1. New System – What is an EHC Plan?
From 1 September 2014 statements of special educational needs and Learning Difficulty Assessments will be replaced by Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans. EHC plans can be issued for a child or young person aged between 0-25.
The new system focuses more on what is important for children and young people and what they and you want to achieve now and in the future. The new process is based around, OUTCOMES.

2. Key principles in the Children and Families Act 2014
There should be a ‘tell us once’ approach, with a system for sharing information so that families don’t need to repeat information or go through lots of different assessments.
The Act promotes the participation of parents and young people in decision-making about SEN Outcomes Children, young people and families should be asked for their views.
It focuses on outcomes and improving progress for children and young people with SEN.
The need to support the child or young person, and the child’s parents, in order to facilitate the development of the child or young person and to help them achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes, preparing them effectively for adulthood
The Act requires a joint approach across all agencies
Education, Health and Social Care will be required to co-operate at a local level to meet children and young people’s needs Local Authorities and Health Commissioning groups will be required to commission services jointly for children and young people, with SEN.

3. Key Principles continued
Information, advice and support must be available to families.
Young people over 16 must have access to separate information advice and support.
EHC Plans will extend from birth 0 to 25, where necessary, replacing the Learning Difficulties Assessment for young people leaving school.

4. Key Principles continued
Changes in assessment and planning
School Action and School Action Plus will be replaced by SEN support: a graduated approach to identifying and meeting SEN, with schools involving parents in identifying needs, deciding outcomes, planning provision and seeking expertise at whatever point it is needed.
Local offer
The Local Offer will set out what all local agencies are expected to provide including what schools are expected to provide from their delegated budget, their ‘notional SEN budget’.

5. Note on school funding
Academies will be covered by the same statutory requirements as maintained schools.
This is explained as follows by the DfE: “From this funding, mainstream providers will be expected to contribute the first £6,000 of the cost of additional educational support required by a high needs pupil. By additional education support, we mean the support a pupil requires above what would be funded by mainstream per-pupil funding. This means from the point of view of the LAs, that they will not expect mainstream schools who are educating a child for whom they are responsible to ask for further funding for special educational provision until they can demonstrate that the cost of provision exceeds the high needs threshold of £10,000.

6. Note on school funding
Delegated SEN funds do not “follow the child” – Schools are free to spend their SEN budget in the manner they consider most effective to meet the needs of children. It is to be expected, however, that schools will spend the delegated SEN budget across all children with SEN, for example on equipment or a specialist teacher who will benefit many. This may mean that it will be difficult to map provision/spending onto particular pupils for the purpose of showing that the high needs threshold of “AWPU + £6,000” has been reached.

7. Education and Health Care Plan
An EHC plan is a legal document which describes:
A child or young person’s special education, health and social care needs
The help that will be given to meet those needs, and
What the young person will be able to achieve as a result of the support. The plan is drawn up by the local authority after a formal assessment process called an EHC Needs Assessment

8. EHC Assessments What is an EHC needs assessment?
The legal definition of an EHC needs assessment is contained in Section 36 (2) of the Children and Families Act 2014: “(2) An “EHC needs assessment” is an assessment of the educational, health care and social care needs of a child or young person.” It is the local authority which carries out the EHC needs assessment, and to do so it must seek the following advice and information:
about the needs of the child or young person;
about what provision may be required to meet such needs;
about the outcomes that are intended to be achieved by the child or young person receiving that provision.

9. When should I request an EHC needs assessment?
Whenever a child or young person has a learning difficulty or a disability which is holding them back at school or college; and
The parents of the child or the young person (or the young person themselves) believe that the school or college is not able to provide the help and support which is needed, a request should be made to the Local Authority (LA) for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment.
You can do this at any time.
For children under 16 the parent makes the request. This includes children from 0 to 5 where parents should make a request if they believe that the child will need extra help when school starts.
In the case of a young person (over 16 and up to 25) they can make the request themselves if they understand it sufficiently well themselves – otherwise the parent can make the request on a young person’s behalf. 

10. Requesting
Remember you can only ask for an EHC needs assessment if the child or young person has or may have educational needs – it does not apply where there are only health and/or care needs no matter how severe.
Should I speak to the school or college first?
Yes, definitely. Speak to your child’s class/ subject teacher and the head teacher or to the principal of the College the young person is attending about your worries before writing to the LA.
What if the school or college offers to write on my behalf?
Anyone acting on behalf of a school or post 16 institution is able to write and request an EHC needs assessment, but if you do it yourself you can be sure that the request has definitely been made, and you will know when it has been made. However, if the school or college is willing, you could ask them to write a letter which supports your parental application.

11. Requesting an assessment
What if the school or college offers to write on my behalf?
Anyone acting on behalf of a school or post 16 institution is able to write and request an EHC needs assessment, but if you do it yourself you can be sure that the request has definitely been made, and you will know when it has been made. However, if the school or college is willing, you could ask them to write a letter which supports your parental application.
Who should I write to?
Write to the top person at the LA, usually called the Director of Education or Head of Children’s Services. You can find out what the top person is called in your LA by asking at the school or college. Your LA’s “Local Offer” should also clearly set out how a request can be made. This can be found on your LA’s website.
When should I hear back?
The LA must reply within six weeks. They will always reply to you as a parent or young person – even where the request was made by the school or college.
Remember: Always ask in writing. Keep a copy of your letter. Make a note of the six week deadline for the LA’s reply.

12. Parts of the EHC Plan
EHC plans will look different depending on which local authority you live in
However, they must contain the following sections.
A) Your views and hopes for the future
What do you want to do in the future?
Personalisation

13. Person centred profiles
Appreciation’ – what people appreciate about the pupil, their character, gifts and talents
‘What is important to’ – what matters to them, from their perspective, about school and life
‘How to support’ – the ‘expertise’ from family, teachers and other staff about how to get the best out of the pupil (and the pupil themselves of course)

14. Person centred profiles
They give parents an opportunity to share their learning and expertise on what good support means for their child, and what is important to them. It is these ‘little things’ that make a huge difference.
Example of useful info;
Jen liked to have her socks pulled up, and could not settle in class unless her socks were just how she wanted them. If a teacher who did not know that, was to say, ‘Stop messing with your sock’, then that Jen would not be able to concentrate on the lesson at all.
Guy was anxious about coming to school, and by doing his one-page profile, staff learned that he felt more able to cope if he had a seat by the door in the class room. All teachers knew that, and a simple thing, that did not cost any money, enabled Guy to stay in school.

15. TOOLS Assessing, prioritising and reflecting
4 + 1 Questions
What are we pleased about?
What are we concerned about?
What have we tried?
What have we learned?

16. TOOLS What’s working? What’s not working?
What needs to happen next to build on what’s working and change what’s not working? For
For the person / family / staff
Other useful ?’s
What does a good / bad day look like ?
Have a go !!!

17. B) A description of your special educational needs (SEN)
E.g. Your deafness and how it affects you. Also, details of any other SEN
C) Your health needs (linked to your SEN)
These must be linked to your SEN

18. Sections of EHC Plan D) Your social care needs
These could be about equipment you need in the home such as flashing-light doorbells or about support you receive from a social worker.
G) Health provision
The support the health services need to provide to help you achieve
your outcomes. This could be getting your hearing aids checked out
at your audiology clinic every three months.
H) Social care provision
The support social services need to provide to help you achieve
your outcomes e.g. supporting you to mix with other deaf young
people.
I) Your school or college placement
This is left blank until the rest of the plan is agreed. You will be able
to say which school or college you think is best for you.
J) Your Personal Budget
If you have asked to receive a Personal Budget then info about
this will go into your EHC plan.

19. F) The SEN provision required
E) Your outcomes
This is a very important section of your plan. Outcomes are the things that need to happen so that you are able to achieve the things you want in the future.
F) The SEN provision required
Earlier, your plan will have shown what outcomes or goals you
want to achieve. This section will show the details of what needs to happen and what support you need to achieve your goals.

20. Appendix A Islington's additional appendix EHCP Support Plan
Short term goals that inform medium term goals.
Beware of provision that is in appendix A and not stated in section F
An appendix is not detailed in the statutory guidance on EHC Plans, therefore its contents could not be considered by the First Tier Tribunal. As such, families do need to ensure (specific and quantified) details of any necessary provision are included in Section F from the outset, rather than an appendix, and be prepared to appeal if the Local Authority will not comply.
It seems reasonable to expect the Appendix A to be provided when the EHC draft plan is issued, if aspects of the provision are detailed within it, otherwise families are not able to meaningfully comment on whether this plan is likely to meet the needs of their child. Although, as suggested above, if there are important (specific and quantified) aspects of provision they should push for these to be detailed in Section F.
Section E should not describe provision, therefore it seems odd to us too that Appendix A is referenced in this section (day to day details of how to support a child doesn’t sound like an outcome). If anywhere, it should be referenced in Section F.

21. Sections cont…… Section K:
The advice and information gathered during the EHC needs assessment must be attached (in appendices). There should be a list of this advice and information.
Personal Budget
For those children and young people who have an EHC plan the LA can be required to identify a personal budget. This is the notional amount of money needed to make any of the special educational provision for them as specified in their EHC plan.
Parents or young people can also request that an LA consider making a direct payment to them in lieu of special educational provision so that they can arrange it themselves. This will be an actual payment of money instead of the LA arranging for the provision to be delivered.
A request for the LA to identify a personal budget or consider making a direct payment can be made at two specific times. First when a child or young person is undergoing an EHC needs assessment or secondly when the EHC plan is being reviewed.
Where the provision proposed to be replaced by a direct payment takes place in a school or college setting, the consent of the head teacher or principal of the named school or other institution is required.

22. Outcomes Outcomes in Education Health and Care Plans
Benefit or difference made to an individual as a result of an intervention
Personalised - not expressed from a service perspective.
Something over which those involved have control and influence.
Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound (SMART).
Usually set out what needs to be achieved by end of a phase or stage of education.
Not a description of the service being provided.
Y9 onwards, outcomes should reflect the need to ensure young people are preparing for adulthood.

23. Preparing for adulthood
Outcomes: Preparing for adulthood
Higher education and/or employment, including exploring different employment options, such as support for becoming self-employed and help from supported employment agencies
Independent living – Young person having choice, control and freedom over their lives and the support they have, their accommodation and living arrangements.
Participating in society - having friends and supportive relationships, and participating in, and contributing to, the local community
Being as healthy as possible in adult life

24. Info and Support INFORMATION ADVICE AND SUPPORT
Each local authority must provide children and young people with SEN and disabilities and parents/carers with impartial information and advice SEN and disability including health and social care and about personal budgets
Local authorities should involve parents/carers, children and young people in the design or commissioning of information and advice services
Independent supporters from the private and voluntary and community sectors to help families through the Education, Health and Care needs assessment process.