Evaluating the quality of outcomes defined for children with education health and care plans in England : a local picture with global implications

Recently, the Children and Families Act 2014 was introduced in England to regulate provision for children with disabilities. According to this policy, statements of special educational needs were replaced with education, health and care plans, which should include high-quality, holistic and participation-focused outcomes to regulate provision; this change aligns with international recommendations regarding provision for children with disabilities. This study aimed to evaluate the outcomes defined for children with education, health and care plans in England. 236 Education Health and Care plans were included in the analysis, providing 2813 outcomes to be examined, which came from 11 local authorities and 42 schools and belong to 69 girls and 167 boys from 4 to 21 years of age. The outcomes were independently rated by two experienced researchers using a Goal Functionality Scale. Inter-rater agreement was calculated for 10% of the outcomes. Most outcomes were considered not to be functional or high-quality; differences in quality were found between local authorities, types of school, type of outcome, and the children’s main need. There are important quality concerns regarding the outcomes that have been designed for children with disabilities in England, which should be addressed through standardised training and guidelines on procedures