Parents, professionals or a young person themselves may request that thought is given to assessing a child or young person's Additional Support Needs and compiling a
Co-ordinated Support Plan (CSP). The request must include the reasons why an assessment may be appropriate and should be accompanied by any relevant information which would support this. The request must be put in writing or some other permanent format, such as e-mail, and sent to the Area Education Manager.
The Area Education Manager will acknowledge the request, in writing, and refer it to the relevant Liaison Group for discussion as to whether or not the request is reasonable.
The Liaison Group meeting should include professionals currently involved with the support of the child or young person, parents and the child or young person if appropriate, so that an informed discussion can take place.
The meeting will use an assessment tool (a form) to help them make their decision as to whether or not the child or young person appears to meet the criteria for a Co-ordinated Support Plan.
If it is decided that they do not appear to meet the criteria for a CSP, the Additional Support for Learning Co-ordinator will be notified so that he/she can formally write to the parents and young people or referring professional regarding the decision and the reasons behind it.
If it is decided that the child or young person does appear to meet the criteria for a CSP the meeting will prepare the information required for a “Notice of Proposal”. This “Notice of Proposal”, a letter, is the formal trigger to seek advice on the drawing up of a possible CSP. The Chair of the meeting will send this information to the Additional Support for Learning Co-ordinator who has a Highland wide remit to monitor this process.
The Additional Support for Learning Co-ordinator will complete the “Notice of Proposal” letter and send it out to the parents and young person if appropriate.
This is the formal notice indicating that a CSP is being considered.
An IEP/CSP Co-ordinator will also be appointed at this meeting to be the key contact for parents, child/young person and professionals as the process moves forward.
The CSP Co-ordinator may be from education but they may be someone who has more of a key role with the child or young person and their family with regard to the Additional Support Needs in question, for example a social worker or health professional. They will collate information for the CSP, draft the CSP and keep an overview of the support set out in the CSP.
Parents and young people can request relevant assessments.
The CSP co-ordinator will make contact with parents, the child and or young person to discuss the “Notice of Proposal” and what assessments they feel relevant and what they feel should be included in the plan. The Education Authority must follow up the assessments requested unless they believe the request to be unreasonable. If a request for an assessment is refused the Authority must inform the parents or young person of its decision and give the reason why. Parents and young people must also be advised of their right to appeal. (see Information Sheet 10)
The CSP Admin team will send copies of the “Notice of Proposal” to all agencies from whom assessments or examinations have been requested, accompanied by their own specific request form. All agencies must respond within 10 weeks from the date the request for information is sent. All agencies contributing information must go over their reports and findings with the family.
The Additional Support for Learning Co-ordinator will write to the parents, professionals and the young person to inform them whether a CSP is to be drawn up.
The CSP Admin team will collate the information and advice returned by the agencies making assessments and send this to the IEP/CSP Co-ordinator. When a CSP is to be drawn up the IEP/CSP Co-ordinator will then draft a Co-ordinated Support Plan based on this information and on comments given by parents, child and/or young person. A copy of this draft plan will be sent to the Area Education Manager, the parents and the young person and to those contributing to the plan before the CSP meeting.
The draft plan will then be discussed and finalised at the CSP Meeting. This will be a small meeting held at about Week 14 in the process. (see information sheet 8)
A copy of the final plan must be sent to parents within 16 weeks of the ‘Notice of Proposal’. However if the Education Authority becomes aware that the 16 week time limit is unlikely to be met, the Area Education Manager must write and explain to the parents or the young person the reason for this delay and set a new date for the completion of the process. The regulations do not specify what the new time limit should be but state that it should not exceed a further 8 weeks, or by longer than is necessary in the circumstances. This is to allow for individual circumstances surrounding the delay to be taken into consideration.
The delay may come about due to:
The child’s parents or the young person making a request for a particular type of assessment or examination and that cannot take place or
the results will not be available, before the end of the 16 week period or
The Education Authority have asked an appropriate agency or other persons for help and they have not been able to respond in time.
However the total time taken for the completion of a CSP should not exceed 24 weeks.
A copy of the CSP will be held by the Area Education Manager, a copy sent to the parents and the young person, the Area Children's Services Forum Managers, the Additional Support for Learning Co-ordinator, all the professionals involved in the Plan. A further copy will be kept at the school attended by the child or young person.
The CSP is a confidential document and should not be given to anyone other than those who have a professional requirement to see or have a copy of it but it should be used and referred to on a regular basis by those working with the child or young person.
The Area Education Office will retain a copy should parents wish to see it there.
Where a child or young person and their family are involved in several planning and review processes attempts will be made to bring these together as much as possible. Duplication of effort, processes and meetings should be avoided if possible.
For example:
A single multi-purpose meeting should be held annually for children and young people who have both an IEP and a CSP, in order to review all the medium and long term targets and to ensure consistency between the plans. Some targets may appear in both plans.
For Looked After Children a single multi-purpose meeting can be held each term to review their Individualised Educational Programme (IEP) and Personal Education Plan (PEP) and this may be combined with their LAC Review.