West Berkshire Council’s Transition Plan for transferring children and young people with Statements of Special Educational Needs and Learning Difficulty Assessments to the new SEN system

September 2014 to April 2018

  1. Introduction

From 1st September 2014, Statements of Special Educational Needs will be replaced by a new type of plan called an “Education, Health and Care Plan”. This means that all new statutory assessments carried out on children with SEN and Disabilities (SEND) will be Education, Health and Care assessments and will lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan being issued (if the child meets the criteria for an EHC Plan)* rather than a Statement.

Children with an existing Statement of Special Educational Needs are entitled to have their Statement converted or “transferred” to an Education, Health and Care Plan. However, the Government has recognised that Local Authorities will need time to transfer all their existing Statements over to Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans. Local Authorities are required to start the process of transferring Statements to EHC Plans in September 2014, but are allowed until April 2018 to get all of their Statements transferred. The Department for Education has issued guidance to Local Authorities called “Implementing the new 0 to 25 special needs system: Transitional Guidance”. This guidance sets out how the Government expects Local Authorities to go about the task of transferring Statements to EHC Plans. This Transition Plan has been written with the Department for Education’s Guidance in mind.

Children with Statements who are being transferred to EHC Plans will not undergo the full Education, Health and Care Assessment process. In the majority of cases a full reassessment will not be necessary as there will be plenty of information available about the child or young person’s needs in their existing Statement and in Annual Review reports. The process for transferring Statements will be a shorter process than a full EHC Assessment but will follow the same principles. The process for transferring Statements to EHC Plans is described in Section 5 of this Plan.

The key principles which West Berkshire has followed in developing these transfer processes are these:

  • Every child who has a Statement will have an Education, Health and Care Plan
  • The transfer process will mirror the new EHC Assessment process as closely as possible so that children who already have a Statement are not disadvantaged compared to children who are new to the system and are going through the full EHC Assessment process
  • The transfer process will be as person centred as the full EHC Assessment process, with the child and the family fully involved throughout
  • The transfer process will be as holistic as the full EHC Assessment process, and will look at all aspects of the child’s needs and development

·  The child and family or the young person will have the same opportunities to have a Personal Budget and to request Direct Payments as would be available to a child and family or young person going through a full EHC Assessment

  1. Who has been consulted in the development of this Transition Plan?

The West Berkshire SEND Reform Steering Group has been involved in the development of these transition processes. The Steering Group includes parents, voluntary agencies, Parent Partnership, schools, FE Colleges, Health commissioners and providers and Council teams including the SEN, Disabled Children’s and Learning Support Teams, Locality Social Care Teams, Adult Social Care, the Educational Psychology Service and the School Improvement Team.

In addition, four briefing events on the SEND Reforms were held in July 2014. These events were targeted at parents and practitioners and were well attended, particularly by parents and carers. Proposals for the transfer process were presented at these meetings and feedback was used to inform development of the transfer process.

  1. Which children and young people will be transferred to the new system in each year of the transition period?

In line with the Department for Education’s Guidance on the transition from Statements to Education, Health and Care Plans, West Berkshire Council has given priority for transfer to children who are reaching key transition points.

These key transition points are:

Year 2 – transition from the infant to junior phase of education and from National Curriculum Key Stage One to Key Stage Two

Year 6 – transition from primary school (Key Stage Two) to secondary school (Key Stage Three), or from primary phase to secondary phase for children who attend all age special schools

Year 9 – transition from Key Stage Three to Key Stage Four; a critical time when young people may be choosing options or courses which they will be following in Key Stage Four

Year 11 – the end of Key Stage Four when some young people may be leaving school to go to College, traineeships or apprenticeships
Year 14 – young people who have remained in special schools until they are 19 will leave at the end of Year 14 and will then be moving on to adulthood, possibly to Further Education or employment

The attached table (Appendix 1) shows which Year Groups will be transferred to EHC Plans during which academic year and during which term within the year.

In order to find out when your child will be transferred to an EHC Plan, look for the National Curriculum Year Group your child is currently in (left hand column), then read across the table to the column titled “Year and term of conversion”. This will tell you the year and term when the transfer process will take place for your child. The column on the right of the table will tell you which year group your child will be in when their Statement is transferred. The vast majority of children will go through this process when they reach the next key transition point, that is, Years 2, 6, 9, 11 or 14.

It should be noted that the table shows the term in which each child’s transfer process will be started. The process will not necessarily be completed within that term however, as it can take up to 14 weeks. Local Authorities are required by the Government to complete each transfer within a total of 14 weeks. West Berkshire is aiming to complete each transfer within 10 weeks where possible.

  1. How will parents, young people and schools (or other educational institutions) be made aware of the arrangements for the child / young person’s transfer?

General information about the transfer process has been / will be provided in the following ways:

  • A leaflet was sent to the parents of all statemented children in June 2014 containing general information about the SEND Reforms and transfer from Statements to EHC Plans
  • More detailed proposals about the transfer process were shared with parents and practitioners at four briefing events in July 2014, including the table attached to this document (Appendix One)
  • A letter will be sent to the parents of all statemented children in September 2014, explaining the transfer process and including the attached table, so that all parents know exactly when transfer to an EHC Plan will take place for their child.

For children who are going through the transfer process in any given term, parents and schools (or other educational settings) will be made aware in the following ways:

  • The school / setting will be sent a complete list of children going through the transfer that term
  • The family will be sent a letter introducing their EHC Assessment Coordinator and including the West Berkshire “We want to tell you…” document which they can use to record their views. The EHC Coordinator will discuss with the family what professional reports may be needed

·  The school will be asked to organise the EHC Transfer meeting, and to request pre meeting reports from the relevant professionals

  1. The transfer review process

The transfer review process will be as follows:

  • A letter will be sent to the family at the start of the term when the transfer is due to take place. The letter will inform the family that the process of transferring their child’s Statement to an EHC Plan is due to start during the coming term and giving them the name of their EHC Assessment Coordinator
  • The family will be sent the West Berkshire “We want to tell you…” document which they can use to record their views, as well as details of the Parent Partnership Service and the service providing independent parental supporters
  • The school (or other educational setting) will be contacted and asked to organise the EHC Transfer meeting within a set timescale
  • The EHC Assessment Coordinator will contact the family and can arrange to support them with completion of the “We want to tell you…” document if required
  • The EHC Assessment Coordinator will discuss with the family whether additional assessments are required (in addition to information about the child which is already available) and will liaise with the relevant professionals
  • The school will set up an EHC Transfer meeting, in discussion with the family and the EHC Assessment Coordinator. Other professionals will be invited as appropriate
  • The school will complete a pre meeting report using the West Berkshire EHC Annual Review paperwork
  • The school will invite professionals to complete a pre meeting report using the West Berkshire EHC Annual Review paperwork
  • A person centred EHC Transfer meeting will be held at the school involving the family, the school and other professionals as appropriate
  • The Transfer meeting will consider information provided by the family, the school and other professionals
  • The Transfer meeting will focus on what outcomes need to be achieved and what support is required to help the child achieve these outcomes
  • An indicative budget will have been set prior to the meeting by the Local Authority’s Multi Agency Panel and will be based on the level of resource the child currently receives. The Transfer meeting will explore the most effective use of resources to achieve the child’s outcomes and whether the family would like to request a Direct Payment for SEN, Care or Health provision.
  • Following the meeting, the EHC Assessment Coordinator will draft the child’s EHC Plan
  • If additional resources are needed, or if a Direct Payment has been requested by the family, the case will need to be considered by the Multi Agency Panel before the EHC Plan can be issued
  • If the child’s needs can be met from the indicative budget, and if no Direct Payments have been requested, the SEN Manager or Assistant SEN Manager can agree the EHC Plan and it will not need to go to the Multi Agency Panel
  • The draft EHC Plan will be issued to the family
  • If the family and child or the young person are in agreement with the EHC Plan it will be finalised
  • If there is disagreement about any aspect of the EHC Plan, the EHC Coordinator will meet with the family to resolve these issues prior to the Plan being finalised
  • The final EHC Plan will be issued and implemented

·  Key contacts will be identified for the family in education, care and health

  1. How will young people with Learning Difficulty Assessments be transferred to the new system?

Young people with SEND who are currently at a College of Further Education and who had a Statement when they were at school are likely to have had a “Learning Difficulty Assessment” before transferring to College. In West Berkshire, Learning Difficulty Assessments (LDAs) are done on behalf of the Local Authority by an organisation called Adviza (previously known as the Connexions Service). The Learning Difficulty Assessment is the document which helps the College to understand the young person’s needs and what sort of help the young person will require to enable them to learn and progress.

The rules for transferring young people with LDAs to the new SEN system are slightly different from the rules for transferring statemented children who are still at school to the new system.

If a young person with SEND who attends FE College has a Learning Difficulty Assessment, they will be able to go on receiving any extra support they need through their LDA up until September 2016. Therefore if a young person plans to leave College by 2016 they will probably not need an Education, Health and Care Plan.

Young people at College who have an LDA will not automatically have their LDA converted or “transferred” to an EHC Plan in the way that children with Statements will. Instead, young people who have an LDA can decide, with support from their parents, whether they would like to ask the Local Authority to carry out an Education, Health and Care Assessment. If a young person makes such a request, the Local Authority will need to decide whether or not it is necessary to carry out an Education, Health and Care Assessment. This will partly depend on what sort of extra help the young person needs at College and whether this can be provided from the College’s own resources or whether extra funding is needed from the Local Authority. If the Local Authority decides that an EHC Assessment is needed, a full EHC Assessment will be carried out rather than the slightly shorter transfer process which will be used for children with Statements. (See section 5 of this Plan).

A young person with an LDA can request an Education, Health and Care Assessment at any time and does not need to do so as soon as the new SEN and Disability legislation comes in to effect from September 2014.

All young people with LDAs will be contacted by West Berkshire Council’s SEN Team in September 2014 to inform them of their right to request an Education, Health and Care Assessment.