Tips for completing the Family Conversation Record
for Statutory EHC Assessment
This amended record has been designed as a basis for the conversation between families
and schools to identify and record the views of the child/young person and his/her
parents/carers. They may not be the same as your views or those of other professionals.
This does not matter. Your views and those of other professionals will be recorded in the
referral paperwork.
Pages 1-4 can be separated from the rest of the document and partially completed in school
before being sent home for parents to complete in advance of the meeting. This will give
them time to think about the answers and, more importantly, free up more of the meeting
time for a genuine conversation.
Page 5 can be amended to suit the needs of your school. This one is meant to be a positive
record that can be shared with everyone in school and at home but can be replaced with any
alternative format that you wish to use. This page should include information from the 'my
views' record completed by the pupil before the meeting as well as the views of the family.
Prompts for the pupil in completing this section might include:
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Things I like and admire about me/things I am proud of
Things others like and admire about me
Things I love or like to do
New things I’d like to try
The sort of friends I like to have
The sort of grown-up I’d like to be
The following prompts may facilitate the family conversation but to avoid the conversation
feeling like an interview for the family, you can decide in advance of the meeting which of
them are relevant to your situation.
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Is your child happy at school?
How do you feel your child gets along with his/her peers?
How does your child get along with his/her teachers?
Is your child making the progress you think he/she should be making?
If not, why not? What do you think are the barriers to his/her learning - what is
stopping him/her making progress? Describe the barriers in the area(s) of:
- Learning and Understanding
- Communicating and Interacting with others
- Forming friendships and building relationships
- Behaviour and Emotional difficulties
- Independence and Personal Care needs
- Physical difficulties
- Sensory difficulties
- Medical/Health difficulties
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What do you think needs to happen to remove these barriers to learning and to make
things better for your child?
Do you feel you are getting all the information/support you need from your child’s
school?
Do you know how your child is being supported by the school?
Does the school tell you how you can help your child at home?
Do the other professionals who are working with your child tell you what they are
doing and what you can do to support your child at home?
How do you feel about your child transferring from
- Home to Nursery
- Nursery to School
- Key Stage to Key Stage
- Children’s to Adult Services
- School to College/Training
- Transition to independent living
Are there any agencies supporting you with this transition?
Are you happy for your child to continue at his/her current school?
If not can you say why you feel like this?
If not where would you like your child to go to school?
The Action Plan asks for a clear explanation of what is required, from the point of view of the
parent/carer, to meet the needs of the child/young person. This should be explicit in terms of:
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what additional help is needed and how will it be achieved
who will be responsible for ensuring it will be achieved
the time scales for completion
which interventions are not working?
can you say why you feel they are not working?
From a parental point of view, what is currently being undertaken successfully and
therefore should continue. This could include
- continuation of the school placement
- interventions currently being undertaken by the school
- interventions from ISSS – eg CCD Team or LST / Hi or Vi teams
- interventions form Health Services such as Speech and Language Therapy,
Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy
- monitoring by Health Consultants
- interventions from Social care colleagues, Children’s Disability Team
colleagues etc
In your role as Key Worker you may be unsure as to whether or not a child/young
person/family meets the criteria for accessing some services. Please do not worry about this
unduly. You may wish to contact colleagues in other services to discuss such matters but
remember that you are not committing a service to providing support. You are only
requesting further referral to professionals who will then use their own knowledge and
experience to decide as to whether further action should be undertaken.