Looking to the future

Issue: EHC plans need to be outcome focused

What are LAs doing?

In Waltham Forest the education, health and care teams regularly meet together to agree the detail of their local process.

A working party was established to agree an approach to setting outcomes in EHC plans which was consistent across all local practitioners.

How are they doing it?

Joint guidance was developed on how to set outcomes to ensure a consistent approach across the Borough. This guidance is openly available on the Local Offer website for everyone to use.

Training sessions took place following the guidance drafting to make sure all team members felt familiar with it, would be taking the same approach, and the quality of information submitted for EHC assessments would be of similar quality.

What is the impact?

Working practice is more joined up in the area, with all teams understanding the importance of using an outcome focused approach to EHC plan development. Less time is then needed by the caseworker in making information provided by colleagues outcome-focused, and progress can be consistently measured against outcomes.

Issue: EHC plans need to consider support needs from 0-25, including young people’s needs post-16

What are LAs doing?

Richmond SEN team (with input from the Preparing for Adulthood programme) have mapped out young people with EHC plans’ destinations post-16 and beyond.

How are they doing it?

They identified seven key destinations for young people with EHC plans which included employment, continued education or training, or NEET.

This process has helped to kick-start a shift in thinking towards how to help children and young people with SEND achieve positive destinations. This is acknowledged as a challenge for mainstream schools and colleges whose performance is measured by academic performance alone.

What is the impact?

The Council have taken forward work on

• the types of qualifications young people with SEND are gaining – this is leading to conversations about commissioning and how best to support young people in the area secure meaningful and appropriate employment opportunities;
• vocational profiling – this has included work with young people, families and employers, drawing on activities undertaken by Bath and Somerset council. See examples here and here.