Oxfordshire County Council is systematically producing EHCPs which omit key evidence and recommendations from professional reports. They routinely ignore / deny reasonable parental requests for additional assessments or to include existing reports, particularly independent reports. This leads to inaccurate and incomplete EHCPs with inappropriate provision, and potentially puts vulnerable children and young people at risk and denies them access to an education. This is disability discrimination.

In many cases this refusal to include evidence appears to be done in order to delay access to specialist provision or EOTAS, with evidence cherrypicked to present a picture suggesting that mainstream school is suitable for the child or young person despite stronger evidence showing this is not the case.

The resulting plans are not person-centred, are often 'cut and paste' based on inadequate assessments, are often ableist, and the input of children and young people and their families is ignored. 

As OCC is aware, the only real recourse for parents in the face of such an approach is to go to Tribunal. This leads to long delays where their children are often left out of education altogether, their children's mental health and wellbeing deteriorates and their support needs increase whilst OCC prioritises short term savings.

This petition is to ask OCC to stop cherrypicking and denying evidence and the voices of children and their families in this way. It is a short term petition for presenting to OCC full Council meeting on 1st Nov, to cover one of several issues being raised by parents of children and young people with SEND in Oxfordshire.