Quality Assurance Tools for Education, Health and Care (EHC) Needs Advice.

Published

17 Dec 2024

These tools have been developed to support the quality assurance of Education, Health and Care (EHC) Needs assessment advice provided by a health professional. Both tools use a set of quality indicators that are informed by the SEND Code of practice and the practical expertise of an expert focus group of DCOs,DMOs and regionals leads.

There are two Quality Assurance tools for EHC needs assessment advice given by a health professional:

1 A CHECKLIST

This a self-assessment tool that will allow clinicians, in conjunction with clinical supervisors and managers, to self-assess a single piece of advice as part of an individual’s continuing professional development. 

This can be used by any clinician but will be particularly useful for those who are developing their skills and experience in giving advice for EHC needs assessment. 

The RAG rating will identify areas of strength and development in their practice.  It can therefore be used to set development goals and provide pre and post progress measures.

2 An AUDIT TOOL

This tool is intended for use by those carrying out quality assurance audits of EHC needs assessment advice given by a health professional across a clinical group or service such as DCOs and service managers. 

The RAG rating will identify areas of strength and development across a service or clinical group.  It can be used to set service improvement goals and measure progress following quality improvement activity

Each tool sets out the criteria in terms Essential and Desirable. 

  • Essential criteria are criteria that all health advice should meet. 
  • The desirable criteria have been developed to recognise that some elements of the health advice:
    • Will be dependent on the quality of the information provided in the request for advice e.g. where ‘outcomes sought’ have not been provided.
    • Are considered good practice but are not linked to statutory elements as defined by the code e.g. describing health needs that require attention in an education setting.

A RAG rating is provided to help visually identify areas of positive practice and areas for improvement and support an on-going cycle of SEND quality improvement.