What is an Education, Health & Care Plan (EHCP)?

An Education, Health & Care Plan or EHCP is a document that sets out the education, health and social care needs of a child or young person aged up to 25, and the support that is necessary to help them achieve their outcomes.

Who needs an EHCP?

EHC plans are for children and young people (age 0-25) who have a special educational need or disability that cannot be met by the support that is already available at their school or college

Most children and young people with special educational needs will have help given to them without the need for an EHC Plan. This is called SEN support.

The purpose of SEN support is to help children achieve the outcomes or learning objectives that have been set for them.

How do I get an EHCP?

An EHC plan can only be issued after a child or young person has gone through the process of EHC needs assessment. At the end of that process, the local authority has to make a decision to issue to issue an EHC Plan or not.

EAPDR

Enhanced Assess, Plan, Do, Review

Staffordshire has a clear framework in place for meeting SEND needs before an Educational Health and Care Plan. This is called the ‘Graduated Approach’. 

Schools and educational settings understand this approach as the 'Assess, Plan, Do, Review', often called the APDR cycle.  

Nationally, it is recognised that for most children with SEND, their needs can be met in mainstream school within the school's existing resources using cycles of the ‘Assess, Plan, Do Review’ pathway. 

This approach enables schools to assess what additional support the child or young person needs, give them more support and check and refine this support through regular reviews. 

This is a successful approach. However, sometimes despite this additional support, a smaller number of children and young people may require further support. 

It is here that the school can access Staffordshire’s new non-statutory graduated approach known as an 'Enhanced Assess, Plan, Do, Review' (EAPDR) pathway.

What is the Enhanced Assess, Plan, Do, Review (EAPDR) pathway? 

The EAPDR pathway sets out a clear methodology to make sure schools and educational settings are supported to access further additional advice, support and resources to meet the needs of children and young people in their setting. 

The enhancement is a focused APDR process that places outcomes at the centre of the work undertaken to support the child or young person and provides support and resources to schools and settings so that they can meet needs quickly and effectively. 

The primary purposes of the pathway are to: 

• Support schools to meet the needs of children and young people in their local mainstream school
• Make sure the needs of children and young people are met earlier
• Improve co-production in how we work with children, young people, and families
• Improve multi-disciplinary working and partnerships
• Improve the ‘tell it once’ approach by reducing duplication of information 
• Record pre-statutory interventions in a centralised document, capturing assessment and learning about the child over time, accessible by all professionals involved, along with parents and carers
• Place holistic outcomes at the very start of the graduated approach to meeting children and young people’s need
• Make sure there is fair and equal access of support across the county 
• Place the child, young person, and family at the centre of discussions, planning and decision-making within the context of their learning environment 
• Improve the quality and timeliness of EHCNAs if they are required
• Improve the quality of EHCPs, if an EHCNA suggests that this is required