Young people’s views concerning their voice in Education, Health and Care planning meetings: A participatory Q-study

A recent Code of Practice (DfE & DoH, 2015) for working with children and young people (YP) described as having special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has been published in the UK. It extends the rights of children and YP and their parents, to have a say in their education and demands greater collaboration between agencies. This research explores the experiences of YP described as having SEND participating in Education, Health and Care (EHC) planning meetings. It focusses particularly on ideas around the voice of the child. • What are young people’s views concerning their voice in Education, Health and Care planning meetings? • What are the implications of young people’s views concerning their voice in Education, Health and Care planning meetings for Educational Psychology Practice? The study included 21 YP aged between 11 and 19. To limit the reliance on language skills (Hughes 2016), Q-methodology has been used to support them to think about their experience. Q-methodology offers statements encompassing the range of things YP might say about having a say in EHC planning meetings and asks participants to arrange them based on how much they agree or disagree with the statements. The research is participatory in that young people were involved in the study as co-researchers and helped to develop and pilot the statements. The study found that despite many similarities in participants’ descriptions of meetings, there was considerable variation in how YP experienced them. Some expressed having little or no voice while others had some level of voice. Implications for Educational Psychology practice and possible future directions for research are discussed.