EAPDR Request Form Guidance Document

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• Privacy policy - SEND and Inclusion Hub
• 'One Form' (104 KB)
• Glossary of Terms

Introduction - What is EAPDR?

When it is identified that a child or young person has or may have special educational needs, the practice is to employ a graduated approach to meet the needs of the child. The graduated approach uses a process known as'Assess, Plan, Do, Review.'

Our Enhanced Assess, Plan, Do Review pathway (EAPDR) provides the resource necessary to maximise the chance of success before any further statutory measures should be needed.

The EAPDR pathway will enhance the educational setting’s capacity to meet a child or young person’s SEND needs by accessing the right support, in the right place, at the right time.

The EAPDR pathway sets out a clear methodology to ensure schools and educational settings are supported to access further additional advice, support and resources in order to meet the needs of children and young people in their setting. The enhancement is a focused APDR process that places outcomes at the centre of the work undertaken to support the child or young person and makes resources available to schools and settings so that they can meet needs quickly and effectively. 

The primary purposes of the pathway are as follows, and are in line with our “North Stars”: 

• Support settings to meet the needs of children and young people in their local mainstream school
• Ensure children and young people have their needs met earlier
• Improve co-production in how we work with children, young people and families.
• Improve multi-disciplinary working and partnerships
• Improve the ‘tell it once’ approach by reducing duplication of information.
• Improve the quality and timeliness of EHCNAs
• Improve the quality of EHCPs (if they are required)
• To record pre statutory interventions in a centralised document, capturing assessment and learning about the child over time, accessible by all professionals involved, along with parents / carers
• Place holistic outcomes at the very start of the graduated approach to meeting children and young people’s need
• Ensure equity of practice across the county and place the child, young person, and family at the centre of discussions, planning and decision-making within the context of their learning environment

Where EAPDR fits into the Hub referral process (blue section of the form)

EAPDR begins with a normal SEND and Inclusion Hub request, whereby a school refers a child to their local Hub.

We have added the EAPDR process to the original hub request form.

This new form will be an ongoing documentation of a child’s journey of support and intervention.

The following guidance will help you fill out sections of the form:

G1: (Mental Capacity of child or young person: e.g. Parents may make decisions on behalf of young person if they are over 18 and not able to do so themselves.

G2: Is child looked after? If so, by which local authority? Child in Need, Child Protection Plan, Parent/Carer in Armed Forces (MODLAP), Gypsy Roma Traveller

G3: Comprehensive details are required in the 'Other known agencies' section of the request form. We recommend you use individual contact details but make sure you back this up with team/department contact details. In the event of staff absence, make sure contact can be maintained with relevant professional bodies.

Note: Not all referrals to the Hub will become EAPDR requests.   We hope a child’s needs can be met following the advice and suggestions made at the Hub meeting.  Please remember the original Hub referral may be the only part of the form that you need to fill in. The EAPDR process will begin only if the Hub meeting decides a recommendation is necessary. The Hub decision to recommend is a collective decision, based on professional discussion. The school will then request EAPDR by completing the green section of the One Form which will then be discussed by the EAPDR Panel. 

G4: For example, whole school training on SEND. SEND targets on school improvement plan. Engagement with whole school SEND. Implementation of the EP literacy approach. Implementation of ELSA approaches. Implementation of Staffordshire County Council school non-attendance guidance. Attendance at SEND and Inclusion Hubs.

G5: Summary of work done: Include all interventions and outcomes, as evidence and justification as to why EAPDR is being requested.

Use the guidance below to complete the free text box:  

• What were you trying to achieve?
• What did you do?
• What progress was made?
• What was the outcome?
• How did you measure this?
• Ideas suggested by Hub… filled in by admin on form, school update for next meeting. Admin to record updates straight onto form. 
• Why EAPDR?
• Issues, barriers and background evidence
• Attainment levels and baseline data (to measure progress)

Only at this point, if or when agreed, will a school move on to the Green EAPDR request section of the form

• The new form is a live document, designed to record all the actions taken with the child
• When the Hub recommends next steps, schools need to action them and update progress onto the form, for the next Hub meeting
• This will firstly keep a record of intervention with the child, and secondly act as evidence if EAPDR is to be recommended
• This is not a 'fast track' to financial support, it is a structure to support best practice in the use of the graduated approach

What does a good EAPDR Request Look Like? (green section of the form)

• The starting point would be that a good SEMD and Inclusion Hub referral has been made, using the relevant section of the new form

• Having referred a child to the Hub, you will have taken further action as recommended by the Hub, and/or the actions you have decided to take to best support the child

• At this point the Hub could recommend EAPDR to the Panel. The job of the school will now be to complete the next section of the form ideally within 5 working days, so that the Panel can decide whether to agree to EAPDR.

• Requests will need to make clear the impact of the recommendations that have previously been made by agencies / partners at the Hub.

G6: In the section of the form 'Summary of educational needs and progress seen by educational setting' – you will have already summarised the child’s needs in the original Hub request section. Just add here any further details needed.

G8: Health Needs impacting on SEND (if applicable):

• Does the child or young person have any medical conditions that are a barrier to their learning? If yes, what are these conditions, and what is the impact on their learning?
• Does the child or young person have any non-SEN impacting health conditions?
• What care plans and risk assessments are in place?
• Are there any other non-medical care challenges e.g. personal care including toileting?
• Have routine health checks been carried out e.g. hearing and vision?
• Are there any referrals currently being made or awaiting assessment?

G9: Please include any needs arising from social care assessments if applicable.

If your EAPDR request is not accepted by the Panel, you will be given feedback about why this decision was made, and how the Panel feel the child’s needs can be met, without EAPDR.

School processes, if accepted into EAPDR (orange section of the form)

The following is guidance, having reached the EAPDR stage:

Please note, the EAPDR process (assess and plan) sections of the form are divided into the four areas or primary need. Only fill in the areas which apply to the child’s needs.

This section of the form will be used as the basis of the enhanced Assess and Plan meeting and should be filled in collaboratively at that meeting.

The EAPDR form is an ongoing, iterative document, and tracks progress of the child or young person, throughout the EAPDR cycle(s). Therefore, this document should be kept updated throughout the enhanced APDR cycles, in the relevant corresponding boxes.

G10: It is good practice to ensure that the Assess and Plan meeting is carried out within 20 working days of agreement to EAPDR.

G10: We are developing the concept of a school SEND profile. This will enable schools to identify and articulate their current capacity to meet SEND and Inclusion needs.

G11: Please click on the link to access the supporting APDR template and assess & plan meeting template, which you may decide to utilise during the enhanced Assess and Plan meeting. 

G12: Enhanced Plan

• Measurables (number of interventions)
  • Provision Maps here to help realistic interventions. Links to SfSP work.
  • Referrals to other agencies, if applicable
  • Desired outcomes - rating 1 to 10 where we are now, and where we think we will be at the review stage

Need high level summary here: finance amount, duration, type of provision and decision around provision here.

Proposed provision requested - this section is for detailing enhanced provision identified as an outcome of the assess and plan meeting. 

G13: Please provide details of the interventions completed as part of the Do phase and please comment on a bi-weekly basis on the progress towards the outcomes and the child or young person’s engagement.

G14: This is a decision-making point. The Team Around the Child (TAC) will reflect on the progress made and what has been learned. There are four possible next steps:

• Return to SEND support - sufficient progress made; needs can be met within the schools graduated approach
• Second EAPDR cycle - some progress made, an additional cycle of EAPDR is recommended
• Request EHCNA with consensus - All TAC members agree that the evidence indicates that the 2 legal tests have been met*
• Request EHCNA without consensus - TAC agreed to request EHCNA, but there isn't a consensus that the evidence indicates that the two legal tests have been met. 

*If a local authority (LA) is requested to carry out an EHCNA by a parent, young person, school or college, they must consider:

• whether the child or young person has or may have special educational needs (SEND); and
• whether it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made for the child or young person in accordance with an EHCP.

If the answer to both of these questions is yes, they must carry out an EHCNA. This test is set out in the law (section 36(8) of the Children and Families Act 2014). This means these are the only questions the LA should be asking when considering whether or not to carry out an EHCNA.