Send in the City – Bristol City Council Fails to Follow EHCP Process Correctly

By Jen Smith

Bristol City Council EHCP Failures: 

I have always been vocal in my annoyance about Bristol City Council and the EHCP process. I’ve found them to be incompetent in the past and today, I find, completely dishonest.

I’m going to go back to 05 September 2016. It was on that very specific date I first submitted a request for an EHCP assessment to Bristol City Council. It was for my eldest child who at the time was struggling to access education. Actually, his education had ground to a halt. He was behind, really behind and there just wasn’t enough support in place.

I had absolutely no idea it had been turned down…

On 08 September 2016, I had my Parental Views response and a letter explaining what was going to happen next. Information was gathered from the primary school my child attended at the time and this went to the Special Educational Needs Panel who promptly turned it down.

The rejection took place on 10 October 2016 and a letter with the decision was sent to everybody except me. The headteacher, the school senco, the Educational Psychology Service, the Health Authority all received a copy of the letter and not one person checked in with me. I had absolutely no idea it had been turned down.

On the 16 November 2016, I emailed the support practitioner at Kids in Bristol who had helped me put the application together. Bristol City Council had gone well over the six week scale they had to inform me of their decision to assess or not.

On Monday 21 November, the Senco at school casually mentioned to me that the request had been rejected a while back. She cheerfully printed out her copy of the letter. It was real blow. I had until 10 December to appeal the decision and register with the mediation service. It was too much. The hours I was working were long, school was going wrong for my child and I just couldn’t coordinate any more things.

Over a year to get an EHCP in Bristol. It’s a shocking failure…

Bristol City Council’s failure to send me a copy of the letter – or even email it as I had been corresponding via email – meant my child slipped further behind academically and things at school went badly wrong.

It is so unfair that two years’ later, he is playing catch-up big time. He won’t touch a book and though he has a great vocabulary, he struggles to read words on the page. His year 6 teacher worked so hard to help him try and catch up on lost ground, and though she was a miracle worker, there were only so many pieces she could pick up.

He should have had an EHCP. Another school now has to put in interventions, fund support to help him get to where he should be. The in his ability gap shouldn’t be so big and children – including mine – shouldn’t be unfairly labelled as ‘difficult’ because they are not adequately supported. They shouldn’t be missing school in Year Five because they are too afraid to come and when they get there, climb out of windows to leave.

A friend of mine started the process shortly after I did. She went through hell getting her son a much needed EHCP. She took it to tribunal with the entire process taking well over a year. Over a year to get an EHCP in Bristol. It’s a shocking failure.

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