Charlotte and Connor's story

My son's primary school weren't very helpful. They noticed in his Reception there that there were some kind of SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) present with him, but they didn't really want to do anything about it. They did eventually send me to the doctor to get a diagnosis or referral, and the doctor just told me that it was bad parenting. 

They recommended parenting courses. I told the school this and they said, 'no that's not the case'. 

It then got put on the backburner for the next three years, with people continually telling me that there is something there, but nobody wanted to push forward for a diagnosis. Connor is autistic and has ADHD and I wasn't in the know about what SEND looked like.  

There was however a teacher, when he was in Year 4, that recognised the signs and wanted to make sure the paperwork happened to get his diagnosis of ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) and then followed his diagnosis for ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). 

When it came to the ECHP though, the school weren't supportive of applying for one. I couldn't apply for an EHCP if the school wasn't going to back me up. 

I held off until we were preparing to transition to secondary school. On the transition days, the secondary school recognised that he wasn't going to cope and needed an EHCP. The SENDCO had to encourage my son to get out of the car when arriving for school.  

Just as he started Year 7 last September, we applied for the EHCP and then it was a long waiting game. The Educational Psychologist eventually came out in June, and she was lovely. In fact, she came out twice in the same week to do some further cognitive tests as he is high functioning. 

A month later we were told by the local authority that the EHCP was approved and we should await the first draft of the EHCP, but we are still waiting. The last I heard we haven't even been allocated a caseworker.  

It's annoying as it's been a year now and legally it's meant to be 20 weeks. It's like we are failed at every hurdle. By the time he leaves school may be the time when the support actually gets sorted for him.  

He is in Year 8 in mainstream education, but the secondary school feels he would be better suited to a specialist school. The specialist school that we feel would be great for Connor does have a space now. But I just don't know how long this process is going to take. Is that place still going to be there by the time we get to that point? We haven't even had the first draft of the EHCP. 

Since he has been back at school, there are some lessons where he has just sat outside as it was just too much for him. One of the lessons was science, which is one of his favourites, but there was a lot going on and he just couldn't cope. He is missing out on his own education because of his disability. It's heartbreaking.

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Charlotte and Connor's story highlights the challenges parents and carers experience when they are seeking additional educational support for their child, and need access to an educational psychologist. 

Find out more about our campaign for more educational psychologists in local authorities.