The latest updates from our specialist practice in child and family law.
Please see the link below to an open letter to children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), their parents, families, and others who support them from Vicky Ford, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families The letter signposts key Covid-19 guidance published over the past week
We are pleased to announce that we are opening an outreach office in Farnborough
This will allow us to extend our services to clients in North Hampshire and enable us to deliver legal services particularly in relation to public law proceedings (care proceedings) and child protection which are easily accessible and convenient
If you require assistance or any queries please contact 01276 53 46 90
The Department for Education has confirmed that the current National Trial will be extended beyond 31st March 2020 to 31st August 2020
This is extremely positive news The National Trial provides extended powers for the SEND Tribunal to hear and make non-binding decisions about health and social care aspects of EHCP’s
There has been extensive use of the trial following its introduction with many more appeals than expected at the outset It gives parents and young people a route to try and secure enhanced social care and health provision and has been extremely valuable in supporting families caring for children and young people with additional needs Read the full letter here:
To secure an EHCP for your child or young person a request first must be made for an Education, Health and Care Needs assessment to the Local Authority/Borough This request can either by made by your child’s school, by you as parents or by the young person Don’t be put off if your child’s school refuses to make the request or says that your child does not meet the criteria Our experience is that many schools are not fully aware of the legal test and therefore sometimes parents are told that their child will not qualify for the assessment when there is overwhelming evidence as to the extent of their needs and the need for an assessment
A request can
The Department for Education has published the latest data about the number of children and young people with education health and care plans ( EHCPs) See here
The headline states the number of EHCPs have increased from 11% since 2018 There is an incredible 13% increase in the number of plans issued in the 0-5 age group and less surprisingly an increase of 32% in the 20-25 age group The 11-15 age group makes up 36% of the total number of children with EHCPs A total of 354,000 ofchildren and young people have EHCPs
With such an increase leading to more work for the the Local Authorities, a lower proportion of EHCP’s are issued within the statutory 20-week
If you are planning an appeal to SEND and seek professional advice you will most likely receive advice that you should instruct independent experts The most common experts suggested will be an Educational Psychologist, an occupational therapist and a speech and language therapist depending on the child or young persons needs In some cases, other experts are needed, eg, an independent social worker or a child and adolescent psychiatrist
These experts are often instructed at significant expense to parents and it can be difficult to find experts who have availability and also expertise in going to Tribunal hearings and experience in giving expert evidence It is always wise before instructing an expert just to check what SEND experience
Recent figures released by the Department for Education for 2015/2016 show that pupils with special education needs (SEN) accounted for more than half of all exclusions, fixed term and permanent!
The report tells us that:
Four years ago, the then government implemented the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) Many people eligible for legal aid on 31st March 2013 became ineligible the very next day
The Law Society has prepared a report indicating that legal aid cuts over the last 4 years have denied the most vulnerable people their fundamental rights to Justice
Robert Bourns, President of The Law Society stated that: “while successive governments have repeatedly cut back the legal aid budget, the reforms set out in LAPSO made the most significant changes to legal aid since its introduction, denying legal aid to many who need it”
He goes on say that “removing lawyers
The Department for Education (DfE) has provided some statistics and information about the number of Statements of Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)
As at January 2017 there were a total of £287,290 EHCPs and SENs representing an increase of 121% from January 2016 The statistics still show that there are a significant number of children and young people with Statements which as at January 2017 had not been transferred to EHCPs and of more concern a number of children and young people with Statements have been assessed and a decision had been made not to issue an EHCP
If you require advice on Statement of SEN, EHCP’s or if you are considering requesting an
Eye Can Talk is a blog which is written by an 11 year old who is non-verbal due to his severe cerebral palsy but who has learned to communicate using an eye gaze system
https://eyecantalknet/communication/
This section of the blog explains how Jonathon went from being ‘locked in’ to using eye gaze communication to write poetry and his own blog Jonathan had one of his poems read out on Radio 2 on Easter Sunday https://eyecantalknet/ This is inspiring for all of the families out there trying to battle the special education system to get access to new assistive communication technology for their children
We are helping a number of families at the moment to seek specification and quantification of AACT