A proposal to replace “bureaucratic, costly and time-inefficient” education, health and care plans (EHCPs) has caused some controversy. The plan, urged by a headteachers body, would see EHCPs replaced with a system for special educational needs and disability that has available provision rather than pupil need as a starting point.
EHCPs replaced statements of special educational needs in 2014 and were designed to bring different services together to ensure people with SEND had their needs understood and met.
It is now documented that, five years on, this system is failing too many who rely on it.
In its general election manifesto, the grassroots school-leaders group Headteachers’ Roundtable suggested replacing EHCPs with a statutory “assessment of best provision”.
And last week, roundtable member Sabrina Hobbs told Tes how the proposed model flipped the system with a focus on “how provision and resources can best meet pupils’ needs, rather than pupil needs dictating the resource and provision at any cost or availability”.
Exclusive: Heads propose scrapping EHCPs
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In doing so, the group raises an important question: are EHCPs part of the solution or the problem?
I should declare that I am a parent of a child with special education needs who has an EHCP and a place at a SEND school. The support he receives has been life-changing for us.
I am, of course, aware that this is not everyone’s story.
But I think, for all parents of children with SEND - whether your needs are being met or not - the EHCP has become something to fight for and to fight to get right. It is therefore challenging to hear someone suggest getting rid of it.
Given the scale of the problems the system faces, though, it seems natural to ask whether EHCPs are working. And we know that in many cases the answer is no. So it is also fair to ask whether EHCPs are the best way of meeting needs.
The Headteachers’ Roundtable group has also called for a national assessment and audit of SEND, and the current available provision to determine what new provision is needed and where.
I think the key questions are what weight would be given to pupils’ needs in this new system, how would they be assessed and defined, and what legal status would this have? EHCPs might be problematic and bureaucratic, but they are a legal document setting out a pupil’s needs.
The two obvious problems with the changes being suggested can both be found in the existing arrangements.
It would mean another major bureaucratic change for a system that has already struggled to cope with moving from statements to EHCPs.
On the face of it, the Headteachers’ Roundtable plan is even more radical. And there is nothing in the past five years to suggest that this transition would happen smoothly.
The second problem is that it creates the risk that in the decision-making process the young person’s need could be trumped or defined by what is available. Many parents feel this is already what is wrong with the current system.
I think the Headteachers’ Roundtable identified the right question when it looked at how SEND could be done differently, and I welcome the issue being put front and centre. But as it stands, I am not sure that it has the right answer.
