Implementation of Education, Health and Care Pathway update
The Statutory Assessment and Review Team (START) are responsible for coordinating assessments, plan writing, and reviewing Education, Health and Care
Plans for children and young people within the borough.
Current Position of Statutory Assessment and Review Team
Since March 2015 START have experienced a number of changes .These include
changes in personnel i.e. Interim Head of Service, SEN Manager. START has had
it’s structure redesigned, job roles and descriptions reshaped. Directorate
Leadership Team have increased the teams staffing assignment.
The Management of Change process was completed on 3rd September 2015. As a
result of this :
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START will be located within the Solihull children and young people's SEND
Service structure from January 2016
The SEN Manager has responsibility for the EHC Plan function
A Conversion Project Officer role has been established to oversee all children
and young people transitioning to EHC Plans
Three Senior Plan Co-ordinators roles have been introduced to the structure
who will provide a supervisory function, undertake case work, and
developmental work
Six EHC Plan Coordinators will co-ordinate an integrated EHC assessment
process, create outcomes based plans and review progress underpinned by
the principles and practice of co-production and personalisation.
Three Administrators
The recruitment process for additional staff is currently underway. A full team are
expected to be in place by December 2015, subject to external candidates notice
period.
An induction and training plan will be put into place for the team to develop
knowledge, skills and support the cultural changes desired. If you have any offers
of training from your service area or specialism that you wouldlike to put forward,
please do not hesitate to contact the SEN Manager, Nazima Kiyani.
Education, Health and Care Pathway Workstream
During the last academic year START produced 104 EHC Plans (excluding
Pathfinder ones). The team continue to maintain 1127 statements of Special
Educational needs.
The Education, Health and Care Plans issued for children and young people during
the last academic year were developed without a formalised multi-agency pathway
being in place and have relied upon the professionals on the ground involved to work
together.This has resulted in varying experiences for children and young people.This
is an area that requires considerable focus and speedy resolution.
An Education, Health and Care Pathway workstream has been established with
multi-agency partners and the Carer forum, to understand how children and young
people are currently supported through the request, assessment, support planning
and review stages of their EHC plans. More importantly the workstream will shape
how children, young people and carers will experience future EHC assessments,
support/provision planning and review within this borough. Three sub groups will be
created to focus upon the Graduated support within settings, EHC Plan Pathway and
Provision planning.
The overall aim of the EHC Plan Pathway Workstream is to:
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Create a child centred and robust Education, Health and Care assessment,
planning and review pathway
Develop and agree a shared vision for the EHC pathway, values and guiding
principles that will underpin practice
Design a monitoring and evaluation process of the pathway
Create the full project and implementation plan relating to the Education,
Health and Care Pathway
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Particular Areas needing focus:
Initial discovery and analysis has identified that the workstream will need to consider
how:
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Children or young people and carers in the borough will experience coproduction throughout the pathway to the point of the plan ceasing
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Requests for Education, Health and Care assessments will be
communicated/managed and the need to establish an integrated decision
making process
EHC Assessments, professionals’ advice and the devising of outcomes for
children and Young People will be undertaken and co-ordinated
Provision/ Support Planning will be devised and agreed for each child or
young person
Each child or young person’s progress and provision will be reviewed jointly
The multi-agency workforce will be developed to understand the role they play
in EHC assessments, plans and reviews as well as the cultural changes
required in practice
The differing aspects of administration system, such as records and
information management will operate, in addition a review of the existing EHC
request and plan paperwork and so on
Management Information technology could support a child’s journey through
this pathway
The workstream will promote the pathway to children, young people, carers
and the community
Each child, young person and carer will be offered the opportunity to share
their experiences of the pathway
The development of EHC Plans will be quality assured
The workstream will need to continue with further scoping and analysis.In summary
the above areas could be grouped into seven strands :
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EHC Assessment Request
EHC assessment Co-ordination
EHC Outcomes and Support Planning
EHC Plan reviews
Co-Production and Person Centred approaches.
Workforce Development
Communication and Consultation in relation to EHC Pathway
The first workstream meeting was held on 14 th September 2015. Members agreed
the purpose, aims and objectives of the workstream.The membership was reviewed
and will need to be broadened. Members explored the shared values and guiding
principles that they would like to see underpin practice. We will be working together
to explore these further at the next meeting.In addition the group explored aspects of
the EHC pathway and shared experiences as well as made suggestions.This will
continue to be explored at forthcoming meetings. The workstream will meet on a
fortnightly basis.
The initial plan is to :
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Develop a shared understanding of the EHC Pathway by the end of October
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Identify how children, young people and carers will be involved in these
developments and at what stage-To be confirmed
Agree Shared Values, Principles and Culture by the end of November
Agree the way we would like to work together to benefit children by the end of
November
Develop an EHC pathway diagram with steps by the end of December
Create a quick reference document of all the Legal “Musts and Shoulds” at each
stage of the pathway TBC
Membership
Membership was reviewed at the first meeting.The workstream felt that
representation from SENCO’s with primary and secondary experience is needed to
develop this pathway. It would be appreciated if the SEND workgroup could consider
how this could be taken forward.
EHC Panel:
During the summer period the SEN manager and Health Commissioning manager
worked together to develop the EHC Panel which will hear requests for EHC
assessments. The panel will consist of representatives from Education, Health and
Social Care. The necessary formalities will be presented to the Directorate
Leadership team for approval.The first panel will take place on 22nd September 2015.
From 8th December 2015, the panel will begin to have oversight of draft EHC plans
to consider provision and resource’s sign off.
Membership
The panel would welcome a SENCO joining as a panel member. Panel is held on a
weekly basis on a Tuesday morning. It would be appreciated if the SEND workgroup
could consider how this could be taken forward.
Nazima Kiyani
SEN Manager
21st September 2015