I'm looking for peer-reviewed literature on EHCP's

Enived

I am a university student, seeking any literature on EHCP's. I am especially interested in the detrimental effect on schooling that the reported 26,000 children are having who have been waiting up to two years for a plan. Thank you in advance. 

Ross_Alumni

Hello @Enived

Wishing you a warm welcome to the community, it's good to see you join us. 

I'm not sure of the type of literature I could forward you to, but IPSEA do have a lot of information about EHCPs over on their website, so you may want to pay them a visit.

Furthermore, Scope have an information page about EHCPs and SEND support.

L_Volunteer

Hello @Enived, 

Welcome to Scope's forum. It is great to see you have joined us. Just out of interest, what do you study? I study a Masters in Education with a focus on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. 

I have found some peer-reviewed journal articles for you. The peer-reviewed journal articles include: 

• Vulnerable children's right to education, school exclusion, and pandemic law-making
• Thousands of SEN pupils without EHCPs as they prepare for secondary school
• Non-EHCP pupils missing out, speech and language therapists warn
• New SEN proposals spark fears that it might just be a cost cutting exercise

I hope you find these readings useful and I am wishing you the best of luck with your literature reviewing! 

Enived

Thank you, they look like they'll be very useful! I'm in my final year of Childhood Studies and I am hoping to continue on to a Masters in Education next year.

Good luck to you. I am sure I will be asking after your expertise again in the future.

L_Volunteer

Hi @Enived, 

Glad to hear they look useful. Good luck with your final year of Childhood Studies and progression onto the MA in Education. Have you got a dissertation topic in mind at the moment? Thanks for your good luck message 

Enived

I would like to explore EHC plans, but I do not have a research question yet. I joined the course from another programme, so I missed out on the work my cohort did last year on research proposals - I have lots to catch up with! 

There are some statistics about the EHCP backlog which interests me, but I may yet consider something else. I have found a few more journals and am spending every moment I can reading. The dissertation isn't due in until April, but I am hoping I can complete it before Christmas. ?

L_Volunteer

Hi @Enived, 

Oh wow, you sound determined and passionate! Amazing to see. There is certainly a lot to read around EHCP's so I would advise narrowing your question. This could be done in the following ways:

• Read broadly and find out what the authors recommend as the next research steps in their discussion/conclusion sections
• Narrow to a particular country
• Narrow to a specific age group (early years, primary, secondary, further education, higher education, vocational education)
• Narrow to a specific group of students who have access to EHCP's (i.e. one diagnosis)
• Keep in mind that you are typically looking at research within the last 10 years for academic assessments (2011 - 2021 in this case!)
• Think of a methodology and then think about questions that are consistent with the methodology - are you looking at quantitative/qualitative/mixed methods/secondary data/primary data, etc?
• Think about which stakeholder you would like to focus on - is it the students themselves? is it families? is it teachers? is it teaching assistants? is it health and social care staff? is it policy analysis? mainstream education? special education? alternative provision? 

You will get there but focus it! If you need anything else, please don't hesitate to reach out  (top tip - if you @ my Scope forum username [as I have done for you at the beginning of this response], I'll see your response much quicker!)