The format of a Co-ordinated Support Plan (CSP) is set out in law. It must be used by all education authorities.
The plan must contain:
The plan should be clear and concise, and refer to needs that will, or are likely to, continue for more than a year. Short term objectives would continue to be contained in an Individualised Educational
The Co-ordinated Support Plan is a working, planning document. It details the factors giving rise to the child’s or young person’s Additional Support Needs. It does not contain the assessments/examinations that contributed to the drawing up of the plan.
The educational objectives in the CSP must take account of the factors giving rise to the child’s or young person’s Additional Support Needs. They will require the
co-ordination of services for these to be achieved.
Children and young people will always be working to achieve other learning outcomes which are not detailed in the plan and which do not require the same level of
co-ordination of support. These learning objectives will be documented through other school planning arrangements such as an IEP.
Decisions about what are appropriate educational objectives for a child or young person should be taken independently of the additional support required to achieve them.
Taking account of the information from assessments from various agencies, the starting point should be what it is reasonable to expect the child or young person to achieve over the course of the next year. Objectives should be clear and specific enough to enable the education authority, and other agencies involved in supporting the child or young person, to monitor and review them over time. When setting an objective the question that needs to be asked is ‘How will we know if the objective has been achieved?’ Since each CSP has to be reviewed at least annually the objectives should be achievable in a year.
The CSP must describe the additional support required to achieve the educational objectives. This will cover teaching and other staffing arrangements, appropriate facilities and resources including information and communication technology, and any particular approaches to learning and teaching to be used.
The statement of support to be provided should be clear and specific and where possible quantified. It should be clear what is being provided and why. Statements such as ‘learning support as necessary’ or ‘speech and language therapy as required’ are too vague. Statements should give a clear understanding as to what is to be provided such as ‘tutorial and small group teaching for three 45 minute sessions per week’.
The plan must state the agency or professionals who should be providing the support, such as ‘visiting teacher of the deaf’, ‘speech and language therapist’, ‘social worker’, ‘educational psychologist’.