1 A guide to completing Section A of the Education, Health and Care Plan Children’s Guide Guiding your child through Section A of the Education, Health and Care Plan Activities and Tasks DO NOT COPY 2 Contents 1. How do I use this guide? How does it help me and my child? (Page 3 – 4) 2. What does Section A of an Education, Health and Care Plan look like? (Page 5) 3. One Page Profile (Page 6 – 7) 4. Good Day / Bad Day (Pages 8 – 9) 5. Relationship Circle (Pages 10 – 11) 6. Community Map (Pages 12 – 14) 7. Perfect Week (Pages 15 – 16) 8. Hopes and Dreams (Pages 17 – 18) 9. Bringing it all together in a plan. (Pages 19 – 22) ‘s Workbook 3 1. How do I use this guide? How does it help me and my child? Hello! We’re your guides through this booklet! See if you can find us on some of the pages! Throughout the Education, Health and Care Plan Assessment Process, there are meetings, known as “Team Around the Family” meetings, where people from many of our partners (Health, Social Care) meet with your EHCP coordinator, head teacher and your Education Psychologist. At this meeting, you and your child are placed at the heart of the discussion in order to enable a “big picture” view around your child’s needs. Put simply, it is about finding about what is important to your child, and finding a way to allow them to fulfil their full potential. The goal of the meeting is to understand how your child’s aspirations and needs can be met. There may be discussions around what matters to you and your child, from relationships, to activities they really enjoy or the foods they like to eat the most. Both you and your child will play a key role in outlining these to everyone at the meeting. These are important as they help everyone in the meetings understand your child fully, including, most importantly, what matters most to them. In this guide, you can find all the tools that can help you in these meetings. The guide has been produced to help you work with your child in undertaking these activities. There are plenty of visuals and tasks throughout to help them. The tools and activities provided in this booklet form an important part of your child’s Education, Health and Care Plan assessment. Each activity will guide you through the best way to use them, and how to use them to help you prepare for these meetings. When you see this logo, it represents a top tip! These could also be fun variations on many of the tasks in this booklet. 4 Each page of this guidance booklet is laid out as follows: [Name]’s story – play, health, schooling, independence, friends and relationships, further education, future plans etc 1. The section of the Education, Health and Care Plan that the tool could help you and your child complete. These are at the top of the page. 2. The guidance page that could help you and your child complete the activity, and how to feed this back into the Education, Health and Care Plan Assessment / Plan. 3. A top tip that could help you complete the activity. 4. Finally, the tool / activity to undertake is on the following page. The tools provided on these pages have been designed so that you and your child can go through each of them and be as creative (and as colourful!) as you like. Each tool in the booklet will come with guidance documentation on how best to use them with your child. There is also a “young persons” alternative guide available at https://www.surreysendlo.co.uk/information/10-send-resources. Please use the guide most appropriate to the age range and situation. Remember, the different activities can be used for all sections of the plan if you wish. Use what tools/activities work best for you and your child. 5 2. What does Section A of an Education, Health and Care Plan look like? [Name]’s story – play, health, schooling, independence, friends and relationships, further education, future plans etc This is where your child’s story is outlined. It is a chance to ensure your child’s personality is communicated to everyone. It also extends to their aspirations for the future, their friends and ]education. A one page profile provides a summary of these [Name]’s family’s story This section is a chance to outline your family’s story. A Relationship Circle may help you understand this section further. Photo How best to support me PH OT O (Op tion al) More information on how to support [Name] and [his/her] family What makes your child happy? What’s needed for them to have a “good day”? How can we avoid “bad days”? The good day/bad day activity may help you with this section, or a “Community Map” [Name]’s aspirations This section is all about the future. What does your child want to be when they grow up? A nurse or perhaps a doctor? The “Hopes & Dreams” tool helps you explore these. Name]’s family’s aspirations for me Like the previous section, this is where you want to see your child in the years to come. How [Name] and [his/her] family have taken part in this plan How have you and your child taken part in and completed the plan? Good day What people like about me and what I like about How best to support me myself 6 3. A One Page Profile [Name]’s story – play, health, schooling, independence, friends and relationships, further education, future plans etc What is a One Page Profile? A one page profile is exactly that - a one page profile! It is a summary of your child, including photos, aspirations, aspects of their personality and what is important to them. It gives everyone involved with your child the ability to understand what matters most to them and how best to support them. Questions to think about Have a think about the things that best describe your child. Don’t be afraid to bring along pictures, either of them or what they enjoy! All these can be placed on the profile to make it as visual and as colourful as you like. Think about: What makes your child laugh or smile? What are they most passionate about? What makes them happy or sad? What makes them anxious? What bores them? Similarly, what excites them? It may be worth sitting down with your child and going through some simple questions with them. For example, ask them: What would they never leave home without? Perhaps they have a favourite toy, or a favourite book? What would your family and friends say they love most about them? What do you they do on weekends, or in the evenings? What makes them feel better or happier after a stressful day? Do they have a favourite routine? You may find that the tools in this booklet help you answer some of these questions. Have a go at filling in a one page profile now, but you can also return to it to add some more detail after you’ve completed some of the other activities. 7 What people like about me and what I like about myself PHOTO (Optional) ] How best to support me What is important to me 4. Good day / Bad Day Date: More information on how to support [Name] and [his/her] family 8 4. Good day / Bad Day More information on how to support [Name] and [his/her] family What is this tool? This tool can help you discover the best way to support your child, through outlining what makes a “good day” and what makes a “bad day”. It can be used to agree actions to help your child have more “good days” and less “bad days”. How do I use this tool? Ask your child about what makes a really good, followed by a bad day. You can break the day up into sections – e.g. Morning, Lunch, and Evening. It may be worth asking some of the following questions: What do they do on their favourite day of the week? What are the times where they’ve had the most fun? Who’s with them when they’re having a good day? Who’s with them when they’re having a bad day? What’s their favourite food? What day do they most look forward to for their favourite meal? Do they like to know what they’re having for dinner or do they like a surprise? Do they like to have a busy day or a slow day? Does a change of routine make them anxious? Think about what happens on a good day from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to bed. This might include details such as what they have for breakfast or the sequence of tasks before leaving the house Have a go at filling out the “good day / bad day” tool on the following page. You may find it helps if you talk about a good day, followed by a bad day, followed by a good day so that your child doesn’t relive “bad days”. 9 Good day Bad day 10 5. Relationship Circle [Name]’s family’s story More information on how to support [Name] and [his/her] family What is this tool? Our family and friends are often the most important factor in our lives. The relationship circle is a way of understanding who is in your child’s life, and how close and important they are to them. How do I use this tool? The template on the next side is blank in the middle. Perhaps you’d like to get your child to draw a picture of themselves, or take and place a photo of them in the middle? You can also get them to write their name in the middle if that’s easier. It may be useful to use photo albums, school yearbooks, address books or phone lists to help you with this exercise. 1. Start by placing the photo of the person on the relationship circle. If they are close to your child, place them closer to the picture in the middle. 2. Keep going until everyone important in your child’s life is placed on the relationship circle. If your child likes visual items, use plenty of photos and drawings. It is also important to write as much as you can about the person placed on the diagram. Write down the name of the person and state their relationship to your child – are they an uncle, for example? It is important to think about everyone that is involved in your child's life as it may be the taxi escort who they look forward to seeing everyday or the dinner lady. You may want to split the circle into sections and create a list – Friends, Family, School, People who are paid to be in my child’s life, People my child sees in the community. Once you’ve created a list, let your child choose who is important to them. 11 Remember to start by placing a photo or drawing in the middle first. 12 6. Community Map More information on how to support [Name] and [his/her] family What is this tool? This tool allows for both you and your child to explore where they spend their time outside of the home. This can be the park they play in with their best friends, or the scout/guide group they participate in. This tool can help you think about where your child can contribute to community life, the opportunities to develop and extend relationships and what works and doesn’t work for your child in these places. How do I use this tool? Start by writing down all the places your child currently goes to. You can split these into the following: Places where I feel good: Where does your child feel happiest? Is it in the park or at the cinema? Are there places unique to where you live that could help? Places where I am a customer: Where is your child a customer? Do they like to go shopping, or spend time at the local leisure centre? Where are the best places to shop in your area? Places where connections can be strengthened: Could you encourage additional involvement at a club? Is there an activity they would like to do more often to build up friendships? Where do people normally hang out in your area? Does anything stop your child participating in clubs or activities – what can be done to overcome this? Places where new connections can be made: Are there any new places your child would like to visit? What would they like to do more of, or is there a skill they have that they could use in the community? Make sure you write all of your ideas here! Do you remember the “Relationship Circle”? You may wish to use the picture of your child again in the middle of this task. Feel free to create a new picture with your child if you want to. 13 Add as much detail as you can on here. There are also some pictures to stick on this activity on the next page! 14 This page has been left intentionally blank 15 You can use some of these cut-outs to help you with task as well. At the Park Going Shopping! At the library Playing with my toys Being with my family Playing with my pets Playing sport Seeing my friends On holiday You can also use these pictures on all of the other activities if you want! 16 This page has been left intentionally blank 17 7. Perfect Week More information on how to support [Name] and [his/her] family What is this tool? This tool helps both you and your child understand what is a “perfect” week to them. This tool includes all the important places, interests and people that matter to your child. A perfect week describes how your child wants to live. It is important to make sure these suggestions are both realistic and practical for both of you. You may find its help to split each day into sections. So on Monday, split it into “Morning, Afternoons and Evenings”. How do I use this tool? You can use many of the previous activities to complete this exercise. For example, have a look to see who’s close to your child through the relationship circle, including days they see them. Have a look at the community map – where do they spend their time on some days? What’s needed on some days to help them achieve their hopes and dreams? It may be helpful to work through the activity in this order: 1. Start with Relationships. Show when and where your child wants to keep in touch with the important people in their life. 2. Add the “what” and the “where” from the community map. What does your child want to do, and where? They may like to go to church on a Sunday, for example, or play down the park with their friends on a Saturday Morning. Pull all of these activities and factors into the perfect week. The activity acts as your Childs own personal timetable. Try and read it back to them (or show them) to see if they are happy with it. 18 19 8. Hopes and Dreams [Name]’s aspirations What is this tool? This tool finds ways to explore your child’s hopes and dreams for the future. What does your child want to be when they grow up? Perhaps they’d like to be a doctor, or maybe even an astronaut! Write down anything – hopes and dreams can be as big or as small as your child likes! They could even be as simple as wanting to spend more time down the park, or at their favourite spot. How do I use this tool? Write down all your child’s hopes and dreams in the big star You may want to think about the following with your child: What have I learned? What has your child learned at school that may help them? What’s inspired them recently? Write down as much as you can! Who needs to help me? Your relationship circle may help identify the people in your child’s life who can help them meet their hopes and dreams. What do I need? What is needed to achieve these dreams? Does your child require any extra tutoring, for example, to help them achieve a goal? What are my Next Steps? Put in place some simple steps to help your child. Perhaps attending a club after school or attending a leisure centre swimming session? Write everything down, no matter how big or small the action is. 20 21 9. Bringing it all together into a plan... By now, you should have a collection of all the activities done through this booklet. You should have a: 1. Colourful one page profile, 2. A “Good Day/Bad Day” 3. Your perfect week! 4. Your relationship circle. 5. A community map. 6. Your Hopes and Dreams. On the next page, we’re going to guide you through piecing together all these tasks and activities into a “mock” Section A of the Education, Health and Care Plan. Don’t worry – we’ll guide you through it step-by-step. Be sure to have all the tasks and activities completed by your child at your side. Do you remember your “One Page Profile”? It may be a good idea to re-visit it and add anything you’ve missed after all the activities. Feel free to decorate it further! 22 [Name]’s story – play, health, schooling, independence, friends and relationships, further education, future plans etc You can use the information from most of the activities to complete this section. The community map will help you write down the places your child likes to play and what they like to do. The Relationship circle will allow you to write about relationships and friends. The One Page Profile is a really handy tool as well. It is a “summary” on everything about your child. See if you can try and write it like a story using all the tasks completed. [Name]’s family’s story This is a real chance to talk about you and your family. The Relationship Circle is the best tool to see how family members link with your child, and how close they are. Be as personal as you want with this section. Family is often the most important factor in anyone’s life, so give an honest reflection of the story or journey. 23 More information on how to support [Name] and [his/her] family Activities like the community map, the “perfect week” and the relationship circle can help you write this section. Remember where your child likes to be on certain days, and what they like to do. [Name]’s aspirations Remember the Hopes and Dreams tool? You can use that here to outline all of your child’s hopes and dreams for the future. You can also use the community map to write about the tasks and activities your child would like to do more of, and what they need to enable this to happen. 24 Name]’s family’s aspirations for me Reflect on all the activities undertaken with your child so far. The activities should begin to give you an idea of where your child see’s themselves – what they like, how they like to do it, what makes them happy and what makes them sad. Importantly, with all this information, start to think about what you would like to see your child do. What support would be needed to help these be realised? You can be as open and as honest and you want in this box. How [Name] and [his/her] family have taken part in this plan This section allows you to write how you’ve completed this part of the plan. Think about who’s helped you, how you’ve done it (these activities are one way of completing and taking part in the plan, for example) 25 Remember to bring this completed work book along with you to your next meeting! If you would like an alternative version of this guidance please see the “Young Persons” guidance at https://www.surreysendlo.co.uk/information/10-sendresources Contact us at surreypathfinder@surreycc.gov.uk (c) Surrey CC Tools (diagrams) provided by Helen Sanderson Associates.