Is it not #disabilitydiscrimination to constantly force a huge burden of admin onto disabled families?
Thinking of the EHCP process particularly.
For us the process has been ongoing since July when we applied, though school should have applied a full year before. THREAD

I'm going to ignore the huge administrative burden of CAMHS and Social Care in this thread, although the fact CAMHS were still making us wait 2-3 yrs for an ASD assessment despite a desperate situation forced us to seek private diagnosis at great expense.

So re. EHCP:
1) School SENCO repeatedly said she wouldn't get an EHCP. I was less educated in SEN law then. It took me a year to realise school were never going to apply.
2) We applied in July. Agreement to assess - because it was bloody obvious she needed an EHCP.

3) Constant chasing of the LA needed. Constant reiteration that assessments were needed. Agreement that they were needed, but consistently putting off doing them. Our OT & sensory assessment was finally done in April, a full 10 months after application.

4) No communication from LA until complaints process started. No movement on plan until tribunal mentioned. Long meeting with LA. All requests (almost) agreed, but no action to put them into plan. Yet instant action - the same day - when mediation instigated.

Mediation meeting where everything we asked for was agreed - because we were only asking for things they had already agreed to, we wanted them in the plan to be legally protected. We wondered why they othered with mediation - everything mentioned should have been done months ago.

Receive the notice to amend the final plan - only a few of the points covered in mediation have been changed. More time wasting. I email pointing out everything that was agreed as a mediation outcome & what needs to be in there. I state that we now have to appeal.

We wait to see if she will reply - we don't want to appeal, it's literally hours more work. But we can't wait any longer because the deadline is looming and if we don't do it now we won't be able to. We spend around 5 hours over the weekend drawing it all up and gathering docs.

It only took 5 hours because we are already very organised on this - we have had to produce docs constantly for the last 11 months and longer. We know what we are doing now. We understand SEN law better than all 3 SENCOs we have dealt with in the last 2 years.

But all of this should have been unnecessary. This morning we got a reply which said they are putting in all the amendments & will be sending out the Notice to amend shortly. Glossing over the fact they already sent it, and it didn't include the amendments we agreed at mediation.

If we added up all the hours spent on this stuff, & on dealing with CAMHS and Social Care bureacracy & ineptness - or worse - over the last 2 years it would be a full time job. Most of this time has been completely unnecessary if the authorities and professionals followed the law

The 5 hours spent this weekend are a complete waste of time, presuming this morning's email does what it says. Between us our charge out rates for a business hour are considerable. I'd like to bill the LA for the waste of our time this weekend. But it's a more sinister corruption

This constant gaslighting and inaction despite the law are a deliberate part of LA/CAMHS/Social Care culture which is directed toward and affects a group protected by that law. This is disability discrimination surely.