EHC Plan

camptys

We're scheduled to meet with school about our daughter's new Education Health and Care plan.  Has anyone gone through theirs and is there anything we need to be aware of?

abstractLucas

Is it brand new, or is she converting from a statement? Mainstream or special school? How old is your daughter?
Sorry for all the questions, it's just that there are different pointers I'd pass on depending on where/when in the process she is/you are!
Lucas

camptys

Lucas,
She is 10 years old and currently has a statement. This would therefore be her first EHC plan.  She left mainstream in year 5 - started Special School in September 2016.
Thanks much.

abstractLucas

Great. Okay, well, it's (theoretically!) a positive thing that she's now in specialist provision, as they have more experience of doing these plans than mainstream schools.  If this is the first conversion meeting there might be quite a few people there, depending on your daughters needs - professionals such as physio, OT, SALT, even an educational psychologist or paediatrician might be there.  Have you been asked who you would like to be invited?  As the parents you should be asked this, and if you ask for someone who is unable to come for whatever reason, they will most likely submit a report instead.  You SHOULD get given all these reports and other bits of paperwork at least two weeks before the meeting, so you have the chance to have a read and think about what they've said.  If you have had them, ask the school.
You may also have been asked to fill in a section of the paperwork called the 'family story' or words to that effect.  This is your opportunity to introduce your child,  tell the story of their diagnosis or of any significant events in her life.  These might be surgeries she's had, schools she's attended, or more family type stuff - when she learned to ride a bike or how much she loved being a bridesmaid for your sister last year (for example).  In the one for my son I wrote a chronology of his life including his health things and educational things, as well as information about the sorts of things he enjoys doing and the things we feel are important for others to know about him, like the fact that he would happily watch Disney films every minute he has between school and bedtime but that we feel it is important that he is encouraged to make other choices and does other things - plays games, 

abstractLucas

...does cooking, goes for a walk in the garden and so on.  This is also where you can put your thoughts and aspirations for the future - do you want her to live independantly, to have a job, or do you feel she will need round the clock support?  Don't worry about what opportunities are actually out there for her right now, just what you (and she, of course) would like her future to look like.
I hope that has given you some food for thought - I'll try and write some more later!
Lucas

camptys

Lucas, 
You've certainly helped.  Thank you!
Andrea