when should we write an iep?

[Guest]

we have a new senco who says too many children in our school are on the special needs register and we should only write an iep if they are school action plus and after an outside agency has decided on targets. is this what othe nurseries do? we have always written an iep so that when outside agencies come in we can show what we have targetted, and success or otherwise of this intervention. she says just do intervention work without putting them on the sen register

cheers for any advice x

[Fredbear]

Can only speak for Pre-school, but we place any children on a IEP that have recognised need for additional support, children on school action plus are children that have other agencies involved too.

[flowlow]

well for us if we can support the need in the normal running of a session then I wouldn't write an IEP. If we need to do something extra to the session then we would but this could still be at the equivalent of school action. School action plus was when we need outside assistance or a multi professional response which to my mind is something a little different. Like you very often the IEP would need to be there first so we can show we have tried everything we can (so doing a bit) and as evidence to start making up a folder of need for assessment or a statement etc...

[Guest]

well for us if we can support the need in the normal running of a session then I wouldn't write an IEP. If we need to do something extra to the session then we would but this could still be at the equivalent of school action. School action plus was when we need outside assistance or a multi professional response which to my mind is something a little different. Like you very often the IEP would need to be there first so we can show we have tried everything we can (so doing a bit) and as evidence to start making up a folder of need for assessment or a statement etc...

so did you write an iep for school action?

[flowlow]

If it was extra support to what would normally be available in the course of the session then yes every time I would write an IEP.

 

Sometimes even if we could manage in the course of the session (so maybe extending vocab by a few words each time for children with language delay or something like that so everyone could do it as they go rather than a specific time/activity etc...) then we sometimes still write an IEP so that everyone is clear on what needs doing so helps consistency of support. (Although mostly we would just use the normal setting next steps,learning opportunities and tracking through that we do for most of the children).

 

Both these scenarios we would class as early years action (the equivalent of school action)

 

When we need multi-agency support (so any outside help even if it was just the area SEN team)this then would be our early years action plus, 'they' would normally expect us to have gone through the 'can we help this child' stage with obs, IEP's, records of concern, evidence to back it up and assessment of where they are now before we call them in. Then obviously there would still be an IEP but sometimes one of these professionals write it, or they tell us what to work on and suggest how to do it so IEP is easy to write.

 

So essentially we do use IEP's very early on. I am slightly confused why your SEN would say otherwise. You may have a high number of children on your register who do have additional support needs but then that could be that you just have a good reputation for supporting children, it could be just down to needs of your area but essentially if a child has a support need then I would do exactly what you have been doing. Surely on your SEN record you would have a list of early action and early action plus so (or school action, school action plus)so she could still differentiate between the two if she needs to?

 

A friend of mine manages a school based pre-school and she says that 80% of the children are classed as having support needs and they work in the same way as you and I do. They do say that that mean their league table doesn't look so good as the level of support needed is high across all year groups and therefore end assessments can be lower than national average however, if you were to assess the development between entry and when they leave the progress is high and that is what they focus on knowing the needs of their community.

[Guest]

i should have written early years action/action plus in post!! we had 5 of 23 on on iep's last year who are now in reception. 1 is still receiving support of speech therapist, another she is going to monitor in reception as she didn't come in and see him till june due to parents promising us they would see health visator and me finally persuading them to let me let someone who was in observing another child see what they think!!! i.e. trick them!! other 3 had packs given by speech therapist and as a result of 10 mins a day intervention 1-1 they no longer needed to be on register a they had made suitable progress. all needed above and beyond. i wonder if she is trying to keep her workload down? one target for a child was to identify an item from a group of 3 when he started as his language was very limited, e.g. calling the sun "sky" and a mouse a cat. and another was an activity in a pair to become aware of peers as he did not notice them at all. so turn-taking and saying whose turn it was next. by the end of the year he was playing confidently with others, seeking out others, and giggling with them. speech delayed too. now if we hadn't put in this extra work both and rest would have made little progress whilst waiting for outside expertise.

so i will continue to do this or else this vunerable group will get more behind, but just call them targets in a book and make sure all staff are given them, and parents. and tell her who is having 'targets/intervention' and she can do what she likes with that!!!!!!!!!!

this forum is great when you aren't sure about things - i wondered if there had been a change that i hadn't been made aware of - in nursery we tend to be forgotten sometimes!!

thanks for your replies x

[catma]

It'll all be changing as statements are phased out I guess.

[dreamgirl]

It'll all be changing as statements are phased out I guess.

 

Eh? Have I missed something? What's happening to statements?

[Guest]

One of our uses for IEPS,s tare tohelp provide evidence if we need to engage with outside agencies

It shows what a child can do a focuses on sometimes the small steps that the child has made progress on and what we have done to support

[catma]

 

Eh? Have I missed something? What's happening to statements?

 

All part of the new approaches being trialled in pathfinder LAs. As I understand it there will instead be personal budgets which would be used to purchase the resources a child requires rather than a statement which limits support to what is in the statement.

http://www.sendpathfinder.co.uk/

http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/send/b0075291/green-paper/evaluation

[Guest]

One of our uses for IEPS,s tare tohelp provide evidence if we need to engage with outside agencies

It shows what a child can do a focuses on sometimes the small steps that the child has made progress on and what we have done to support

precisely what i do, which would penalise child if not done. it's tricky when new people take over. will just do what done before as it's obvious that's what you all do too. and keep in a book and tell anyone coming in that that's what i have been told to do if they ask where on earth the iep is!!!! x