You've talked to the school and seen your family doctor. If you feel your child needs more help than the school can provide, and if the school agrees, then the special educational needs and disabilities coordinator and the class teacher can meet with you to consider applying for an educational health and care plan, often known as an EHCP. This is a special provision plan that's designed to help clarify, need, intervention, and ensure that your child receives the level help required. Educational psychologist Sarah Bierer explains. So a wide range of children get an EHCP, some who have very complex medical and learning needs, but also some who may be able, but who are finding learning in a school environment very, very tricky for all sorts of reasons. For example, they may be autistic and have massive sensory needs which make it very difficult to tune out all of the noise and the bustle and the come home quite stressed because they can't focus and they become quite agitated in certain environments. So the EHCP, when it's finalised, will outline your child's needs and their strengths, usually, What the child needs to learn and to make progress, and also where the child will be educated. And parental preference is very important in terms of where the child is educated. And as part of the process of getting an EHCP, parents are asked what their parental preference is. Of course, special provision like this costs money. The school can sometimes apply for financial help from the local authority for the delivery of the education health and care plan. At this stage, the more evidence you and the school have of the needs and challenges your child faces, the better. The local authority has a limited budget, so they are very careful about what financial support they can offer. Special educational needs and disabilities coordinator Rachel Adams Constantine explains. The application for this, it varies borough to borough. It's a big, lengthy document that takes a while to complete. But ideally, the plan comes with funding. And this funding is usually used for additional support at school, hopefully, through the form of a learning support assistant. Some Boroughs, it doesn't come with funding straight away. That's an additional application. But here in Barnett, it comes with funding. The funding is banded. So they look at the needs of the child and they give you a band for what you think, what they think would cover the provision cost for that child. The document then is a legal document. We call it the golden ticket. This is your legal document that will track your child until they-- and be given to your child until they 25. It has measurable outcomes on there, that your school must help the child meet these outcomes. And it's reviewed annually. It's important to know that either the school or the parent can apply for an educational, health and care plan. Unfortunately, the process can be quite protracted. Now, once you've sent the application in, there's often quite a long wait because by law, they have six weeks to make a decision. And in those six weeks, the SCN service, which is the group that runs the process in the local authority, the service that runs the process, they might be seeking a little bit of extra information from the psychologist to see if it's known, the child's known to them, or a bit more information from the school. Then they take the information, the application to a panel. And that panel, the decision-making panel sometimes they have representatives from schools. They have a representative from health and from social care, from the educational psychology service, and also from SEN service and maybe some other people as well, depending on your local authority. Once the panel has made a decision, you will be told about it within the six week window. Now, if they agree to assess, you'll be assigned a caseworker from SEN service, and it's that person you liaise with and throughout the assessment to see what's happening. Because sometimes, you'll hear a lot of things immediately or in a bit of a delay, and sometimes it'll go quiet for a while. But you can always check in with your caseworker to see what's happening and what they're doing. If it's an agreement not to assess, then they will advise you of your legal rights. Those legal rights include going to mediation and then going to tribunal and getting the case heard by the legal profession to see whether it was a correct decision or not. There are many requirements to learn about and understand, so this can be a stressful time for parents. Throughout all of this process, I believe the best outcomes are always those where communication between school and family is friendly and open. The more you can work together, the better it is for your child. Remember, the school wants the best outcome too. The best. Relationships I have with parents are when I'm completely honest with them about processes and completely transparent because processes, sort of referrals, applications for things are frustrating and they can take a very long time. And I think you have to be transparent about the mistakes you've made because there will be mistakes that you make and you have to have a really good relationship with them. And that is a big part of it-- being transparent, being honest. The most successful children that I see here is when we've had a really good relationship with the parents, and we've worked together through their school life, to come up with outcomes, support plans that are beneficial for them, that really tap into what we need them to be able to do before they leave us. I think being open to this dialogue with parents is just so essential. And I think not everybody gives parents the time that they deserve because really, they know the child best and listen to them. It's a journey. And there will be bumps in the road, and sometimes times frustration and confusion. You are not alone. But there are parent support groups, which you can find online or through your local authority. Remember, other people have passed this way before. These independent support organisations can be really helpful with information and useful at key sticking points, such as choosing the right secondary school for your child. You can also find where to get help on the Nip in the Bud website, and these films are accompanied by a free support pack for parents. We hope you find them helpful. Thanks for watching.