The problem with Education, Health & Care Plans: AEP President comments in Schools Week

Schools Week today published a collection of articles relating to issues in the SEND system in England and Education, Health & Care Plans.

They spoke to AEP President, David Collingwood about his experience of working with EHCP plans and the serious impact of the shortage of Educational Psychologists (EPs) in Local Authorities.

David highlighted that the "shortage of EPs and backlogs in assessments are a “massive problem”, and emphasised the growing pressures for EPs working in Local Authorities and the need to "write advice quicker".

The AEP President also spoke about the issues around EHCP recommendations and why these may not be helping every child, saying “'evidence-based' interventions don’t work for everyone...some of the evidence can be around what works for that particular child”.

“For me, fidget spinners would be OK if there’s evidence on the ground that actually it does help this particular child – the child is reporting that, and the classroom teachers are reporting that.”