Series2: Outcomes and the EHCP

Implementing the SEND Reforms

Produced in collaboration with:Contact a FamilyCouncil for Disabled ChildrenEarly SupportInformation, Support and Advice Services Network

Mott MacDonaldNational Network for Parent Carer ForumsPreparing for AdulthoodThe Communications TrustThe Dyslexia-SpLD TrustAutism Education Trust

This workshop aims to:

Provide an overview of the EHC Needs Assessment process, the decision making process for issuing an EHC Plan and the requirements of an EHC Plan.

Aims and Objectives

“We want children and young people with special needs and disabilities to achieve well in their early years, at school and in college; find employment; lead happy and fulfilled lives; and have choice and control over their support. The special needs reforms will implement a new approach which seeks to join up help across education, health and care, from birth to 25. Help will be offered at the earliest possible point, with children and young people with SEND and their parents or carers fully involved in decisions about their support and what they want to achieve. This will help lead to better outcomes and more efficient ways of working.”

The vision behind the SEND reforms

• To be drawn up within 20 weeks.

• Person centred with a focus on outcomes.

• Include education, health and social care.

• Extend beyond school, potentially up to 25.

• Option of personal budget to prepared if requested either during the completion of an EHC assessment or during review.

EHC plans - key features

EHC needs assessment process

A local authority must determine whether to carry out an EHC needs assessment when:

1.A request is made by a child’s parent, a young person or a representative of a school or post-16 institution;

2.A child or young person who has, or may have, SEN is brought to their attention. Anyone can bring a child or young person who has or may have SEN to the attention of the local authority and should do so where they think an EHC plan may be necessary.

Considering whether to assess

EHC assessments are necessary where:

“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”

SEND Code of Practice 2014

EHC assessments - legal test

Local authorities should pay particular attention to:

• Evidence of the child or young person’s attainment and rate of progress

• Evidence of the action already being taken by the early years provider, school or post-16 institution

• Information about the nature, extent and context of • the child or young person’s SEN

• Evidence of the child or young person’s physical, emotional and social development and health needs

EHC assessments - evidence

In determining whether it must carry out an EHC assessment, the local authority must consult the child’s parent or the young person

The decision must be taken and the parents or young person informed within six weeks

If the LA refuses to assess, the notification to the parents or young person must inform them of their right of appeal to the Tribunal.

Decision by local authority

EHC assessments must be based on the principles set out in section19 of CFA. Local authorities must have regard to:

• The importance of taking into account the views of parents, children and young people

• The importance of parents, children and young people participating in decisions

• The importance of supporting parents, children and young people to participate fully in these decisions

• Achieving the best possible outcomes for the child or young person

EHC assessments - process

An EHC needs assessment must consider:

• The education, health and care needs of the child or young person;

• what provision may be required to meet such needs;

• the outcomes that are intended to be achieved by the child or young person receiving that provision;

• assessments of the child or young person by education, social care and health professionals;

The EHC needs assessment

Evidence that must be gathered includes:

• Educational advice from the setting they attend• Advice from an educational psychologist• If the child or young person is visually impaired, the

educational advice must be given after consultation with a person who is qualified to teach people with a visual impairment

• Medical advice from health care professionals• Social care advice, including any existing assessments for

social care

EHC assessments - evidence

Agencies must cooperate during the EHC needs assessment

Where an advice is requested by the local authority, partnersmust respond within 6 weeks of request unless:

Appointments are missed by the child or young person the child or young person is absent from area for at least

4 weeks Exceptional circumstances affect the child, young person

or parents

The duty to co-operate with EHC needs assessments

An EHC needs assessment is an assessment of the child or young person’s education, health and social care needs.

EHC needs assessments and children’s social care assessmentsshould be combined where possible

Clinical commissioning groups and local authorities must have arrangements in place for securing joint EHC assessments

How social care and health assessments link into EHC needs assessments

Deciding whether to issue an EHC Plan

EHC plans are necessary where, following an EHC assessment, the local authority determines that:

“the special educational provision required to meet the child or young person’s needs cannot reasonably be provided from within the resources normally available to mainstream early years providers, schools and post-16 institutions.”

SEND Code of Practice 2014

Deciding whether to issue an EHC Plan

If the local authority decides that an EHC plan is not necessary, it must notify the child’s parents or the young person of the reasons for its decision.

This notification must take place at the latest within 16 weeks of the initial request or of the child or young person having otherwise been brought to the local authority’s attention

Decision not to issue an EHC plan

Options:• Mediation• Disagreement resolution• Appeal to the First-Tier (SEND) Tribunal

Beginning the process again• Parents or young people can request a new assessment at any

point • LA’s can consider these requests at any time but must

consider request from six months after the previous assessment

Options When Refused a Plan

Where a local authority decides it is necessary to issue an EHC plan, it must notify the child’s parent or the young person and give the reasons for its decision.

The local authority should ensure it allows enough time to prepare the draft plan and complete the remaining steps in the process within the 20-week overall time limit within which it must issue the finalised EHC plan.

Before they can issue a final EHC plan, the local authority must send a draft EHC plan to the child’s parent or the young person

Decision to issue an EHC plan

The local authority must send a draft EHC plan to a child’s parent or the young person and give them 15 days to comment on the draft.

The draft plan must set out a child or young person’s needs and the provision to meet those needs.

The draft plan must not name an education institution which that child or young person will attend. Once a draft plan has been received, parents or young people can request that a particular education institution is named in the plan.

Draft plan

EHC Plans

Must include sections A-K:A- AspirationsB- Special educational needsC- Health needsD- Social care needsE- OutcomesF- Special educational provisionG- Health provisionH- Social care provision (H1 and H2)I- Name of school or collegeJ- Personal budgetK- Advise and information

Content of EHC plans

The plan should be focused on supporting the child or youngperson to achieve the aspirations set out in Section A.

This section must include details about the child or youngperson’s aspirations for the future, including aspirations relatingto paid employment or independent living

The outcomes (Section E) in the plan should be written in a way

that supports the achievement of the aspirations in Section A.

A- Views, Interests and Aspirations

All of the child or young person’s identified special educationalneeds must be specified

SEN includes needs for health and social care provision if theytrain or educate the child

The content of this section should draw on the professionaladvice attached in Section K (Advice and information).

B- Special Educational Needs

• Local authorities must specify any health needs identified through the EHC needs assessment that relate to the learning difficulty or disability that results in a child or young person having SEN.

• Health needs that are not related to SEN should also be included in this section unless there is a good reason not to include them.

• Relevant local clinicians, such as a community pediatrician, should participate in the development of the child or young person’s EHC plan, advising on the child’s needs and the provision to meet them.

C: health needs which relate to their SEN

• The local authority must gather advice from relevant professionals about the child or young person’s care needs

• Section D must specify all social care needs identified during the assessment which relate to the special educational needs or to a disability. At this stage it is not necessary to specify which of these needs are eligible for support.

D: social care needs which relate to their SEN

• Outcomes are a change resulting from an intervention. They are not a description of services

• Outcomes should be written in a way that helps children and young people towards the achievement of their aspirations (Section A).

• The plan should be clear how the SMART outcomes link to their longer term aspirations.

E – Outcomes

• Provision must be specified for each and every need identified in Section B.

• The provision must be detailed, specific and normally quantified in type, hours, frequency of support and expertise for each individual need.

• It should be clear how provision supports the outcomes

• The local authority is responsible for arranging all the provision in Section F, irrespective of who actually delivers it.

F – special educational provision

• Section G should specify all the health care provision that the local authority and the responsible commissioning body agree is appropriate to meet the identified health needs.

• The responsible commissioning body must arrange any health service in section G of a plan but they must have agreed for it to have been written in the plan.

• Provision can include medication, therapy, monitoring, etc.

• Must be detailed, specific, quantified and related to outcomes.

G- health care provision reasonably required by the learning difficulties or disabilities resulting in SEN

Section H is divided into two sections – H1 and H2

• H1- for under 18s – any social care provision which must be made as a result of section 2 of the CSDPA 1970.

• H2 - any other social care provision reasonably required. This will include any adult social care provision under the Care Act 2014 or provision for children under section 17 of the CA 1989.

Section H - Social care provision

Once a draft plan has been received, parents or young people can request that a particular education institution is named in the plan.

Local authorities must name the education institution requested unless they believe that the child or young person’s attendance would:

• not meet their special educational needs;• be incompatible with the efficient education of others and no

reasonable steps can be taken to resolve this; or• be incompatible with the efficient use of resources.

Section I-Name of school or college

If it believes that any of these circumstances apply, the local authority must name the school or other institution, or type of institution, that the local authority considers to be most appropriate.

An education institution must be consulted about being named in a plan but must admit that child or young person if they are named.

A refusal to name a particular institution in an EHC Plan can be appealed to the First-Tier (SEND) Tribunal.

Naming an institution continued

• A personal budget must be prepared if requested by a parent or young person. A personal budget is an amount identified as being available to secure particular provision in an EHC plan.

• Can be taken as a direct payment in certain circumstances.

• Local authorities must secure the agreement of the early years setting, school or college if the [provision is to be delivered on their premises

Section J-Personal budgets

• The advice and information gathered during the EHC needs assessment must be set out in appendices in the EHC plan. There should be a list of this advice and information.

Section K-Advice and information

The final EHC plan puts LAs, schools and responsible bodies under a duty to secure provision set out in the plan for the child or young person:

•LAs must secure the special educational provision.

•LAs must arrange the social care provision identified in section H1 under CSDPA 1970.

•CCGs or NHS England must arrange the health provision.

•If a state funded school (including an academy) or an FE college is named in the EHC plan it must admit the child or young person.

Effect of the final EHC plan

• EHC plans do not end when a young person leaves school – they must be maintained until 18 unless special education provision is no longer required.

• EHC plans can be maintained for young people aged 19-25.

• Local authorities must have regard to whether the educational and training outcomes have been achieved when making a decision to cease a plan for young people aged 19-25.

Ceasing an EHC plan

Developing an Outcomes Approach

Putting is simply…..

An outcome is the way things turn out; a consequence

An outcome may represent a change in a group of people, organisations or places.

What are outcomes ?

•Evidence on outcomes compliments data on outputs and helps to focus on and promote quality

•Evidence on outcomes will lead to greater innovation and sustainability (being creative with solutions to meet the outcomes)

•An outcomes approach leads to greater clarity when planning and commissioning services

Why adopt an outcomes approach?

•An outcomes approach leads to greater understanding of what families want to achieve through using services

•Developing outcomes will lead to increased understanding of how services work together and the role of different services in supporting the aspirations and outcomes of children and young people with SEND

•Using an outcomes approach moves away from being service led and supports the Personalisation agenda

Why adopt an outcomes approach?

•Inputs – the resources that contribute to the development and delivery of services

•Outputs – the goods or services produced by an organisation for delivery to the customer

•Outcomes – there are both expected outcomes and unexpected outcomes.

Outcomes describe the result, consequence, impact, effect or achievement of using the service.

Defining Terminology

•Change: new thing in life e.g. skill, social networks

Maintenance: keeping a valued aspect of your own life e.g. independence, physical health

• Process: how using a service makes me feel

Different types of outcomes

Different types of outcomesCompany Output/product/

service Outcomes

Gym Circuit training Toned bodySocial networkTorn muscle

Book shop Book about pregnancy

Feel informedFeel terrifiedFeel excited

Centre Parcs Weekend Break What would be your expected outcome ?

•Cultural change – focus on outcomes is understood at every level

•Leadership – to secure the cultural change required

•Ownership – at a strategic level

•Champions – to promote lasting cultural change

Developing outcomes – key principles

•Outcomes Pyramid – produced by CDC

•Outcomes Based Accountability (OBA)

•Theory of Change (TOC)

Outcomes Models

•There is nothing magical or mystical about outcomes

•They are part of everyday life

•Different people want different things from the same service/product/output

•Outcomes can be expected or unexpected

•The need to find out what children and families want

Things to note

•Outcomes Pyramid – produced by CDC

•Theory of change – Outcomes logic framework

•Outcomes Based Accountability (OBA)

Outcome models

1. In small groups, review the example EHCP and consider: •To what extent do the outcomes reflect the aspirations and needs of the child? •Are the outcomes SMART?•How will they be measured?

2. Use the case study material to identify outcomes for Jake and his gran. Consider: •What would be the long term outcomes? •What would be the medium term outcomes? •What would be the short term outcomes?

3. How would you measure progress for each outcome?

Case study exercise

Please help us to keep improving these workshops by completing the evaluation form at

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Facilitator evaluation: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RGVNV9M

Evaluation

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Support available to local areas

East of EnglandHertfordshire and BedfordLondon 1Bromley, Bexley and EnfieldLondon 2SE7South EastSE7South West 1CornwallSouth West 2Southampton and Portsmouth

http://www.sendpathfinder.co.uk/pathfinderchampions/

Support available to local areas

Delivery Partners

Contact a FamilyCouncil for Disabled ChildrenEarly SupportInformation, Support and Advice Services NetworkNational Network for Parent Carer ForumsPreparing for AdulthoodThe Communications TrustThe Dyslexia-SpLD TrustAutism Education Trust

The Implementing the SEND reforms workshop series has been collaboratively produced by:

Implementing the SEND reforms workshop series

Series 1: Transitioning from the old to the new system

Series 2: Understanding EHC plans

Series 3: Best practice in joint commissioning

Series 4: Engaging parent carers

Series 5: Engaging children and young people

Series 6: Preparation for adulthood

Series 7: Understanding SEN Support

Series 8: Early Years providers

Series 9: Personal budgets