Parent asks:
My son is 23 has Autism, OCD, PDA, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and has attended a mainstream college since September.
In November 2016, he won his tribunal and the Local Authority named his college in his EHCP. He is currently studying the subject Media and the tribunal ordered the LA to provide equipment, such as a laptop and camera, the college provided the LA with a full list of equipment. The Tribunal also ordered the Local Authority to provide 3 hours extra tuition per week to be delivered by a media tutor.
Only one piece of equipment has arrived in the last two weeks, and no tuition has been provided. He is studying Functional Skills and only has one lesson a week and sometimes not full lessons. He is falling behind and has been told already he cannot progress to the next level 3 media due to him being weak in math and English and we have complained but to no avail. What more can we do he has no representation?
The college has informed him that the Local Authority says he must pay for his one to one support worker out of his social care budget. Also, he is expected to contribute to the costs of his transport. He is supposed to pay from home to the train station and the Local Authority will pay from the train station to the college, are they able to do this?
His EHC plan states ' full time one to one support in college' his one to one worker should be the same worker who escorts my son as he cannot travel independently, should the authority pay all of it?
His social care budget only pays for activities is old and outdated and we his family provide all of his care. His moral is very low due to these failings to provide the provision in his EHC plan. We have endured two years of Tribunals one for the Plan another for the wording and placement and during this time my son has been at home with no education.
IPSEA Answers:
The Local Authority has a statutory duty to secure the provision specified in Section F of the EHC Plan (s.42 Children and Families Act 2014). Whilst a school or college will often be delivering the provision in a plan in practice, this duty means that if the college can’t or won’t secure this provision then the Local Authority must do so. It is extremely rare for transport to be regarded as special educational provision and we would not normally expect to see it in Section F. However, it may be that the Tribunal decided that in your son’s case the provision of a support worker from college to escort your son to college was a form of training, and therefore concluded it was appropriate for it to be specified in section F of the Plan.
We have a model letter which you can use to complain to the Local Authority if the provision in an EHC plan is not being provided here: https://www.ipsea.org.uk/what-you-need-to-know/model-letters/model-letter-6
If this is not successful you may want to consider taking matters further and complaining to the Local Government Ombudsman or bringing judicial review proceedings. You will require more information about going to the High Court and Local Authority Complaints here: https://www.ipsea.org.uk/what-you-need-to-know/challenging-decisions
