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Education health and care plan (EHCP) pathway redesign

‘All children can flourish and achieve, it’s our shared responsibility to unlock their potential’.

This autumn, in line with the GCC SEND and education inclusion strategies and the government’s green paper priorities for SEND and alternative provision ‘Right support, right place, right time’ we will be making improvements to the EHC pathway to give a better experience for families and practitioners.

EHCP pathway redesign principles:

  • Children and young people with SEND are at the heart of our planning
  • Listening, supporting and coproducing with parents and carers for children with SEND
  • Working collaboratively with schools to provide the child with the right support early
  • Develop an accessible EHCP process that is easy to administer.
  • Develop efficient and accessible digitised improvements for families and professionals.

Piloting of new digital EHCP portals and a new digital EHCP audit tool

We have developed two new digital portals which are secure, one stop shops to make it easier to access EHCP plans and information. There is a ‘Professionals Portal’ and a ‘Citizens’s Portal’ (for family access). Permissions are granted to allow families, schools and other professionals to view and add documents throughout the process. Therefore, when we rollout, you will be able to track where a case is at, see what the next stage is, and have easy access to all relevant documents.

Throughout the summer term we tested the portals in a pilot with 12 primary schools. From September we have continued our pilot with an additional 14 primary schools and 15 secondary schools. These schools span across Gloucestershire.

We are working closely with the schools to regularly review and gain feedback to continue improving the portals before the wider rollout later this year. In addition, to improve the quality of our EHC plans we are piloting a new quality assurance EHCP audit tool which has been successfully implemented elsewhere in the UK.

What difference will this make to you

For both professionals and families, we intend for your experience to be simpler and accessible where plans are available in one place whenever you need it. With increased visibility and transparency you will be able to track the progress of a child’s assessment process, view the status of a plan, and have easy access to relevant documents.

FAQs

Questions most asked by families and professionals on the portals have been posted on the Gloucestershire Local Offer.

Tools to help better understand the EHC process

We have developed a range of tools to help people better understand the EHC process. These are:

  • A young person’s and a younger person’s guide to the EHC process
  • My Plan and My Plan+:
  • Education Health and Care Plans:
  • Getting your voice heard:
  • Our children and young person’s pledge. This is our pledge to children and young people in how we will work with them during the EHC process. We will ask them if we have kept to this as part of the EHC review process.
  • We will also undertake a survey each year with parents and carers to help us understand what it is like as a parent / carer to navigate the EHC process and how we have worked with them.

 

We are piloting two new digital EHCP portals and a new digital EHCP Audit Tool

We have developed two new secure digital ‘one stop shops’ to make it easier for all relevant documentation to be accessed. There will be a ‘Professionals Portal’ and a ‘Family’s Portal’. Permissions will be granted to allow families, schools and other professionals to view and add documents throughout the process, so at any one time you will be able to track where a case is at and what the next stage is.

We are testing the system in a pilot with 12 primary schools that starts this summer term and lasts until October. Eventually all new requests can then be made on the Family’s Portal and we plan for this wider rollout from November later this year. To improve the quality of our EHC plans during the pilot we are also introducing a new Audit Tool which has been successfully implemented elsewhere in the UK.

These are just some of the other changes we are making as part of our EHC service redesign which will:

  • Put children and young people at the heart of our planning
  • Ensure parents and carers are well supported with the opportunity to have their voice heard
  • Allow us to work more collaboratively with schools to make sure we are meeting a child’s needs in the most appropriate way.
  • Deliver an EHCP process which is easy to administer and access for everyone concerned.
  • Ensure we are meeting the requirements of the government’s ‘SEND review: Right support, right place, first time’ which recommends digitisation to improve efficiency and provide a better experience for families.

Parent / carer survey open now

We are pleased to announce the launch of our first parent / carer survey for education, health and care (EHC) plans. The views of parents and carers are really important to us and we are keen to know about your experience of having a child on the EHC pathway. This will help us to evaluate our process and practice and feed into our improvement cycle. We plan to undertake the survey every year to help us monitor any improvements that we make as a result of your feedback.

We are producing a version of the pathway for children and young people.

This will make sure their voice is heard and that they better understand the process. It will include a ‘Children and Young People’s pledge’ which is a list of everything children and young people have told us is important to them, and which they want everyone involved in the EHCP to commit to.

We are piloting two new digital EHCP portals and a new digital EHCP Audit Tool

We have developed two new secure digital ‘one stop shops’ to make it easier for all relevant documentation to be accessed. There will be a ‘Professionals Portal’ and a ‘Family’s Portal’. Permissions will be granted to allow families, schools and other professionals to view and add documents throughout the process, so at any one time you will be able to track where a case is at and what the next stage is.

We are testing the system in a pilot with 12 primary schools that starts this summer term and lasts until October. Eventually all new requests can then be made on the Family’s Portal and we plan for this wider rollout from November later this year. To improve the quality of our EHC plans during the pilot we are also introducing a new Audit Tool which has been successfully implemented elsewhere in the UK.

These are just some of the other changes we are making as part of our EHC service redesign which will:

  • Put children and young people at the heart of our planning
  • Ensure parents and carers are well supported with the opportunity to have their voice heard
  • Allow us to work more collaboratively with schools to make sure we are meeting a child’s needs in the most appropriate way.
  • Deliver an EHCP process which is easy to administer and access for everyone concerned.
  • Ensure we are meeting the requirements of the government’s ‘SEND review: Right support, right place, first time’ which recommends digitisation to improve efficiency and provide a better experience for families.

Parent / carer survey open now

We are pleased to announce the launch of our first parent / carer survey for education, health and care (EHC) plans. The views of parents and carers are really important to us and we are keen to know about your experience of having a child on the EHC pathway. This will help us to evaluate our process and practice and feed into our improvement cycle. We plan to undertake the survey every year to help us monitor any improvements that we make as a result of your feedback.

We are producing a version of the pathway for children and young people.

This will make sure their voice is heard and that they better understand the process. It will include a ‘Children and Young People’s pledge’ which is a list of everything children and young people have told us is important to them, and which they want everyone involved in the EHCP to commit to.