when they came up with excuse after excuse. The SENCO was making sure she was staying in contact with our LA even during school holidays so that if any issues occurred we could deal with them straight away. The problem being there was no one within the education department actually at work themselves so again it was stalled. I contacted our local MP who told me that there was nothing she could do and as a party SEN children were not a consideration (bit of a joke when I was surrounded by people telling me how Labour are all for helping SEN students). This continued until I finally contacted the MP a third and final time stating the huge affect it had on my mental health. Lo and behold after a whole year we finally had a draft copy of the EHCP land through the letterbox.

Charlotte on the other hand shocked even her nursery SENCO and the school SENCO by going through on time, also meaning it was in place ready for starting to school. At the point of applying for her EHCP she had much more complex care needs than James and thankfully everyone involved was pushing for it to be completed on time.

What next?

Every year we need to review their EHCPs, this ensures that it covers current needs. But it isn’t necessarily as simple as submitting a review and they get everything they need. Since being in key stage 2 James has needed a full time 1 to 1 to be able to access an education. This comes with yet more paperwork, more fighting and the worry given lack of SEN trained staff. Given the funding needed it can be refused, and is refused, by the LA. Thankfully this has now been guaranteed until the end of year 6 while we continue to look for a SEN placement.

We are currently also waiting to hear whether Charlotte will be granted a 1 to 1. Whilst many see Charlotte as the “easier” child. Given her very specific behaviour traits it has been decided that moving into year 1 she will need the extra staff to be able to facilitate her sensory and movement breaks, as well as keep her focused.

So as you can see, whilst there is this view that this is the in thing to do, it actually takes up a lot of your time, energy and sanity making sure your child can simply access what any neurotypical child is automatically entitled to.