SEND Reform in West Berkshire Briefings for parents, schools and practitioners July 2014

What will be covered  Overview of SEND Reforms and underlying principles – Jane Seymour  The new Education Health and Care assessment process & EHC Plans – Jane Seymour  Conversion of existing Statements to EHC Plans – Nicola Ponton/Tina Norton/Lucy Baker-Smith  QUESTIONS

The Children & Families Act 2014  Reform of systems and processes for meeting needs of children with SEN & Disabilities (SEND) arise from Children & Families Act 2014  Takes effect 1 st September 2014  Detail is contained in the “SEN & Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years”, June 2014  There are also several sets of regulations which accompany The Children & Families Act

Key principles of SEND Reforms  Child and family at the centre of assessment, planning, decision making – “person centred” approaches  More choice and control for families  More flexible and creative solutions, personalised to the individual

Key principles of SEND Reforms  High aspirations for young people with SEND  Effective collaboration between agencies  Holistic, joined up planning  Focus on outcomes including long term life outcomes

Life outcomes for young people with SEND  Paid employment, wherever possible  Living as independently as possible  Optimum physical and mental health  Friends and relationships  Being part of community

Overview of SEND Reforms  School Action & School Action Plus replaced by one SEN category - SEN Support  Local Authorities must publish a “Local Offer” setting out all services available for children with SEND and their families  Statementing process replaced by Education Health and Care Assessments/ EHC Plans  Families have right to request a Personal Budget as part of EHC Plan

Overview of SEND Reforms cont.  LAs have responsibility for young people with SEND up to age 25 – FE Colleges come within same legislation as schools  Young people with SEND over compulsory school age have legal rights previously held by parents  Information, advice & guidance services (Parent Partnership) must be offered to children with SEND as well as their parents

Overview of SEND Reforms cont.  Information, advice & guidance services must cover health and social care as well as SEN  Children and young people must be offered advocacy service where needed  Increased requirements on LAs to offer disagreement resolution and mediation services  More joint commissioning of services across education, social care and health  QUESTIONS???

EHC Assessment Process  A new process for EHC Assessments has been developed with parents, schools and other agencies  This will replace the statementing process from 1 st September 2014  The criteria for EHC Assessment are essentially same as for statementing  Process will be led by EHC Assessment Coordinators (3 new appointments)

EHC Assessment Process – how will it be different?  Much more involvement of child and parents throughout whole process  Holistic assessment and plan – covering education, health and care needs and provision  EHC Plan will look and feel very different from a Statement – more accessible and user friendly  Must be completed in 20 weeks (currently 26)

EHC Assessment Process  Parent / school requests EHC Assessment  Parent is sent “We want to tell you…” pack and offered support to complete  Covers 6 areas: communication, learning, behaviour & emotions, health, everyday life, family & community  Information requested from school (if not a school request)  Decision re whether EHC Assessment needed

EHC Assessment Process  If decision is not to proceed, SEN Manager/Assistant Manager meets family with school and other professionals to plan support  If EHC assessment agreed, Assessment Coordinator allocated to family  Assessment Coordinator meets family and reviews “We want to tell you…” document to ensure child and parents’ views fully represented, including desired outcomes

EHC Assessment Process  Assessment Coordinator agrees with family what assessments are needed by which professionals  Professional reports requested – 6 week timescale  Assessment Coordinator ensures all professionals providing reports liaise with one another to avoid duplication and do joint visits / assessments where appropriate

EHC Assessment Process  Assessments are completed  Assessment Coordinator discusses reports with parents and offers meeting if needed  EHC Panel considers reports and allocates indicative budgets  EHC Planning meeting held involving family, school & other professionals - chaired by EHC Assessment Coordinator  Assessment Coordinator drafts EHC Plan

EHC Assessment Process  Draft EHC Plan issued, including any direct payments if requested / agreed  Draft EHC Plan must be issued within 16 weeks of EHC request (no school named at this stage)  Further discussion with parents if needed  Final EHC Plan issued (with school named)  Whole process must be completed within 20 weeks

Personal Budgets  A “personal budget” is the total resource spent on a young person, some of which may be given as a “direct payment” (cash)  Families will be able to request a direct payment for the education, health and/or care aspects of the EHC Plan  Direct payments are already given in some cases for families to purchase social care provision (children’s and adults’ services)

Personal budgets  Criteria for SEN direct payments are being developed – requests will be considered case by case  Health are also developing processes for health Personal Budgets / Direct Payments – will only apply to children who meet Continuing Healthcare Criteria

EHC Plan  “Xxxxxx’s Plan” + photo (if child / parents wish)  Contents page  One page profile at beginning – what others like about me/ what is important to me/ how best to support me/ my hopes for the future  Strengths, difficulties & desired outcomes – communication, learning, behaviour & emotions, health, everyday life, family & community (in table format)

EHC Plan Area of needStrengthsDifficultiesOutcomes 1. Communication 2. Learning & Development 3. Behaviour and emotions 4. Health 5. Everyday life 6. Family & Community

EHC Plan OutcomeWhat needs to happen (provision) Quantity, frequency, duration Who is responsible Start date

EHC Plan  Name of educational placement  Type of placement  EHC Funding including any Direct Payments  Review arrangements  Signature  Appendices

EHC Plans  Will specify health and social care provision as well as SEN provision  Only SEN provision is subject to appeal to SEN Tribunal  Parents must consider mediation before going to Tribunal  Parents can go to mediation about health and care aspects of EHC Plan or follow normal complaint processes if in disagreement

Reviews of EHC Plans  Will be subject to Annual Reviews which will be carried out by schools on behalf of Local Authority (as now)  Annual Reviews of EHC Plans from Year 9 must consider transition to adulthood  Young person can have an EHC Plan in FE College, (or apprenticeship or traineeship) but not in Higher Education  QUESTIONS???