We had Charlie's annual review (AR) on 17th July 2024. This was with the new caseworker, elective home education officer (more on this later) speech and language therapist, learning support worker, myself and Charlie. It was supposed to be on a day Charlie was with dad, however attendance to dad's hasn't been good… more on this later.

So, first thing I recognised was that there was a person there from the home education team. I was a little confused about this, for starters, no one from that team had ever attended before. And secondly I had not been told this in advance, so suddenly a new face on the screen threw me! Luckily it's virtual and Charlie doesn't really get involved, but had it been in person that would have really upset Charlie. So the home Ed lady asked me if I had completed a report for the annual review, I answered no. It is not my responsibility to write an educational statement on Charlie as his education is delivered through EOTAS. This means I am not responsible for it at all. I am not electively home educating, I haven't chosen this, there are no schools in this area able to meet Charlie's needs and his anxiety means he's unable to travel out of the area.

Anyway, I politely told her, no, I hadn't made a report because his education is delivered through EOTAS. I'm not sure she was satisfied with this answer, but the answer is still the same. Having Charlie at home with me meant that he could pop his head in every now and again and show his face. The one thing that affects me most about this process is that these people in the SEND department make decisions and actions on Charlie's EHCP and education without ever meeting him in real life, and I think that's really sad.

So we went through the paperwork, all done online, there were quite a few edits, more than I thought there were to be honest. And in the end, it looked as if I would need to agree to a new final plan as the edits meant that the content and targets had changed. So the process for annual review is that after this has taken place, the LA have 8 weeks to send you out a draft EHCP, the parents/carers then have 15 days to agree to the draft, disagree or the LA can cease the plan at review.

We are now on week 8.5 (9 on Wednesday) and I haven't received even the draft plan yet. I had hoped, promised even, that the plan would be updated by the end of July, personal budget agreed - I signed the personal budget paperwork on July 22nd, 5 days after the AR. I was on time with everything. We are still waiting for a decision, and I will update on this in another blog post.

Something that started so positive, unfortunately has not been successful. There are some real issues at the moment, and I will follow this up. As well, Charlie not going to his dad's house too, which is a new challenge that we have to navigate.

I'll keep you posted!

Georgina x