Do I need to prepare anything for EHCP draft meeting?

[JustAboutGettingThere]

Do I need to prepare anything for EHCP draft meeting? Should we be making any notes? I'm totally clueless and the letter didn't say what input they would expect from us in the meeting but I definitely don't want to be under-prepared.

I answered a query like this before and a later poster told me that what I said didn't happen in their authority, so, with the proviso that this might depend on where you live......

You don't need to prepare anything.
You - that is the 'Team Around the Child' - school or Nursery, then for us it would be EP and someone from the Authority, (but I know this varies in different LAs), and anyone else involved such as physio, SaLTs, dieticians, OTs, specialist Nurses etc in theory - in practice it is rare to get anyone from Health there - meet. You go through the information gathered so far and drafted into the first draft of the plan. You (as a meeting) decide if it is correct, up to date, accurate, a true picture of your child, and includes everything that was put forward with the original evidence collecting and then you either agree it, or amend it as appropriate.
Parents are also asked their preference for where they would like their dc to go to school / college Nursery - this may of course be where they are already, I don't know how old your dc is.

Have you had the draft EHCP? If so, go through it carefully checking whether it complies with paragraph 9.69 of the code of practice. Make sure that there is detailed and specific support for every need identified. Check whether they've got adequate reports, including if relevant things like speech and language and occupational therapy. If you haven't got the draft yet, be ready to push for them to get the right reports and ask them to instruct the people concerned to advise with detail and specifics. Have a think about what outcomes you want - there's some guidance in the CoP starting somewhere like paragraph 9.65.

Thank you both for your replies. However. we haven't received a draft yet - this is the very first meeting, following the assessment stage, I suppose to gather information to compile a draft? I really have no idea - I just thought we may need to voice our opinions on what needed to go into the draft or something?

I think the OP is talking about what we (in our authority) call the '"12 week meeting" - although when I've posted about this before, other posters have said they don't have this in their authorities, so it seems to vary.

Towards the end of the process (so about 18 weeks in) you get the formal 'draft' and I think this is what a lot of people will be thinking of. That is what is hoped will be the final document, but is sent out for rubber stamping before being officially signed off as "Final".

I'm presuming you are talking about the first 'pulling together of all information by the Principal Officer' meeting, at which all the evidence is pulled together to start writing the first attempt at the document. At this point they might pick up - for example, there has been a physio involved but there is no evidence from here {just as an example}, and that the PO has actually got a good 'feel' for your child's strengths and difficulties.

In our LA they have a specific form for the meeting which basically imported info from assessment request - we went through the special needs section in the meeting and made changes (someone was in the meeting typing as we talked) and then various people piped up with suggested outcomes which were also typed in. There was also discussion about what provision was needed to meet the outcomes. The case officer was given the clear impression full time 1:1 was needed!
This typed document then formed the basis of the draft plan and the case officer just added some extra bits in from the reports.
I would make sure you're familiar with all the reports and recommendations and take them with you to the meeting. Ours was a long one!!

We have a similar meeting in our LA. It's called a "co-production meeting" where the bones of the draft EHCP are pulled together by the SEN team case officer and then discussed with the parent. The aim is to get some of the back-and-forth of commenting out of the way before the statutory 15 day draft consultation period. It sounds like a good idea..... I'm still to experience it as we are waiting for final reports to come in.....

I was planning to go through all of the reports and list out all of the "needs" and "provision" identified in all of the documents. I can then easily check them off as we go through the first draft to make sure everything is there.

I was also reading up on the Aspirations >> Outcomes >> Needs >> Provision themes that might flow through the different sections for our DS. I've been trying to use this Outcomes Pyramid to see if it can help me work out what we need.

Also this good practice guide from the Council for Disabled Children.

I don't know about you but I'm exhausted! The idea of first applying for an EHC came to me in June last year and I don't think I've stopped reading and learning since then! Goodness knows how other less tenacious bloody minded people manage!?

Thanks everyone. One quick note though - we haven't seen any reports. Were we supposed to?

Not sure.... I provided our LA with 90% of the reports they needed. They only had to do one and they are late with that!! No idea if I will be sent it direct. I'm sure the LA would email you copies prior to the meeting if you ask.