EHC PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

EHC ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING

  1. REQUESTING AN EHC ASSESSMENT.

The following people have a right to ask the Local Authority to conduct an education, health and care assessment for a child or young person aged between 0 -25:

  • The child or young person’s parents or carers
  • A young person over the age of 16 but under the age of 25.
  • A person acting on behalf of a school or post-16 institution (ideally with the knowledge and agreement of the parent carer or young person).
  • In addition a range of people including foster carers, health and social care professionals, early years practitioners, youth offending teams, those responsible for education in school, college, custody, or a family friend can bring an individual case to the attention of the Local Authority. This should be done with the knowledge and, where possible, the agreement of the child’s parent/carer or the young person.

Application for an assessment must be in writing and addressed to the:

SEN Assessment and Placement Service

Municipal Buildings

Dale Street

Liverpool

L2 2DH.

A written request for assessment can be emailed to the

  1. DECISION ON WHETHER TO CONDUCT AN EHC ASSESSMENT.

All requests for assessment will be considered by a multi-agency EHC Panel which meets every two weeks.

Parent, carers and young people will be informed of the decision in writing within the six-week statutory timescale from the date of receipt of the original request. The Panel will consider all the evidence provided and the Assessment Co-ordinator will liaise closely with applicants to ensure that all the relevant evidence regarding the special educational, health and care needs is available to inform the decision making process. If the EHC Panel decides not to conduct an assessment the reasons for this will be detailed in writing along with information regarding the appeal process.

  1. CO-ORDINATED EHC ASSESSMENT

Where a decision is made to conduct an assessment the Local Authority will ensure that the assessment process:

  • Focusses on the child and young person as an individual.
  • Enables children and young people and their parents/carers to express their wishes, views and feelings.
  • Organise further assessments, wherever possible, in a manner that minimises demands on families attending further appointments or repeating the same information.
  • Where existing advice is available liaise with child, young people and families to agree whether this advice and information can be used to avoid further appointments and repeating the same information.
  • Endeavour to ensure that any new advice requested from relevant professionals and agencies is provided in a timely manner and is easy for children, young people and their families to understand, using clear, ordinary language which avoids professional jargon.
  • Bring together relevant professionals to discuss and agree the overall approach.
  • Ensure that a named professional acts as one point of contact for the child or young person and their family through the assessment process.

Following receipt of any new advice a decision will be made whether to proceed to the drafting of an EHC Plan. If the decision is not to proceed with an EHC Plan the reasons will be given in writing together with details of how to appeal the decision.

  1. EHC PLANNING MEETING

Where the decision is made to produce an EHC Plan a Planning Meeting will be arranged.

The Planning Meeting is where a draft EHC plan is discussed and co-produced by the family, young person, relevant professionals and the Assessment Co-ordinator ( Education Officer).

The meeting is organised by the Assessment Co-ordinator taking into account, wherever possible, any preference for a venue and timings. Families will be consulted on which professions they wish to attend the Planning Meeting.The Assessment Co-ordinator will also consult the family on who they would want to facilitate the Planning Meeting. Possible options for this include:

  • The Parent/Carer or their nominated person
  • Assessment Co-ordinator
  • Key Working Professional/Lead Professional
  • Family Support Worker

Where parents/carers opt for themselves or a nominated person the Assessment Co-ordinator will work closely with them to support and deliver an effective Planning Meeting

A) The Planning meeting is normally attended by:

  • The parents/carers
  • Child or Young Person
  • Assessment Co-ordinator
  • Family Supporter/Key Worker or allocated Lead Professional
  • Professionals who have provided advice and/or who are currently involved in working with the child/young person.

B) The Planning meeting is facilitated by the person agreed with the family and will normally take one to one and a half hours.

The meeting will be structured around the following Headings building on the learning and experiences from the EHC Pilots and the guidance now issued on the 2014 Code of Practice and Section 37 of the Children and Families Act 2014.The Assessment Co-ordinator will have pre-populated as much of the Plan as possible before the meeting from the Advice received. The meeting can then focus on clarifying, amending and/or adding relevant information and agree a co-produced EHC Plan.

  • Who is at the meeting, their role and contact details.
  • What we like and admire about the child or Young Person
  • Child/young person’s views, interests and hopes
  • The child/young person’s SEN
  • The outcomes thatare important for the child/young person. What is important to them and what is important for them. The outcomes will set out what needs to be achieved by the end of a phase or stage of education to enable the child or young person to progress successfully to the next phase or stage. Arrangements for setting shorter term targets at the level of the school or other setting will be specified in the Plan. These shorter term targets will be appended to the EHC Plan.
  • The SEN provision that is required in order to achieve the agreed outcomes
  • The Health and Social Care provision that is required for the child/young person
  • Any remaining questions or concerns for the child/young person

C) Planning Meeting Ground Rules Will Include The Following:

  • Everyone’s view is valued
  • There is no such thing as a silly question
  • No Jargon
  • No interruptions
  • Respect confidentiality
  • Don’t worry about spelling mistakes

5) THE DRAFT EHC PLAN.

When the content of the Plan is agreed the meeting will consider whether the provision (extrasupport) necessary to achieve the outcomes that have been identified for the child or young person can be provided through:

The Local Offer(support that can normally be made by settings and schools/colleges). The Draft Plan can then be utilised as a contract between the parents/carers, educational setting and professionals to define how support available through the Local Offer should best be used, organised and monitored.

AnEarly Help Assessment Tool (EHAT) that can deliver universal and targeted services that would enable the agreed outcomes to be met.

An application for Top-up Funding from the Local Authority High Needs Funding Block. This provides additional funding to schools and settings where it is clear that the setting has deployed the delegated resources but require additional funding to meet the child or young person’s identified SEN.

This enables Section 9.1 of the Code of Practice, whereby the majority of children and young people will have their SEN needs met in mainstream settings through the assessments, interventions and monitoring arrangements detailed Sections 5, 6 and 7 of the Code of Practice ( 2014 ) , to be effectively considered before moving to a Final EHC Plan. Where this is the case and there is a consensus from the meeting to recommend a form of support other than a Final EHC Plan, the Parents and Carers will be informed in writing following the meeting and informed of their routes of appeal.Where it is clear that the level of intervention requires a Final EHC Plan the Planning Meeting will recommend this and record any provisional recommendations about Personal Budgets and identify any actions required to address remaining questions or concerns for the child/young person.

The Assessment Co-ordinator will:

  • Describe the next actions to finalise and agree the EHC plan.
  • This could include:
  • Referral back to Eligibility Panel for agreement on levels of provision, where necessary.
  • Referral to a Resource Allocation mechanism for eligibility and criteria to be applied with regard to a Personal Budget.
  • Seeking further advice on any specific areas of need or provision requiring clarification before finalisation of the Plan.

6)INVOLVING CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE PLANNING PROCESS.

Children and young people can contributetheir views through record books, diaries, and personal profiles that already exist.They can choose the most suitable format and examples of these will be offered before the planning meeting. In addition:

  • Information about the Planning process should be given to children and young people before the meeting.
  • This should be in an appropriate format, taking into account their developmental understanding and emotional maturity and using a variety of media.
  • This should be undertaken by the identified or nominated key working professional, in conjunction with the parent/carer, in whatever way is thought best for the child or young person.

Assessment Co-ordinators and Key Working professionals will ensure that children and Young People attend the Planning Meetings for either part of the meeting or all of the meeting. They will make sure that children and young people:

  • Have the meeting process and rules explained to them.
  • Know how they can contribute to the meeting.
  • Are able to state any preferences about the organisation of the meeting.
  • Know the names of all participants who will have name badges.
  • Will be consulted when someone speaks on behalf of the child/young person, check that this OK with them.
  • Understand the progress of the meeting by providing summaries of the content of the meeting at relevant points during the meeting.
  • Know that everyone at the meeting is supporting them if they want to ask questions.

If a child or young person does not attend the meeting or only part of the meeting the Assessment Co-ordinator or Key Worker will ensure a nominated person is identified who will explain what happened at the meeting and the outcomes.

SUPPORT AND ADVICE.

The main contact for impartial advice and support is the Liverpool Parent Partnership Service who can offer a range of advice on all aspects of the EHC process and children, young people and parent/carers rights. The Service can also highlight independent parental support groups and services. The Parent Partnership Service can be contacted on 225 3535 or by email at

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