EHCP Panel Outcome for Autistic 6 Year Old | Sheepdog Says 

Thank you!

Thanks, I get what their intention is but it only hurts the kids doesn’t it.

Once momentum gets going it’s less of a struggle and more of a wait. Kids change so much across a year too that needs keep shifting. We have a meeting in feb to run through the current plan etc and while things are much better than they were in early years, we still have this situation where he’s not part of the class he’s adjacent to it. That might be as good as we can with a mainstream school. Once you have the diagnosis apply for the DLA if you haven’t already the monthly funding is very helpful for you at home.

@@SheepdogSays Thank you so much for your advice. Don't really know how all this works and my little one is none verbal. He will start nursery in April and we want to make sure things are in place for him when he starts school. Also it's very difficult to choose which schools to consider, mainstream or special school. We haven't applied anything because he is not diagnosed yet because the waiting time is just too long. We had a chat with his Speech and language therapist and she said she will try to do what she can and visit the nursery when he starts so she can get more evidence.

@@burco7626 no problem! We found that you need the EHCP before you can do much more. They’ll review his needs and then they can look at schools near you and ask “can you meet his needs?” And they have to commit to a yes or a no. They can also say “yes but only if you pay for XYZ” and then the school might be given funding for a TA or whatever else is needed but it’s not a huge sum. His needs will change as he grows so it’ll be reviewed as you go and school can ask for more help to an extent. The diagnosis helps a lot because they can look at autism outreach and things like that, plus any additional teams like speech and language who can come in and work with the school to suggest ideas and things they can try. But in the mean time it’s purely about what they currently know regarding his needs so if schools say no they’ll look further at special needs schools. My sons school are saying yes they can meet his needs. So it means we’ve not reached that next point yet. They got funding for some TA provision. Now they’re saying they can only have him in school if the TA is full time and they have additional support in place etc.

@@SheepdogSays Thank you, take care.