‘I'm not just a doll on a shelf’: A qualitative study investigating post-16 students’ experiences of having an Education, Health and Care Plan during their education

Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) were introduced into the education system in 2015 following updated guidance from the Children and Families Act (Department for Education (DfE), 2014) and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice (DfE & Department of Health and Social Care, 2015). EHCPs were implemented to support children and young people (CYP) with special educational needs or disabilities in education, creating a plan around the CYP, driven by outcomes and the support they require to progress. The plans were to be person-centred in philosophy, giving the CYP a voice in decisions, while embracing their families’ views alongside educational, health and care professionals involved in their life (Frederickson & Cline, 2015). To date, some research has aimed to investigate professionals, families’ and educational systems’ implementation of EHCPs (Boesley & Crane, 2018; Sharma, 2021). There is little to date of CYPs’ experiences of having an EHCP. This research aims to fill this void by exploring these experiences with CYP who have reached post-16 education and are heading towards adulthood. Adopting an interpretive phenomenological positionality, I sought to explore CYPs’ experiences of having an EHCP, alongside what it was like to hear the information in the plans. Using semi-structured interviews and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis as a research method, the study sought to interpret their experiences, presenting an initial venture into what has happened for these young people, and how professionals can potentially learn from these findings. Personal and group-level themes were identified, including the role of having a voice during their EHCP journeys, relationships and belonging, feelings around being an ‘other’, and the role the EHCP serves in feeling understood. Some inaccessible, troubling descriptions were highlighted in plans, alongside a sense EHCPs were creating a pathway to enter adulthood. Recommendations are made at the conclusion related to findings that have implications for Educational Psychologists, educational staff, special educational needs professionals, CYP and families. A framework based on self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), a theme of the findings, linking to young people’s progression towards adulthood is discussed. Limitations such as the small sample size conclude the thesis. Future research opportunities are then proposed such as attempting to gain a better understanding of how EHCP outcomes are constructed and more participatory research with CYP with EHCPs as an important future avenue to explore.