1. Education Health and Care Plans
Jo Godwin
20 June 2018
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Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

2. A good Education Health and Care (EHC) plan…
Meets the requirements of the Act, Regs and the SEND Code of Practice.
Describes positively what children and young people can do
Clear, concise, understandable and accessible
Is co-produced
Sets good, relevant outcomes
Tells the child or young person’s story well/ coherently
We should be able to look at any EHC plan and see all of these components quickly and easily.
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

3. All Education, Health and Care Plans should have the “Golden Thread”.
There should be a golden thread directly from the aspirations to the provision - this is achieved by thinking about outcomes as steps on the journey towards the aspirations.
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

4. Our aspirations
That EHC Plans are personal – a plan describes someone we all recognise
That our EHC Plans help raise aspirations and improve outcomes for our children and young people with SEND
That EHC Plans helps us deliver good quality support and provision
That our planning and review process for EHC Plan’s will always be person centred and focus on success as well as additional needs.
Parents, young people and providers have trust and confidence in the graduated response
The experience of formal assessment is positive
Plans are timely, appropriate and good quality
Improved outcomes for our young people (participation, employment, learning and achieving, independence and well being)
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

5. What needs to be in an Education, Health and Care Plan?
Aspirations – child/young persons and parents/carers views
Assessment and identification of needs
Outcomes which are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and targeted ‘SMART’
Provision
Placement
Personal Budget
Advice and information used for the assessment
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

6. Aspirations and views
May use a one page profile completed by the child or young person with or without the support of an adult.
Includes a brief history of the child or young person.
Must be clear about the child / YP’s views and aspirations
Must show every effort has been made to enable the child or YP to express aspirations whatever their age
Should enable parental aspirations and goals to include those which are longer term and go beyond provision
May be written in the first person
It is helpful to remind ourselves what the Code of Practice expects to be in Section A in the majority of plans.
Plans should be straightforward, succinct and use language easily understood by young people and parents.
Brevity and being concise is also important if a EHC plan is to have maximum impact.
Young people can use the ‘All About Me’ preform available on the Local Offer
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

7. Identifying needs
EHC plans should be positive and not a list of things that children cannot do. It is important to include strengths as well as needs
Needs can be written positively, as barriers to learning.
Make sure that needs are needs and not diagnosis e.g. ASD or Downs Syndrome are not needs in themselves.
Remember the ‘golden thread’
We use the four areas of needs for ages 0 to 14, a mixture of the four needs and PfA for age 14 to 16 and then concentrate on PfA for age 16+ in order to focus on education and training.
Health and care needs that have an impact of education and training need to be clearly stated.
Joint Commissioning is Key. There is an emphasise in the reforms for LAs and CCGs to work our how services are commissioned. SEND reforms work best when good joint commissioning arrangements are in place. It is very difficult to achieve the aspirations of the Children and Families Act where this is not the case.
EHC needs assessments do not alter agency thresholds. Non-SEN or disability could be CIN or CP plan relating to other family issues such as neglect. These may be included but only with child and parental consent It might help greater co-ordination
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

8. Outcomes
Outcomes are a change of culture and mind set and have necessitated workforce development in what makes a good outcome
They should be holistic life outcomes with education, health and social care incorporated
Children and young people are more likely to achieve their outcomes if they can visualise what success looks like
Outcomes need to be co-produced
They need to be specific enough to know when it has been achieved or not
They need to be positively framed
Aspirations and outcomes drive the provision, not the other way around
Outcomes will be set until the next phase transfer
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

9. Provision Specific – what will be delivered?
Quantified – how much of it, who will deliver it?
Detailed – but not to classroom teaching strategy level therefore we are working with all stakeholders around ensuring EHC Plans do not include Quality First Teaching and these strategies will be added to the plan in an annex
Provision should be given for each identified SEN need in education, health and social care sections
Provision should be linked to Outcomes
If this section is completed properly by advice writers then our Senior SEN Officers and Conversion Officers who are our plan writers will not use woolly and vague terms for example, ‘would benefit from..’; ‘have access to….’; ‘have opportunities to…’; ‘speech and language therapy as required’; ‘specialist teacher as specified by the service’
Should only state provision that is addition to and/or different from provision available to all. The DfE feedback that our provision historically contained a large quantity of Quality First Teaching which is not appropriate so we have been working closely with Ed Psychs and consulting with school, parents and carers about including classroom strategies in an annex to the plan. This has been piloted over the last year and we have received positive feedback.
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

10. Placement Must state name or type of school
where the name is not yet known
These details only to be included in
the Final EHCP – Draft EHC plan must
be blank
Key dates for phase transfers: 15th February & 31st March
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

11. Personal Budgets
The EHC Plan should say if an EHCP personal budget is requested or not.
If requested, it should:
shows the allocation of the budget
set out arrangements for direct payments as required by education, health and social care regulations
Must specify the SEN and outcomes to be met by any direct payment
Gives details of monitoring and reviewing arrangements
A personal budget is, in effect, a direct payment. For example, payments for short breaks, personal health budgets for therapies.
Personal budgets can offer some flexible and creative solutions for some children and young people. They do not always mean a cash releasable amount of money.
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

12. Advice and information
Lists the advice and information gathered during the EHC needs assessment and indicates who was present at the co-production meeting
The advice and information must be included as appendices to the EHC plan
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

14. Timescales
An EHC statutory needs assessment must take no more than 20 weeks. This timeline is set by the Department for Education.
Phase 1: 6 weeks to decide whether to carry out the assessment
During this time we write to education, health and social care colleagues to ask them to share any recent assessments, reports or views.
Parents are invited to share any additional relevant information.
We expect evidence of a full graduated response through the use of the Early Help Record or Social Care assessments.
The graduated response needs to demonstrate that a plan, assess, do and review approach has been implemented.
This is a reduction in timeframes from the old Statements which had an assessment timeframe of 26 weeks so this has issued LA’s with a challenge about how to achieve this.
There are four phases of a statutory assessment with deadlines within each phase.
The CoP provides a good visual flow diagram explaining the stages and different scenarios within the assessment
There are a small number of exceptions permissible by the DfE to the 20 weeks deadline such an extension for school advice if the school or educational institute is closed for a period of more than 4 weeks – summer holidays or if a young person misses a schedule appointment for the assessment.
The LA has to report on its data around this and a number of other areas in the SEN2 collected each March and this data is published.
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

15. Timescales continued…
Phase 2a: 6 weeks for the assessment to be undertaken (weeks 6 to 12). Advice and information must be sought from:
Educational advice from the setting which the child or young person is attending. This could be a nursery, school or college.
Advisory Teachers such as those for hearing impairment, autism, specific learning difficulties, visual impairment, alternative methods of recording, physical difficulties.
Medical advice from the Designated Medical Officer.
Psychological advice and information from an educational psychologist.
Social care advice and information from or on behalf of the local authority, including, if appropriate, children in need or child protection assessments, information from a looked after child’s care plan, or adult social care assessments for young people over 18.
Advice and information from any person requested by the child’s parent or young person, where the local authority considers it reasonable to do so.
Any other advice and information which the local authority considers appropriate for a satisfactory assessment.
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

16. Timescales continued..
Phase 2b: 4 weeks for the LA to decide whether to issue a draft EHC Plan (weeks 12 to 16).
If the LA agree to issue a draft EHC Plan we meet with all stakeholders to co-produce this plan based on the reports provided during the assessment.
If the LA decide not to issue a draft EHC Plan then the LA will offer a local offer meeting to explain the reasons for this and signpost to universal services.
Phase 3: (weeks 16 to 20) a draft EHC Plan is issued on the 16 week deadline. During this time we:
Consult with parents and carers (if under 18) and young people (over 18) about what educational placement they would like named in the final plan.
Consult with appropriate educational providers to ask if they can meet the needs described in the plan and deliver the provision.
Phase 4: The final EHC Plan is issued naming the placement or type of placement.
Needs may be met by universal services (e.g. normally available or voluntary clubs, sports provision etc.). Universal services should be identified though the Local Offer.
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

17. Decision making
The Special Educational Needs Resource and Assessment Panel (SENRAP) make all decisions in relation to:
Decisions to carry out a Statutory Needs Assessment
High Needs funding requests
Decisions to issue an Education, Health and Care Plan
Changes of school placement and/or provision for pupils with an EHC Plan
Recommendation's of provision
The panel is split into two parts. A pre-panel who make decisions on straight forward cases and a full panel who discuss the more complex cases following pre-panel.
SENRAP is attended by a good multi-agency representation which demonstrates all agencies commitment to joint working and achieving good outcomes for children and young people by ensuring a robust discussion is had about each decision being made. Panel is held every week (explain two levels of panel and the Support & Solutions Panel)
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

18. Decision making
CoP In considering whether an EHC needs assessment is necessary, the local authority should consider whether there is evidence that despite the early years provider, school or post-16 institution having taken relevant and purposeful action to identify, assess and meet the special educational needs of the child or young person, the child or young person has not made expected progress. To inform their decision the local authority will need to take into account a wide range of evidence, and should pay particular attention to:
• evidence of the child or young person’s academic attainment (or developmental milestones in younger children) and rate of progress
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

19. Decision making
information about the nature, extent and context of the child or young person’s SEN
evidence of the action already being taken by the early years provider, school or post-16 institution to meet the child or young person’s SEN
evidence that where progress has been made, it has only been as the result of much additional intervention and support over and above that which is usually provided
evidence of the child or young person’s physical, emotional and social development and health needs, drawing on relevant evidence from clinicians and other health professionals and what has been done to meet these by other agencies, and
where a young person is aged over 18, the local authority must consider whether the young person requires additional time, in comparison to the majority of others of the same age who do not have special educational needs, to complete their education or training. Remaining in formal education or training should help young people to achieve education and training outcomes, building on what they have learned before and preparing them for adult life
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

20. Challenges
Managing expectations – there is a duty to provide appropriate education
Transferring all Statements of SEN to EHC Plans by 01st April 2018
A large number of staff within SEND are on fixed contracts which are funded through a central government grant.
Amending EHC Plans at each phase transfer stage and the capacity of staff to deliver this.
High number of requests being received.
Increasing budget pressures for post-16’s even though the DfE expect that the majority of learners will finish their education and training at the same time as their peers by age 19.
The Local Offer requires improvement
Managing expectations around school placement and provision
We have XXX Statements to convert by April which means the schools need to be holding all remaining annual reviews in the first term of this new academic year and that all other agencies have submitted their advice to enable a good conversion to happen. If we do not achieve this deadline then Swindon’s reputation is at risk in terms of not complying.
As the staff who are completing the conversions, along with other team members are on fixed term contracts funded by the SEND reform grant, there is a greater risk that as their contracts are coming to an end, they will seek alternative employment which would negatively impact the efficiency of the service in meeting this deadline.
As outcomes are written to the next phase transfer there is now a requirement to amend each plan at each phase transfer. There is currently no staffing in place to have confidence that this will be achieved and so we are exploring this.
There is an expectation that all plans will be maintained until age 25 however the DfE expect that the majority of learners will finish their education and training at the same time as their peers by age 19.
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

21. Successes
We have a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and Joint Performance Improvement Action plan.
We are writing good quality EHC Plans despite them being too long according to a recent DfE audit of our plans and are continuing to improve on these.
Swindon is excelling at EHCP’s issued within 20 weeks. 93.3% excluding exceptions were within timescales in 2017, compared to 64.9% for England and 67.3% for SN.
The proportion of children and young people placed in high cost placements, out of area as a result of their special educational needs and/or disability has reduced in the last three years.
Transition is a strategic priority for the local authority and plans are in place to improve outcomes for young people as they prepare for adulthood.
Swindon is doing better than comparators at converting Statements open as at Jan 2017 to EHCP with 75% converted by Jan England had 63.6% converted and SN had 57.7%.
Other data:
• Following assessment, Swindon also had a low proportion where a decision was made not to issue an EHCP with 1.7% resulting in this decision. England had 6.7% and SN had 14.7%. In our SN there were some outliers with the highest being Essex with 40.8%, then 2 LAs with around 15% and 1 with around 11%.
• New EHCP issued in the year has increased in Swindon by 19.4% to 237 in 2017 compared to England and Statistical Neighbours (SN) both increased too, England by 14.4% and SN by 22.5%
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team

22. For further information: www.mycaremysupport.co.uk
SEND Code of Practice 2014
Children and Families Act 2014
Council for Disabled Children
• Swindon refused initial requests for assessment far less than comparators with only 0.5% being refused in In England 22.6% were refused and SN refused 18.3% of requests.
Other data:
• Following assessment, Swindon also had a low proportion where a decision was made not to issue an EHCP with 1.7% resulting in this decision. England had 6.7% and SN had 14.7%. In our SN there were some outliers with the highest being Essex with 40.8%, then 2 LAs with around 15% and 1 with around 11%.
• New EHCP issued in the year has increased in Swindon by 19.4% to 237 in 2017 compared to England and Statistical Neighbours (SN) both increased too, England by 14.4% and SN by 22.5%
Special Educational Needs & Disability Assessment & Commissioning Team