Changing EHCPs at Birmingham City Council

Birmingham City Council has been engaged in an improvement journey to address the areas included in their Written Statement of Action

Changing EHCPs at Birmingham City Council

Following an Ofsted and CQC inspection of its SEND services in 2018, Birmingham City Council has been engaged in an improvement journey to address the areas included in their Written Statement of Action. One area that required more targeted focus, was the quality and consistency of their EHCPs, which inspectors had observed as being “variable”.

Changing the focus of EHC plans

Today, Birmingham City Council is in a stronger position. One of the areas the Council needed to focus on was to be more inclusive of the health and social care needs of the child within EHCPs, which is now being addressed effectively in plans.

A lot of work with partners has gone into improving the quality and consistency of EHCPs, including a new SEND quality assurance framework.

This has involved taking a bold, new approach - using technology to bring services closer together and identify strengths and weaknesses in EHCP quality.

Embracing a new way of quality assuring EHCPs

As part of its improvement plan, Birmingham City Council was one of the first local authorities to utilise the Quality Assurance (QA) online audit tool, Invision360's online EHCP audit tool.

Having already made a significant amount of progress in improving the quality and consistency of EHCPs, the council needed to improve its quality assurance framework.

As a first for the sector, and Birmingham City Council, the purpose of Invision360's online EHCP audit tool was to directly increase the number of services involved in the quality assurance of EHCPs using a single online tool.

Reporting on the impact of Invision360's online EHCP audit tool, Transformation lead for SEND and Inclusion for Birmingham, Vicky Robinson, said:

“Invision360's online EHCP audit tool has given us the ability to utilise the skills and expertise across Birmingham City Council, NHS and Social Care. This has enabled us to improve the quality of our EHCPs to ensure they effectively meet the needs of our children and young people with SEND.”

The step-by-step online process and objective criteria allows professionals across all services in Birmingham to complete audits quickly and confidently.

Far more granular, accurate insights

Invision360's online EHCP audit tool live dashboard and automated analysis of data are incredibly insightful. For example, Invision360's online EHCP audit tool analysis of the first two cycles of Birmingham’s EHCP audits(more than a 100+ plans) showed that 92% of EHCP ‘section Bs’ were audited as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’. The data analysis Invision360's online EHCP audit tool provided also highlighted areas that needed strengthening and the Invision360's online EHCP audit tool reporting enables improvement cycles to be evidenced, as Vicky comments:

“Invision360's online EHCP audit tool provides excellent oversight for our co-ordinators. We can run reports on performance, analyse our EHCP data and see the standard of each plan against each auditor.”

The automated data within Invision360's online EHCP audit tool also helps Birmingham City Council identify areas for further development. Vicky adds:

“Through Invision360's online EHCP audit tool, we can feedback to our plan writers and focus on specific sections of EHC plans needing improvement. We also monitor progress in these areas and ensure that the cross-network guidance is captured correctly.”

Supporting long-term transformation

With shared responsibility across services, Birmingham City Council and its partners are better able to ensure that EHCPs are meeting the needs of children and young people.

Invision360's online EHCP audit tool is already providing strategic oversight on cross-partner contributions, as Vicky finishes:

“In the long term, we perceive the Invision360's online EHCP audit tool will be essential in the delivery of the best service, support and outcomes to the children and young people of Birmingham who have an EHCP.”

We can’t wait to see the transformative impact of Invision360's online EHCP audit tool. We will also continue to work closely with Birmingham City Council as we introduce new features and functionality.