Changes to our EHCP Referral Panels
Our EHCP referral panels have been running for nearly two years now and it is timely to review our processes, building on the many successes and tweaking where we can to address any weaknesses in the system.
Overall the panel approach to decision making has been a great success. Decisions are made jointly between representatives of the LA and schools. This makes the decisions much more robust. Having school representatives on the panels has also been a great way developing mutual understanding. Feedback from the Head Teachers and SENCos who have attended in this capacity has been 100% positive.
The one drawback to the system is that of time. Warwickshire continues to have more than the national average number of referrals for assessment and indeed maintains more than the national average number of EHC Plans. Our staffing remains slightly lower than national averages. Understandably this leads to backlogs and delays. We must speed up the process without adding to schools’ workload or compromising the quality of decisions.
To this end, from January 2018 the panel will follow a slightly different format.
What Stays The Same
Schools will still be expected to submit the current paperwork of:
- School referral form
- Completed Provision Matrix
- Family Conversation
- Child Young / Person’s views
- Professional reports
What Changes
SENCos invited to the join the panel in support of their referral will be expected to give an oral summary of no more than five minutes outlining:
- the child / young person’s needs against the Code of Practice. This should include how and when they were first recognised and what leads to the conclusion that these needs are likely to be complex, severe and requiring continued support.
- the graduated response to the young person’s needs: what external professionals have been involved and when including any diagnoses, a summary of how their advice was put into action, monitored and evaluated and the impact this had; that is evidence of an assess-plan-do-review cycle rather than one-off assessment of need. Describe the impact of interventions and progress over time compared to their peers and ARE.
- how have delegated funds been used, what additional support is being requested from the LA and to what end.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of the above or volunteer to represent the schools’ voice on our panels please contact me on helenkendall@warwickshire.gov.uk.
You can find a list of Plan Co-ordinators for each area here.
Dr Helen J Kendall
SENDAR Manager and Principal Educational Psychologist