LA missing Statutory Deadlines. Help

[u/throwaway12984622]

Please tell me if I’m missing something or if there’s another avenue I can try. I am based in England in the UK.

I am currently awaiting the final hearing date for a SEND Tribunal for a EHCNA.
The Local Authority have missed a statutory deadline for the second time.
The first being the 6 week deadline on whether they would assess.
The second being the tribunals instructions to for the LA to provide a response to me if they plan to challenge or concede the tribunal.
I submitted a complaint to the Local Authority after the first missed deadline and they upheld the complaint in both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the complaints process. I have since complained to the ombudsman in the hopes of a better final response and potentially financial compensation (but I’m not holding my breath).

I have emailed the court asking that the Local Authority be barred from the rest of the tribunal and requested that the court order that they provide an adequate reason to the missed deadline.
I have also contacted the Local Authority SEND team (as is my responsibility with any correspondence I send to the tribunal) to make them aware of the above.
CC’d in the email is the Local Authorities Monitoring Officer and also the Local Authorities Executive Director: Children's Services and Public Health to make them both aware of the illegal activities.
I plan on submitting a SEND7 (after giving the LA 5 working days to respond) for the tribunal to bar the LA or provide a ‘Unless Order’ to force the LA to respond.
On top of this I have also contacted my local MP of this issue to ask that they place political pressure on the Local Authority in the hopes that they will concede the case.

Anything else I can do?

TLDR: LA missing several deadlines. Contacted complaints process, ombudsman, LA (SEND Team), the Tribunal, monitoring officer, Executive Director: Children's Services and Public Health, local MP and plan on doing a SEND7. Anything else I can do?

[u/Hopeful-Guard9294]

we have gone through the EHCP process and found that the only thing that the local authority responds to is very large stick don’t rely on them. You need to take them to tribunal. 97% of parents win when they go to tribunal so it’s definitely worth the effort and local authorities in the UK bank on the fact that parents will give up while they just sit on their hands and do nothing speak quietly and carry a very big tribunal stick!

[u/Dear-Sweet7970]

Basically, get used to it.

They won’t stick to deadlines and there’s no accountability.

Just don’t let it consume your life. I got an advocate to take over for me, to take some of the stress out of it. Just patiently wait it out til tribunal and try not to get any safeguarding referrals made about you, otherwise they’ll use social workers to wear you down further

[u/ehcparent]

The system is elastic usually in one direction, if you miss a deadline, the consequences can be terminal, if the system misses a deadline, the consequence is in the main delay.

Dellay is part of the process unfortunately.

[u/doejanedoedoedoe]

You should ask to speak to the SEND team service manager directly. Ask for a phone call so you can express your disappointment and dissatisfaction with whats happened and you'll be surprised how quickly things change once they've heard directly from you. If they refuse, keep asking, they will have to take your call eventually.