Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs)
We’ve got a new EHCP template for Torbay.
This innovative template is the result of a collaborative effort with parents, carers, young people, educational settings and other key stakeholders.
It includes dedicated sections on preparing for adulthood, ensuring that all children and young people can start planning for their future independence from any age.
This means we no longer need multiple templates in the system, streamlining the process and making it more efficient for everyone involved.
In 2025, the template will be rolled out to all new EHCPs. It will then be used for existing plans in the following academic year.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this important project. Together, we are making a positive difference in the lives of our young people.
If you’re worried about your child’s needs and think they might need an EHCP, you can request a Next Steps meeting.
We’re offering these meetings before you submit a request for a statutory assessment.
Contact your school’s SENCo about a Next Steps meeting.
Would your child like more independence getting to and from school?
If so, you may be interested to hear about a new free service our SEND team is introducing.
Independent Travel Training (ITT) is for young people with special educational needs who currently use assisted transport.
The training aims to help them access public transport independently, preparing them for adulthood.
Our one-to-one training will promote the importance of understanding road safety and personal safety and ensure travel opportunities are available to children and young people with SEND.
They’ll learn vital practical skills like handling money, reading timetables, interacting socially with bus drivers and other passengers, personal safety and much more.
The training will help them with their journey to school but will also benefit them in their leisure time, allowing them to travel independently at evenings and weekends.
 Who can refer?
If you’re a parent or carer, you can refer your child for the travel training. SENCos are also able to refer. The dedicated trainer will carry out an initial assessment before accompanying the young person on their journey to and from school for three weeks – this is their training.
We ran a successful trial earlier in the year – the child involved was on a shared taxi service provided by the transport team. He can now get the public bus independently to school.
Your child won’t be signed off the course until everyone (learner, parents and support staff) are happy with the progress made.
We’ve currently got just one trainer carrying out the training so if your child is accepted on the course, it’s highly likely there will be a waiting time of several weeks or months.
Please email ITT@Torbay.gov.uk for a referral form. There is more information on our website.
Focus on Autism
Help is available if your child has autism. We’re developing a neurodiversity programme for all – whether or not you’re on a waiting list and whether or not your child has been diagnosed.
In addition to this, children who need to be on the early child development pathway provided by Children and Family Health Devon (CFHD), will have access to the Early Bird Plus programme if prescribed by the professionals as part of the specialist intervention/ planned interventions while on this pathway.
CFHD will be supporting the new Torbay neurodiversity parent programmes alongside colleagues from educational psychology. As this starts to gain momentum, we’ll be looking to review and develop a more current programme than Early Bird Plus, which will be open access.
Autism resources
Meet Lorraine O'Callaghan
 Lorraine O'Callaghan
Hopefully, as the new principal educational psychologist in Torbay, I am already a familiar face to many schools, settings and families, having been a main grade educational psychologist here for nearly ten years.
I have worked at a number of South West councils and before training for my role, I had a diverse range of experiences within the education sector.
These included working in an English language kindergarten in South Korea, work experience placements supporting young adults with learning disabilities and teaching for five years in the youth justice system.
The educational psychology team in Torbay are continuing to embed a consultation-led service delivery this academic year and we are keen to know how this is being received. Recent feedback from schools has been very positive and this year we will be seeking the views of parents to help inform how we work.
My team and I look forward to working with you all over the next academic year.
Speech, language and communication (SLC)
Professionals are working together with parents and carers to ensure they and their children are able to access the support they need when they need it.
Speech and language therapists have been working with colleagues to collate and promote information and resources related to SLC on the Family Hub website. Parents and carers have been reviewing and providing feedback on this. The updated site is due to go live next month.
In addition, therapists and the early years language consultant have been delivering training to practitioners within schools and settings so they can support parents and carers to identify when children may be having difficulties with their SLC development and put in place timely and effective support.
It’s great to see that our coffee mornings for parents and carers of early years children are so popular. During these sessions, parents and carers have an opportunity to find out more about our Chat, Play, Read approaches that can be used at home.
More details on how to get involved will be shared in the early years newsletter that we circulate to all those currently on our contact list. This will soon be available for all parents / carers to sign up for via our communications team.
Over the next couple of months, therapists within CFHD will be working with education colleagues to identify and develop opportunities to strengthen their offer to schools and settings.
Supported Internships (SIs)
Three young people are getting a taste of the world of work after starting SIs with two alternative providers.
Sound Communities and the Mare and Foal Sanctuary have agreed to support these young people, acting as both employer and education provider.
A supported internship is an education programme in a workplace setting that helps young people with disabilities transition from school to employment.
The SEND team has commissioned a video filmed, produced and starring young people who are doing or have done supported internships. If you know a young person who is an intern who would like to participate, let us know.
You can email EHCP@torbay.gov.uk.
 Family at Fair Play Day
Have your say on proposed improvements to education services
We’re proposing to work with local partners on a new locality-based model to drive area-wide improvements to mainstream inclusion and education.
This will ensure the needs of children and young people aged five to 18 years who have high needs are sufficiently planned and provided for.
It should also mean more consistent provision for children who are medically unwell to attend school and may also help reduce suspensions and exclusions.
The new proposal sees education settings organised into collaborative clusters, including:
- schools
- parents/carers
- Torbay Council
- the NHS
- other local service providers
If you have any questions about the consultation, email Localityconsultation@torbay.gov.uk
The consultation closes on 8 December.
You can also sign up for one of two online events to learn more about the plans.
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