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EHC Needs Assessments and Plans – Parents & Carers

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What is an Education, Health and Care Plan?

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What is an Education, Health and Care Plan?

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Derby City Council, Council House, Corporation Street, Derby, DE1 2FS

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What is an education, health and care (EHC) plan? - Derby City Council

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Most children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will have their needs met by mainstream nurseries, schools and colleges. Schools will use a Graduated Response to make sure that the child’s needs are properly identified and a plan is in place to meet them. This will be a cycle of assessing and reviewing your child’s needs and the school is expected to fully involve you in this process.

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A Parents Guide to Overcoming Separation Anxiety

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Separation anxiety is a common phase in a child’s development, often causing distress for both the child and the parents. It’s natural for children to feel uneasy when separated from their primary caregivers, especially at a young age. However, when this anxiety becomes intense or prolonged, it can interfere with a child’s development and may require psychological therapy. Understanding and managing this anxiety is crucial for fostering independence and emotional well-being in your child. This a

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SLT Padlet for Professionals and Parents

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SLT Padlet for Professionals and Parents

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Childrens speech and language therapy in Derbyshire

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We support children with speech, language, communication or swallowing difficulties in Derby City and the southern half of Derbyshire.

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© 2018 - 2023 STAMMA, British Stammering Association trading as STAMMA, reg. charity no. 1089967/SC038866, reg. company no. 04297778 (England & Wales)

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We will agree with you the most helpful way to communicate with you. This may be face to face, by telephone, video call, email, text message or a posted letter, and this may change depending on what we need to communicate.

We try to use telephone and email as much as possible as this is the quickest and safest way to get important information to you. It also allows us to help the environment and to save money. Patients and their families may request paper copies of information but these may take longer to reach you.

Emails:

When sending emails, we must make sure we are doing so securely. We will check we have the correct email address for you, by sending a 'test email' first. We will wait for your reply before sending any further information

If you are the patient or parent of a patient under 18:

We will ask your consent before sending you any emails. We will also check you are happy for us to send you patient-identifiable information by email. Although our own email system (NHSmail) is secure, we cannot guarantee that information will still be secure once it arrives in your inbox. Your confidentiality may be at risk if your email account is hacked, or if you forward the email on.

If you are another professional:

We will send emails to other NHS professionals and to addresses ending in .gov.uk using NHS mail as this is fully encrypted end-to-end.

We will send emails to any other professionals as follows:

We will only send to a professional, work email address. We cannot send patient-identifiable information to other professionals via a personal email address (hotmail, gmail, yahoo etc). If you are in an education setting, please let us know the single preferred contact address for your setting.

We send emails using Egress, a secure online server, fully integrated with NHSmail.

You will receive an email inviting you to click a link to view the email (and any attachments) on the online Egress server. Please click the link.

On the landing page, you will be invited to either login (if you already have an Egress account) or register for a free account.

Once registered/logged in, you will be able to view the email and any attachments.

You can download any attachments and save these to your own system, and then print off or forward them to other appropriate staff as indicated on the cc list (or with our additional consent for anyone not already on the cc list).

You cannot download or forward the email itself.

Please do not forward the email invitation to another email address. It will only be accessible via the email address we originally sent it to. Forwarding will trigger an automated request for additional permissions which we may not be able to action. Instead, if another person needs to see the email (rather than just the attachment), please reply to ask us to re-send the email to the new person. We will then send it direct to them and they will need to go through the process above.

If you have any difficulties, please contact the service on 01773 525079.

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Our therapists, practitioners, assistants and admin support workers work together to deliver high quality services for adults and children who have speech, language and communication difficulties; eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties (dysphagia). We work with adults and children, throughout Derbyshire and Derby City.

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What might it feel like to have ADHD?

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This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website.

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SEND tips and advice - BBC Parents' Toolkit - BBC Bitesize

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Activities, advice and personal stories about parenting and special educational needs and disabilities to help you support your family.

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What is dyslexia? - Kelli Sandman-Hurley

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Amazing Things Happen - Autism Explained

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Amazing Things Happen - Autism Explained

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Amazing Things Happen - by Alexander Amelines

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Supporting people across all ages to improve sleep, and provides sleep training to professionals in the health, social and corporate sectors.

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SEND Talk Podcast - Answering most commonly asked questions 

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SEND Talk Podcast - Answering most commonly asked questions 

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The SEND Talk podcast is simple, easy-to-understand, jargon-free advice for parents and carers of children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disability or for young people navigating the world with SEND.

It features those that live and breathe SEND support including experts from here at SENDIASS Manchester and parents who've been through the same hurdles you may be facing. Each episode, together with your host Vic Elizabeth Turnbull, they chat through some of the most common SEND support queries.

If there's a subject you'd like us to discuss in a future episode: email us here.

Listen for free below or on your favourite podcast player including Apple podcasts Spotify Amazon Music. Simply click the links or search 'SEND Talk' wherever you listen!

You'll find full transcriptions of each episode below too.

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We offer information, advice and support to children, young people and parents/carers about special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We are a free, dedicated, confidential and impartial service based in Manchester. We are a statutory service, which is commissioned by Manchester City Council.

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Family Hub - Parent Training and Support (May-July 26)

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Family Hub - Parent Training and Support (May-July 26)

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Family Hub - Parent SEN Support Workshops (April-July 26)

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Family Hub - Parent SEN Support Workshops (April-July 26)

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Information pack on Sleep for Parents-Carers

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Derby City SEND Transition Support for Parents

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Derby City SEND Transition Support for Parents

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What's On Guide for 0-5's - April to Aug 2026 DIGITAL

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Derby City Council, Council House, Corporation Street, Derby, DE1 2FS

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Derby Virtual School - Derby City Council

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Derby Virtual School offers guidance and support for parents, carers, schools and other professionals.

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The Early Help Assessment (EHA) is our local assessment that is used by all agencies working with children and their families in Derby and Derbyshire. The identification of the need for and delivery of Early Help is the responsibility of all agencies who work with children and all agencies accept responsibility by signing up to, and actively engaging with this multi-agency approach. Using an Early Help Assessment can make sure that decisions are made at the earliest opportunity to improve the situation for the child and their family.

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Information about our Ed Psych Service

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Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

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Community paediatricians :: Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

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Community paediatricians are doctors experienced in working with children and young people for an identified health need. Our community paediatricians are specially trained in child health and development. They see children for a wide variety of reasons. It may be to assess:

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Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

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Children’s occupational therapy and physiotherapy :: Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

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Our children’s occupational therapy and physiotherapy teams provide a specialist service to children and young people in Derby and southern Derbyshire who experience difficulties with movement and with daily activities at home and school.

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Childrens speech and language therapy in Derbyshire

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We support children with speech, language, communication or swallowing difficulties in Derby City and the southern half of Derbyshire.

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If you have concerns about a child or young person with special educational needs or disabilities in your school/early years setting, the Specialist Teaching and Psychology Service (STePS) may be able to help.

We have put together a STePS Service Handbook full of information to advise you.

To make a referral to one of the Specialist Teaching Service Teams first check the criteria in the Service Handbook and then complete the STS Referral Form.

If you are making a referral to the Social Communication and Autism Team (SCA Team), please also complete the Part 2 SCA Referral Form.

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Derby City Council, Council House, Corporation Street, Derby, DE1 2FS

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About Specialist Teaching and Psychology Service (STePS)

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If you have concerns about a child or young person with special educational needs or disabilities in your school/early years setting, the Specialist Teaching and Psychology Service (STePS) may be able to help. We have put together a STePS Service Handbook full of information to advise you.

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The ‘Young Minds’ website has tips and advice on how to support your child’s mental health during the pandemic and also has links to external services, which can provide further support and information.

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Transitions and change | Mental Health Parent Guide

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If your child is struggling to cope with transitions and change, read our guide for practical tips and resources designed to help you support them.

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At a glance

Working memory refers to how we hold on to and work with information stored in short-term memory.

Kids use working memory to learn and follow directions.

You can build working memory games into your child's daily life.

Does your child have a hard time keeping one bit of information in mind while doing something else? For example, you're making spaghetti together, and your child's in charge of the sauce. But your child leaves to answer a text and forgets to come back and stir. Working memory challenges can cause trouble with tasks like these.

Working memory refers to how we hold on to and work with information that short-term memory stores. (In the past, the term working memory was used interchangeably with short-term memory.) It's part of a group of skills called executive function.

Kids use working memory all the time to learn. It's needed for things like following multi-step directions or solving a math problem in your head. You can help your child improve working memory by building simple strategies into everyday life.

1. Work on visualization skills.

Encourage kids to create a picture in their mind of what they've just read or heard. For example, say you've asked your child to set the table for five people. Have your child imagine what the table should look like, and then draw it. As kids get better at visualizing, they can describe the image instead of drawing it.

2. Have your child teach you.

Being able to explain how to do something involves making sense of information and mentally filing it. Maybe your child is learning a skill, like how to dribble a basketball. Ask your child to teach you this skill. Teachers do something similar by pairing up students in class. This lets them start working with the information right away rather than waiting to be called on.

3. Try games that use visual memory.

There are lots of matching games that can help kids work on visual memory, like the classic game Concentration (or Memory). You can also do things like give kids a magazine page and ask them to circle all instances of the word the or the letter a. License plates can also be a lot of fun. Take turns reciting the letters and numbers on a license plate and then saying them backwards, too.

Simple card games like Crazy Eights, Uno, Go Fish, and War can improve working memory in two ways. Kids have to keep the rules of the game in mind. They also have to remember what cards they have and which ones other people have played.

5. Encourage active reading.

There's a reason highlighters and sticky notes are so popular: Jotting down notes and underlining or highlighting text can help kids keep the information in mind long enough to answer questions about it. Talking out loud and asking questions about the reading material can also help with working memory. Active reading strategies like these can help with forming long-term memories, too.

6. Chunk information into smaller bites.

Ever wonder why phone numbers and social security numbers have hyphens in them? Because it's easier to remember a few small groups of numbers than it is to remember one long string of numbers. Keep this in mind when you need to give your child multi-step directions. Write them down or give them one at a time. You can also use graphic organizers to help break writing assignments into smaller pieces.

Using multiple senses to process information can help with working memory and long-term memory. Write tasks down so your child can look at them. Say them out loud so your child can hear them. Walk through the house as you discuss the family chores your child needs to complete. Using multisensory strategies can help kids keep information in mind long enough to use it.

8. Help make connections.

Help your child form associations that connect different details and make them more memorable. One way is to grab your child's interest with fun mnemonics. (For instance, the made-up name "Roy G. Biv" can help kids remember the order of the colors in the rainbow - red, orange, yellow, and so on.) Finding ways to connect information helps with forming and retrieving long-term memory. It also helps with working memory, which is what we use to hold and compare new and old memories.

Key takeaways

Teaching kids ways to visualize thoughts can help improve their working memory.

Card games and other fun activities can help build working memory.

Finding ways to connect information can help your child with long-term memory as well as working memory.

About the author

About the author

Amanda Morin is the author of "The Everything Parent's Guide to Special Education" and the former director of thought leadership at Understood. As an expert and writer, she helped build Understood from its earliest days.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Thomas E. Brown, PhD is a clinical psychologist and director of the Brown Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders.

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Working memory games can help kids get better at remembering and using information. Here are eight simple ways to improve working memory in your child.

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Derby SEND | Information & Advice Support Service (SENDIASS)

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Impartial information and advice to parents, carers and young people in Derby City

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Special education needs and disabilities (SEND) information for parents can often be hard to find or difficult to access. To help parents and carers we have bought together some useful national information on key topics below

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SEND information for parents and carers - Family Action

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Special education needs and disabilities (SEND) information for parents can often be hard to find or difficult to access. To help parents and carers we have bought together some useful national information on key topics below. The information below is grouped into categories that the SENDIAS service in your local area would be able to help […]

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SEND tips and advice - BBC Parents' Toolkit - BBC Bitesize

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Activities, advice and personal stories about parenting and special educational needs and disabilities to help you support your family.

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To help with training and support

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The Early Years SEND Partnership brings together a significant amount of training, resources, support and an approach to sharing learning that was tried and tested in an earlier DfE-funded CDC project.

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As a gesture of goodwill I have provided you with 2 FREE weeks of parent support, Sensory & Messy Play Activities to empower children with SEN moderate & severe) during school closures March 2020 due to Covid-19 Worldwide.

An alternative multisensory practical learning approach to online learning & printable worksheets for Pre-school, Early Years & SEN children (Age 2-10 yrs) who need to learn through practical multi-sensory play activities to fully access their learning & regulate their sensory systems during this unprecedented time of school closures.

To empower parents/guardians to feel confident to model & encourage learning through play for a range of ages & abilities (Age 2-10 yrs), I have provided some initial basic training on our 8 senses & sensory play, as well as 8 sensory play activities with a choice of learning objectives for each activity. To fundamentally try to ensure the safety of those children who learn & self-regulate through their heightened oral motor proprioceptive sense & through chewing, tasting or mouthing toys & non-food items, I have taken a great deal of care to try to provide safe activities that will not be hazardous if accidentally eaten, so parents can simply relax during the play activities & enjoy making positive memories together.

It would be lovely if you could share some photos of your fun play experiences so we can all share in the positive experiences together in our empowering little minds community.

Feel free to share & download as many as you want, but I would be grateful if you could follow normal copyright laws & keep all comments as positive as possible. Please be mindful that I am a self-employed Independent Education Consultant & simply just wanted to try to reduce some of your stress of educating from home by empowering you with some of my services, training & expertise I would normally have to charge for.

GOOD LUCK & have fun! Thanks for your support. Please be kind to yourselves as you settle into your parent/teacher role baptism of fire and don't put too many demands on yourselves or your kids as you transition into your new routines. By simply doing multiple sensory movement & music activities throughout each day this will help with self regulation of the sensory system, as well as 1 main sensory play activity or shorter repeated exposure bursts, free play, story time & down time will really help you all create positive memories together. Contact me anytime if you have any questions, you need visual schedule supports or behaviour support. Kind Regards Jude xx (16th March 2020)

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Resources | Empowering Little minds/ N.Ireland, UK/

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As a gesture of goodwill I have provided you with 2 FREE weeks of parent support, Sensory & Messy Play Activities to empower children with SEN moderate & severe) during school closures March 2020 due to Covid-19 Worldwide.

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Derby City Council, Council House, Corporation Street, Derby, DE1 2FS

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Derby City Council, Council House, Corporation Street, Derby, DE1 2FS

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Ambitious about Autism is the national charity for autistic children and young people. We stand with autistic children, young people and their families to champion rights, campaign for change and create opportunities.

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A useful video to help you talk to children about

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Being on the autistic spectrum is different for everyone and, as Sumita explains here, there are a lot of misconceptions about how they might be. Pablo's Art World friends represent some of the personality traits or ways of behaving that often occur in autism.
Watching Pablo together can be a useful starting point for talking to your child about how their own friends or relatives with ASD might see the world. Play Pablo's Art World Adventure together to find out more about each of the characters.

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Pablo - Talking to your child about autism

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If your child has a classmate, friend or relative with autism, it can be difficult for them to understand exactly what this means. With a little help from children, families and voice actors involved in Pablo, we've collected some ideas for starting a conversation about ASD with your little one.

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A series of programmes looking at people with Autism

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Chris Packham helps autistic people connect with their friends and family in a new way.

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NCMH (National Centre for Mental Health)

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Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

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The School Nursing Service aims to involve families and young people in how resources are effectively targeted in the future. This year we are working with The Lancaster Model to offer an electronic health questionnaire to help us to achieve this. You can find more information here at the Lancaster Model website.

This work supports Public Health England's Healthy Child Programme and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

By completing the questionnaire, you will not only help us to plan services for the future for all children, but also make sure your child gets the health and well-being support they may need as early as possible.

We started this process with the Reception class. Parents completed the questionnaire using a link which sent via a letter from school. From April 2022 we will focus on Year 6. Pupils will complete the questionnaire themselves, but information for parents will be sent out beforehand. We will be arranging to attend your child's school while they complete the questionnaire online, to help them with any queries or questions that may come up on the day.

Later in the year the questionnaire will be sent to mid teens for the young people to complete.

Opting your child out of the questionnaire completion

We would like to hear from every child about their health and wellbeing, however if you wish to opt your child out, please could you let us know in writing within two weeks of receiving the letter from yor child's school, or by email to dmh-tr.ChildFamily-Derby@nhs.net. Please ensure you write 'Opting out of Year 6 TLM questionnaire' on the top of the letter, and you must state your child's full name, date of birth and school on your letter/email.

If you have any queries about the questionnaire please call the School Nursing Team on 0300 1234586 and select option 3, or contact them as detailed above.

Although anonymous information from the questionnaire may be shared with other agencies to improve services, all personal information collected will be treated as confidential. A member of the School Nursing Team may contact you following completion of the questionnaire to offer health advice, information and support if required.

For more information take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions.

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School Nursing Team Support :: Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

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The School Nursing Service aims to involve families and young people in how resources are effectively targeted in the future. This year we are working with The Lancaster Model to offer an electronic health questionnaire to help us to achieve this. You can find more information here at the Lancaster Model website.