In 2014, the Tories introduced the SEND Code of Practice, which incorporated Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). These were essentially imagined as passports to the support needed by a pupil with high needs and were supposed to be based on a holistic assessment of these by all the appropriate agencies, with clear strategies and interventions explaining how they would be met, plus time frames for regular evaluation. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Except it was never funded properly, there was no clear guidance, everyone invented their own wheel, and if you’ve ever tried arranging a multi-agency meeting, then you’ll know that similar pressures in Health and Care meant that the holistic approach never really materialised (please don’t take my word for it – all this was finely detailed in the, actually wholly evidence-based (no, really!), Education Select Committee’s SEND report of October 2019). However, EHCPs remain a good idea in principle.

 

What if we applied this principle to society? One of the plus points of EHCPs is that they combine operational aspects with a more long-term, strategic view of outcomes. So, for example, you might want to deal with crime; with a Societal EHCP (SEHCP), you would then need to factor in the drivers of crime (like poverty, abuse, lack of job opportunities, drugs, poor housing, normalisation of über-materialistic lifestyle aspirations, etc.), and actually address those, rather than focus on police and prisons (punitive, not effective). Additionally  you could consider education shortcomings by thinking about lack of funding, a narrow, mainly irrelevant curriculum, poverty, poor mental health and the drivers of that, like, er, poverty, poor housing, abuse, etc., the tyranny of Ofsted, know-nothing ideologically-driven policy making, etc., rather than focus on pupil behaviour and apparently ‘failing’  teachers (punitive, not effective).

 

This would require a government (an actual one, not a pretend one) with a set of core beliefs which prioritised the provision and enabling of basic human needs, e.g., decent housing people could actually afford, decent useful jobs which paid enough to pay for at least basic needs, and education, health and care services which were free, inclusive, and high quality everywhere. All within an ethical, sustainable framework which didn’t wreck the planet or anyone else’s invisible, faraway life (as in, My Underpants Were Made in Bangladesh, which is a poem I wrote after seeing the label on my new pants).

 

Now where could we find a government like that, willing to work across departments and write an SEHCP, I wonder? Any suggestions?

 

 

Max Fishel

Dec 2021

Max is currently a member of pdnet, and governor of  a mainstream primary school. He is Member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for u3a  and attends and contributes to various All Party Parliamentary Groups focussing on Disability and Education. He has 40 years experience of the State education sector, most recently as assistant Headteacher in a special school, and lead for a team of Specialist Advisory teachers for physical Disability. He also performs stand-up spoken word poetry and is a musician.

 

All  blogs represent the views solely of the named author, and not those of the Fabian Education Policy Group or the wider Fabian Society