Where will the appointment take place?

• Your appointment will take place at either West Ham Lane, JCC or your child's school.

What if I need an interpreter?

• It is usually already on our system if you require an interpreter and this will be provided for you. If at the first appointment you feel an interpreter is no longer required, please let your OT know and they can cancel the interpreter.
• Please let your OT know if you are also not comfortable with the interpreter as it may be possible to change this.

What should I bring to the appointment?

• Please bring the completed questionnaires that were sent to you before your appointment.

What should the child or young person wear to the appointment?

• We ask that children or young people come to the session dressed in comfortable clothing.

What will the OT do during the assessment?

• We understand that it is important to emphasise the views of the child or young person, and the family. We will therefore have a discussion at the beginning of the session about what is most important to you as a family.
• The OT will evaluate the child or young person either by observing them in activities or by using more formal assessments if appropriate.
• We may have an OT assistant with us in the session to help with taking notes or engaging with the child or young person, allowing the OT to observe and assess.

A New Code of Practice

The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice was introduced in 2015 with the aim of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) replacing the Statement of special educational needs (DfE, 2015). The key changes that the new Code of Practice brought were:

• Increasing the age from 19 to 25 years
• Reducing the maximum time for completion of the assessment process to 20 weeks
• Requiring collaboration between education, health and social services
• Requiring the involvement of children, young people and their families
• Requiring the views and aspirations of children, young people and their families
• Requiring the identification and recording of outcomes for children and young people

The title of the EHCP reinforces the importance of the collaboration that should happen between education, health care services and social care services.

Research

There have been many small research studies done around the topic, which have aimed to understand the strengths and limitations of EHCPs from the perspectives of parents/carers, children and young people, health professionals and SENCOs.

The following recommendations have been pulled together from a range of research studies conducted in the UK about the EHCP processes. The points below demonstrate what we are doing at SCYPS Occupational Therapy to follow these recommendations:

Recommendations

1. All schools and professionals should be equally clear about assessment and funding processes

• We have published the EHCP OT assessment and process for our borough on our website for any schools or families to view. We understand that it can be a difficult and stressful process and we hope that by providing information, this can reduce some of the worry about the unknown.

2. Outcomes and provision within EHCPs should be detailed and specific

• We aim to provide specific outcomes and provision in our reports that we send to the Local Authority and parents/carers after our assessment. This is a change that we have added for our initial assessment (L2) reports.

3. There should be clear descriptions of the child or young person’s strengths and needs

• We aim to be clear about the child or young person’s strengths and needs within the reports that we write after our assessment.

4. Emphasise the voice of the child or young person and focus on participation

• We prioritise asking the views and aspirations of the child or young person, whether they are able to communicate verbally or not, and write these in our reports. We emphasise the importance of focusing occupational therapy outcomes on what is important to the child or young person.

5. Post–16 transition plans should consider more than just the next 12 months

• We ask the family and child or young person about hopes and aspirations for their future, particularly if they are approaching 16 years.

"The report was well written, easy to understand and displayed a robust understanding of his particular needs."

"....you're the first that has made us feel properly seen and understood."