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.
