Bringing it all together through the
Early Support Approach.
Rita Wiseman
February 2014
Presentation will cover•
•
•
•
Why we need to bring things together
How can we do it
What will help
What difference will it make?
Why do we need the reforms?
• Involvement of children, parents and young people in
decision making.
• Identifying children and young peoples needs.
• Greater choice and control for parents and young people
over their support.
• Collaboration between education, health and social care
services to provide support.
• High quality provision to meet the needs of children and
young people with SEN
• Supporting successful preparation for adulthood
An important reminder:
All current requirements stay in place
until:
new legislation is implemented
new regulations come into force
new Code of Practice is issued
Governments Ambition
• Achieving our ambitions for disabled children, young people
and those with special education needs and their families
will depend on changes in the way education health and
social care professionals work with children young people
and families and in the ways they work with each other.
Clause 30: Local offer
• Information on the education, health
and care services a local authority
expects to be available
• Includes services available outside the
local area
• Regulations:
– what the local offer should include
– who should be consulted
– complaints mechanism
• Local authorities must consult schools
about other services in the local offer
• Schools can use this opportunity to
identify if there are any gaps in
provision and inform the local authority
as part of the review of the local offer
Arrangements for changing
statements into EHC plans
• The Government will set out regulations on the process
for converting all statements to EHC plans (probably
over 3 years)
• This will probably happen at the Annual Review stage of
each statement
• Certain year groups will be prioritised. In Autumn 2014,
it is likely this will be children in Year 6 who have a
statement
How is an Education, Health and
Care Plan different from a current
Statement?
An EHC Plan is:
•Person-centred - drafted with the family as partners
•Based on aspirations for the future
•Outcomes focussed
•Wider than the next step in the ‘classroom’
It is not:
•Written just by Local Authority officers
•Only about services or teaching assistant hours
EHCP and personal budgets
• Once an LA confirms an EHCP is necessary, a parent or
young person can request a personal budget. This is an
amount of money identified to achieve the outcomes
agreed in an EHCP.
• It may be managed in three ways:
1. The local authority manages the funds and
commissions the support specified in the EHCP
(sometimes called ‘notional arrangements’)
2. The funds are paid to a third party to manage on
behalf of the parent or young person
3. The funds are paid to the parent or young person as a
direct payment, and they buy the provision specified in
the plan.
• A personal budget should cover only the special
individualised provision made available through the EHCP.
Clause 49: Direct
payments
• Once money has been identified in the personal budget,
a parent can request to receive this amount as a direct
payment
• An LA must consider this request, although does not
necessarily have to agree to it
• Education providers can also refuse to agree to the
payment if the service is to be delivered on their
premises
Clauses 61-65: School
provisions
• Requirements to:
–
–
–
–
–
have a SENCO
inform parents if child has SEN
inform young people
use ‘best endeavours,’ schools and FE
publish information on how they meet the
needs of children with SEN
Post 16 changes in the Bill
• Local authorities to involve post-16 institutions when
reviewing their special educational provision and developing
their local offer
• Enable post-16 institutions to request an assessment of
education, health and care needs
• Allow young people to express a preference for a particular
school, FE college or Independent Support Provider (ISP) including Free Schools and Academies - and require that
institution to admit them
• Require local authorities to consult schools, colleges and
ISPs about young people they would like to place with
them, and send a copy of their EHCP to them
• FE colleges and ISPs must have regard to the Code of
Practice
• Local authorities can provide children’s services to young
people over 18
Code of Practice timeline
2013 Mar
Indicative draft Code presented to Parliament
2013 Nov
Draft Code published for public consultation
2013 Dec
Deadline for consultation responses
2014 Spring
Final Code laid before Parliament for approval
2014 Sep
New Code of Practice comes into force
Working together across services
to improve outcomes for children
and young people with SEND and
their families
Equality
Consistency
Clear
structures
Effective multiagency working
Common Sharing
information
goals
Time to get to
know partners
Flexibility
What are person-centred approaches?
• Person-centred approaches: A way of working that puts
children, young people and families at the centre,
advocating that everyone has the right to exercise choice
and control in directing their lives and support.
• Person-centred thinking: A range of skills and tools that
help to focus on the person, their gifts and skills, what is
important to them and what provides good support for
them. Person-centred thinking is the foundation of personcentred planning.
• Person-centred planning: A continual process of listening
to what is important to the person now and in the future
with the support of family and friends and creating action or
changes based upon this.
Early Support and culture change.
• Early Support provides a framework for action for the
implementation of SEND provision of the Children and
Family Bill.
• Based on an approach with ten principles it provides a
framework or culture change and practical tool that enable
this.
• “Early Support has demonstrated the impact that well
coordinated family focussed services can have and it is
helping to ensure that the legislative framework translates
into real change for families”.
• EDWARD Timpson Minister for Children and Families 213
Early Support is
• Focussed on partnership working with children, young
people and families.
• Based on co production and participation of parent\carers
and young people.
• Centred around coordination and tailored support, person
centred planning with key working support.
• Reliant on joint decision making.
• Multi agency in concept and scope integration of support
provided by education, health and social care.
• Practical help in time of change.
The Early Support Offer.
Training
• Key Working for practitioners and parent carers.
• Strategic managers workshop – to support local areas to
develop a shared understanding of key working through
exploring the local and current context and the links with
commissioning.
• Parent workshops for parents\ cares of disabled children
and children with additional needs.
• Mapit multi agency planning and implementation tool
Clusters
Individual targeted 1 to 1 support
Newsletter.
Resources
Section 5: The importance of key
working for the effective delivery of
Education, Health and Care Plans
Important questions to ask
Parents about their child
•What would you like your
child to be able to do?
•Why would you like them to
be able to that?
•What support does s/he need
to achieve these outcomes
(i.e. to be able to do this)?
•Does he/she need to develop
new skills to make this
happen?
•Who can help or support
him/her to achieve this?
Young people about
themselves
• What would you like to be
able to do?
• Why would you like to be
able to do that?
• What support do you need
to achieve these outcomes
(i.e. to be able to do this)?
• Do you need to develop new
skills to make this happen?
• Who can help or support
you to achieve this?
Education Health and Care Plan:
A process
Exploration
Listen and
understandDoes this
child/young
person need
an EHC
Plan?
Understanding
Goal
Setting
Strategy
Planning
Implementation
Agree and
allocate This
child/young
person
needs and
EHC Plan
Plan is
drafted Options
explored
underpinned
by personcentred
approaches
Draft Plan
collated and
shared and
consulted
(15 days)
Plan is
finalised Additional
and
individual
provision
identified
and budgets
allocated
Agreed
plan in
place
Relationship; Coproduction; Child, young person and family-centred
Sections of an EHCP
When preparing an EHCP, a LA must set out the following in
separate sections:
•Name (or type) of school/nursery/post-16 institution (final plan)
•Aspirations, views and interests of the child/young person and the
parents (for a child)
•Child or young person’s special educational needs
•Outcomes sought for the child or young person
•The special educational provision required by the child or young
person
•Any health care provision reasonably required by the learning
difficulties and disabilities which result in the child or young person
having special educational needs
•Any social care provision reasonably required by the learning
difficulties and disabilities which result in the child or young
person having special educational needs
•Where any special educational provision is to be secured by a
direct payment, the special educational needs and the outcomes to
be met by the direct payment
•The advice obtained in connection with an assessment must be
attached to the plan
Reflections of a Service Manager
• Current changes to the Send framework are refreshing
important messages. They remind us that this isn't about
processes and systems. Its about a way of working. That’s
clear every time Team around the Child and Early Support
are mentioned in Government documents.
• You need a regular refresher to keep you on track. First we
and early support, the aiming high for disabled children and
now we have this to refresh us. In a few years we will need
something else again to remind us its about the way we
work not about bureaucracy.
Further information
Visit our website:
www.councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk/earlysupport
Find us on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/councilfordisabledchildren
Follow us on twitter:
@CDC_tweets