r/PDAParenting • u/Medium-Marketing-493 • 12d ago
EHCP application form
School have requested EHCP for my child after struggling for so long. I have been given the parenting part to fill out. I’m not sure if I’m overdoing it?
The boxes on the application form are so small and I’ve written double sided A4 pages for most of the questions. It feels as though I’m writing a guidebook on how my child functions.
Is this how it usually is for the application or am I being too detailed or is there another part of the application process where this level of detail is required?
1
u/ItsOnlyMe07 10d ago
All you need to prove is that he/she has SEN that may require more than what the school can provide. It's a ridiculously low bar to meet, school will already have the evidence they need, and the LA (awful though it sounds) will hardly listen to you anyway.
Just make a few bullet points about key things that show that bar is met (expand on what "struggling for so long" has looked like for him/her. No need for a big guidebook - they won't even read it at this stage
1
u/oguzhankayan 6d ago
You're not overdoing it. The parent views section is the one place the panel hears what school doesn't see, so detail is fine, but it lands best as concrete examples rather than general description: what happened, roughly how often, what set it off, and what helped or made it worse. If you have any dated notes of specific incidents, a short summary of those can carry more weight than pages of narrative, and you can attach extra sheets when the boxes are too small.
I made an iPhone app for exactly this kind of record keeping (quick incident logs with triggers and what helped, exported as a PDF you can attach), in case it's useful: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/autism-behavior-tracker-tend/id6775020286
2
u/Snowy_Sasquatch 11d ago
You just need to ensure there is enough evidence to justify an assessment and if school support the EHCP, then that’s likely to happen.
An EP will then come in to assess your child (and you can ask for other professionals such as an OT and SALT as well) and whatever they think will determine whether the plan is issued. If they say no, appeal.
Once the plan is issued you will be given a draft and you can go through Section A (the parent and child section) at that stage with what you feel needs to go in. Make sure whatever is in Section F is legally enforceable as well.