The new assessment arrangements are included in the draft SEN code of practice regulations published last week, which set out legal duties for local authorities and other agencies involved in delivering SEN services to be introduced from next September.
Under the draft code, the government will expect local authorities to manage what it calls a more "streamlined process" for assessing the needs of children with the most severe and complex needs. It sets out statutory timescales to ensure quicker decisions are made on whether support is to be provided and what form it takes.
Councils will be expected to integrate health, care and education input into assessments and service commissioning arrangements, and also involve children, parents and carers in that process.
Instead of a statement of needs – the much-maligned process used by local authorities to determine the range of support offered to a child – an education, health and care plan will co-ordinate support for all children and young people aged up to 25-years-old.
These new plans will be influenced heavily by professionals’ and young people’s views on what the desired life outcomes are; for example, career ambitions and preparations for independent living as an adult, and how agencies can put support in place to meet these.
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