How to Quality Assure an EHCP
What is Quality Assurance?
Before learning how to quality assure an education, health and care plan (EHCP), you first need to understand what EHCP quality assurance involves and why it’s important.
EHC plans must reflect both Code of Practice requirements and good practice in plan development. Quality assuring an EHCP is a systematic way to ensure that key requirements are being met, such as:
- Being person-centred and accessible
- Demonstrating the Golden Thread the links aspirations, needs, outcomes and special educational provision
- Providing SMART outcomes and specific, quantified provision across education, health and social care
- Preparing children and young people for adulthood.
In this guide, we’ll be looking at what the quality assurance process looks like and how to ensure all plans are completed to a high standard.
What are the steps to follow when quality assuring a plan?
- Firstly, go through the plan to check for proofreading, grammatical errors or any obvious areas of concern. This is mainly to just ensure that the plan is written to a high standard.
- Another element of surface level checking includes assessing a writer’s writing style and adjusting any Local Authority-specific ‘house style’ requirements, to guarantee consistency across all plans.
- Moving onto the content of the plan, ensure that there is no repetition, contradictory information or paraphrasing of the advice.
- Look out for inconsistencies in the plan, for example, reference to areas of need that do not have corresponding outcomes and provision. This concept of the ‘Golden Thread’ should be ingrained in anyone quality assuring a plan and something to automatically look out for.
- Conduct a deeper check of the plan content and Golden Thread by checking the advice if to see if any ‘reds flags’ appear (see next section for some example red flags).
Anyone responsible for quality assuring an EHCP should consider using a QA framework as a checklist to clearly note where each individual plan is or is not meeting criteria related to statutory requirements. This process will, in turn, identify areas in need of development or gaps in the assessment and plan production processes.
What are some red flags that to look out for during the QA process?
| Red flag: There are inconsistencies in the plan between the needs in Sections B and the matching outcomes and provision in Sections E and F. |
| QA approach: These inconsistencies and lack of Golden Thread can sometimes happen when the advice describes needs, but does not provide any matching outcomes and provision, or when writers have muddled information across areas of need in these sections of the plan. Check the advice to ensure that no outcomes or provision have been missed. Also check whether any outcomes and provision would be best suited under another area of need. Flag up (e.g. on a front sheet or to the relevant professional) the areas of need that are missing appropriate outcomes and provision, so that it is clear where there are gaps in the plan to be resolved. |
Related statutory requirement: Do the outcomes cover education, health and social care, where applicable? Is it clear what provisions match with each individual need named in Section B?
| Red flag: A health diagnosis and needs have been included in Section C, but there is no health provision in Section G. |
| QA approach: It can sometimes be the case that there are needs without necessarily ongoing provision, or that medical advice is outdated, providing only more historical information. Ensure there is consistency throughout Sections C and G where possible. Flag up (e.g. on a front sheet or to the relevant professional) if there is missing provision for areas deemed likely to have ongoing provision. |
Related statutory requirement: For any health or social care needs in Sections C/D, is there matching health or social care provision in Sections G/H? Is health or social care provision specific, quantified and detailed?
Anyone quality assuring an EHCP should be experienced in looking out for potential red flags and be familiar with common issues that arise. In order to gain a holistic understanding and knowledge on how to QA a plan, individuals need to first be trained in how to write an EHC plan.
Further learning
At Enhance, we have supported over two-thirds of the Local Authorities (LAs) in England with developing EHC plans (previously SEN Statements), all of whom have different EHC plan templates and variable quality of professional assessment reports. This has enabled us to develop a QA framework to analyse how best to ensure that EHC plans produced are effective as functional documents, accessible to families and professionals, and legally compliant. You can purchase a QA framework here for use within your own SEND team.
As mentioned, knowing how to write an EHCP is crucial for the task of quality assuring a plan, and our online EHCP writing courses are an ideal way to learn. You can explore our training options here.
Enhance EHC is the go-to solution for developing better education, health and care plans (EHCPs). We offer specialist EHCP writing services, training and resources to help everyone involved to meet statutory deadlines, improve quality and consistency of plans, and develop their knowledge and skills.
Enhance EHC’s range of EHCP solutions are underpinned by a wealth of experience and specific expertise. Established in 1996, we have produced over 190,000 EHC plans (previously SEN Statements), gained oversight of best practice across the country through our work with over two-thirds of Local Authorities (LAs) in England, and trained hundreds of EHCP writers.
How we help
We have been supporting LAs across England with writing EHCPs (/SEN Statements) since 1996. By providing flexible EHCP writing support, SEND teams are able to better manage variable workloads and dedicate their time to supporting families and working directly with schools and other professionals.
Writing an EHCP is a specialised task that requires specific training. Our EHCP support offerings have therefore grown over the years to include CPD accredited online training courses for a wide range of professionals, including:
- LA SEND teams
- Schools
- SEND support organisations
- Individual plan writers
- Education/health practitioners involved in EHC Needs Assessments
Courses range from requesting assessments and writing statutory advice, to drafting high-quality EHC plans – all of which are ideal for workforce development, new staff induction, ongoing professional development, and/or retraining for a career in SEND.
We also believe in sharing good practice information and guidance for all involved in the EHCP process, which we do through our various guidance and resources, including EHCP Knowledge Hub articles, educational resource packs and free downloadable guides.
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