Edvocation® Services aims:
- To provide a responsive and where possible proactive service which will enable education providers to meet their statutory duties and obligations, and to follow legislative guidance, where a child or young person has or may have Special Educational Needs and/or disability/s that may require Special Educational Provision within the Children and Families Act (2014); Equality Act (2010); Teachers Standards (2012); SEND Code of Practice (2015).
- To enable parent/carers to make informed choices on support, interventions and approaches using robust evidence and advice on a young person's strengths and challenges in interactions and communication, learning and cognition, sensory processing and social, emotional and mental health.
- To support and/or lead a coordinated approach between professionals in education, health and social care agencies, and families in identifying and raising awareness of a young person’s profile across or within the broad areas of need identified within the SEND Code of Practice (2015); and in planning and implementing appropriate approaches to allow for a child/young person to engage and participate in curriculum and social learning activities within their setting.
- To deliver relevant training, advice and mentorship that enables knowledge and understanding of issues relating to SEND to be developed, planned for, and actioned.
- To empower children and young people to access curriculum and social opportunities fundamental to their development of their sense of self, social, emotional, and learning progress, improving outcomes and reaching their potential as part of their journey to adulthood.
Edvocation® Services will provide:
- Consultants with professional qualification and membership of professional bodies in the relevant areas of need to undertake consultancy, assessment, training, and outreach intervention.
- Staff with enhanced DBS status and who are registered with the DBS update service and who carry identification with them.
Bookings for services are made as Client acknowledgement and acceptance of the Service Level Agreement. In accepting commissioned work, the Parties of Edvocation® Services Ltd and the Client agree as follows:
- The parties agree to do everything necessary to ensure that the terms of this agreement take effect.
- The Client will notify Associated Individuals/Parties [Associates] of Edvocation® Services involvement.
- The Client will identify themselves or an authorised representative to be responsible for the arrangement of payment of service fees prior to work being undertaken.
- Where work has been commissioned by a Client who functions as a service provider, Associates invited to contribute to the assessment process, will have agreed to do everything necessary to ensure that the terms and conditions of this agreement and timescales are met.
- The consent of an individual who holds parental responsibility of the child/young person is required prior to the gathering of personal data and assessment.
- Communication between the Client/s and consultant is agreed as being through email and/or telephone and/or virtual meeting platform and/or an organised face to face meeting.
- To protect the fairness of assessments from being compromised, prior to assessments being undertaken, Edvocation® Services will be informed of any impending, current, or recent – within the past 12 months – psychoeducational and/or clinical testing being conducted.
- Information provided by Clients and Associates is understood by Edvocation® Services to be taken in good faith and to be accurate at the point of assessment.
- Where an Edvocation® Service Consultant, Advisor, the Client, or Associate is unable to attend a consultation meeting or assessment visit, they will use their best endeavours to notify the other Party prior to the scheduled start time.
Terms and Conditions
Autonomy:
- Edvocation® consultant/s will have full control over working time, methods, and decision making in relation to provision of their services. The consultant/s will work autonomously and not at the direction of the Client/Associate/s. However the consultant/s will be responsive to the reasonable needs and concerns of the Client/Associate/s.
- In providing the services under this agreement, it is expressly agreed that the consultant is acting as an independent contractor and not as an employee. The consultant and the Client acknowledge that this agreement does not create a partnership or joint venture between them and is exclusively a contract for service.
- Except as otherwise provided in this agreement, Edvocation® Service Ltd may, at the consultants absolute discretion, engage a third-party subcontractor to perform some of or all of the obligations of the consultant under this agreement.
- In the event that the consultant hires a subcontractor the consultant will pay the subcontractor for its service and the compensation will remain payable by the Client to the consultant for the purposes of the indemnification clause of this agreement, the subcontractor is an agent of the consultant.
Administration:
- It is the responsibility of Client/s and where appropriate Associate/s, to arrange and provide the information requested from them by Edvocation® Services within the stipulated timeframes unless agreed in writing with the consultant. The late return of information will invalidate timeframe guidance and will be processed with due regard for Edvocation® Services diary availability.
- Documents generated from visits, such as assessment reports, are issued to the Client within 45 working school days of a consultant having received requested information from parties or the date of visit – whichever occurs the latest. Assessment findings reflect the information provided by the Client and Associates at the point of assessment.
- Edvocation® Services, Client and Associates are individually responsible for taking reasonable steps to ensure effective communication - such as checking inboxes on a regular basis - this includes 'junk'/'spam' filters.
- Where a work has been commissioned by an education provider/local authority Client a copy of the report issued by Edvocation® Services will be distributed by the Client to the young person’s parent/carer within 5 school working days of the Client being in its receipt.
- Where a work has been commissioned by a parent/carer, it is advised that, at the discretion of the Client findings are shared with relevant professionals, such as SENCo/class teacher/GP to inform understandings, interventions, and next steps.
- Administration service charges will be applied, and prior payment required – such as with regard to the re-issue of documents, and/or in the event of amendments to details and information falling outside of 30 school working days of assessment documents being issued to the Client.
- Advisory meetings following the issue of a report made outside of 15 working days of report issue from Edvocation® Services or made outside of allocated diary times advised within the on-line booking service, will incur a consultancy charge.
- Face to Face advisory meetings will be charged at consultancy plus travel rates.
- Where reports or attendance are required as part of requests for statutory assessment, annual, interim, or emergency review (SEND Code of Practice, 2015) appropriate notification is given to Edvocation® Services.
- In the instance of it being necessary for virtual assessment to be undertaken with the child, an appropriate adult is present within the setting.
- Where the venue for a training session is that of the Client, the Client is responsible for ensuring the venue is appropriately organised, for example café style arranged seating, and that IT provision is supplied. Access to the training room is requested to be available before the session is to take place. This is to check compatibility and effectiveness of the equipment provided
Intellectual Property Rights:
- All intellectual property and related material [the intellectual property] that is developed or produced under this agreement will be the property of the consultant. The Client is granted a non-exclusive limited use licence of this intellectual property. Limited use is determined as 12 months from the point of issue.
- Titled, copyrights, intellectual property rights and distribution rights of the intellectual property remain exclusively with the consultant.
Confidentiality:
- Confidential information [the confidential information] refers to any data or information relating to the business of the Client which would reasonably be considered to be the property of the Client where the release of that confidential information could reasonably be expected to cause harm to the Client. The Client/Associate are responsible for making such information clear as appropriate to them.
- Edvocation® Services consultant/s agrees that they will not disclose, divulge, reveal, report or use, for any purpose, any confidential information which the consultant has obtained, except as authorised by the Client or as required by law. The obligations of confidentiality will apply during the term and will survive indefinitely upon termination of this agreement.
- All written and oral information and material disclosed or provided by the Clients/Associates to the consultant under this agreement is confidential information regardless of whether it was provided before or after the date of this agreement, or how it was provided to the consultant.
- Documents will be sent via GDPR compliant encrypted emails unless it has been confirmed in writing that the Client wishes to receive unencrypted information.
- Consent for data collection and storage will be attained through written consent of Clients over the age of 13 years. For young people under the age of 13 years parental/carer/guardian consent is required.
- Information will stored electronically on encrypted equipment.
- When working within an educational provision, a space to consult with key staff/child/young person/ parent/carer without interruption will be allocated. This space is required to be is quiet and confidential and where the people present have been invited to be there by agreement with the school and consultant.
- For more information on Information will stored electronically on encrypted equipment. You may request access to information stored about you from Dr. Angela Willis. Information on GPDR can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation.
Non-attendance and unexpected absence:
- Edvocation® Services will contact the Client/s as soon as possible in the instance of unavoidable delay or cancellation of an appointment.
- Where a service and/or programme has been commissioned appropriate notice by the person who has commissioned the service or their authorised representative, is required in the instance of anticipated/planned/known absence.
- When a pupil is absent who has been referred for assessment/is being supported in an intervention programme organised by Edvocation® Services, appropriate notice is required to avoid unnecessary travel.
- Failure to inform Edvocation® Services when there could have been appropriate notice given (e.g. school trips, prolonged or afternoon absence) will result in the planned session still being invoiced. Notification via email and/or telephone call to leave a message is requested.
- Instances of appropriate notice include: school trips, prolonged or afternoon absence.
- Appropriate notice of non-attendance is considered as no less than 24 hours of the scheduled appointment start time. Failure to inform Edvocation® Services when there could have been appropriate notice given will result in the planned session still being invoiced.
- Appropriate notice of unexpected absence is considered to be no later than 1 hour prior to the scheduled appointment start time. Failure to inform Edvocation® Services when there could have been appropriate notice given will result in the planned session still being invoiced.
- Notifications of non-attendance or unexpected absence for scheduled face to face appointments which fall outside that of appropriate notice, will incur a charge for professional time and travel. This is a fee of £80/hour plus mileage to and from the venue. This is charged at 0.52p/mile. For on-line platform or telephone consultation, a period of 15 minutes grace will be given. Non-attendance will be considered a missed appointment. Re-bookings of missed appointments will be at the discretion and diary availability of Edvocation® Services. A re-booking fee of £30 will be charged to the Client.
Termination of agreement and completion of commissioned work:
- Termination of agreement between the Client and provider is agreed as the receipt of fees and issuing of report in a standalone tariff arrangement; at the end of the academic year or when the final report for a package has been issued – whichsoever occurs the soonest. In signing the agreement the Client is agreeing they are in a position of authority to do and to make payment.
- Where a Client does not return the information within the timeframe requested of them by Edvocation® Services to enable the assessment process to be completed, termination of agreement will be made after a period of 28 days (the 28 days’ notice).
- In the event that this agreement is terminated by the Client prior to completion of the services but where the services have been partially performed the consultants will be entitled to pro rata payment of the payment to the date of termination provided that there has been no breach of contract on the part of the consultant.
- In the event that this agreement is terminated by Edvocation® Services following the 28 days’ notice, Edvocation® Services reserve the right to retain the service fee.
- Packages are valid for the academic year they were purchase in. To ensure sessions can be completed within Summer Term of an academic year, booking requests must be submitted to Edvocation® Services no later than the last Friday before summer half term. Edvocation® Services will use best endeavours to arrange bookings; if this is not possible then unused purchases may be forfeited. Purchases cannot be carried over into the following academic year.
Payment terms:
- Except as otherwise provided in this agreement all monetary amounts referred to in this agreement are in GBP.
- Payment in full is required prior to work being undertaken unless an invoice agreement has been authorised by Edvocation® Services. Invoices submitted by the consultant to the Client are due by bank transfer within 30 days of the invoice.
- Interest payable on any overdue amounts under the agreement is charged at the rate of 10.0% per annum or at the maximum enforceable under applicable legislation whichever is lower.
- A fixed fee is applied in the instance a service programme has been commissioned. No waiver is given for missed sessions from Client/Associate/s absence; re-organisation of missed sessions is at the discretion of the consultant or advisor and their diary availability.
- Where the venue for a training session is that of the Client, the Client is responsible for ensuring the venue is appropriately organised, for example café style arranged seating, and that IT provision is supplied. Access to the training room is requested to be available before the session is to take place. This is to check compatibility and effectiveness of the equipment provided.
Informed Consent:
Please read this carefully so that you can make an informed decision about your own, and the child’s participation in our services and activities.
Your role:
To be able to freely agree to our involvement, it is important that you know who we are, why we have been asked to be involved, how we work, the purpose, processes and outcomes of our involvement and activities.
We are providing you with this information as we have been advised that either:
- you hold parental responsibility for the child/young person
Under family law (Children Act, 1989; Section 3), parental responsibility means all the legal rights and duties, powers, responsibilities and authority that a parent has in relation to the child.
A person with parental responsibility can make decisions about the child’s upbringing and is entitled to information about the child. For example, they can give consent to their medical treatment and make decisions about their education. They also have the right to receive information about their health and education.
And/or:
- you are a child or young person who is aged 13 years or older
Under the principles of the UK General Data Protection Regulations 2018 (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, a child or young adult can assume control of their personal information and restrict access to it from the age of 13.
And/or:
Under The Education Act (1996; Section 576) you have care of the child or young person if they live with you either full or part time and you look after them, irrespective of what your biological or legal relationship is with the child.
About Edvocation Services:
This document outlines key information to help you decide on giving your agreement for Edvocation Services to be involved with your child. This may be through our assessment, advisory, support, and consultancy services, and/or intervention services. We require informed consent from a person who holds parental responsibility or who cares for the child before we undertake any of our services. Where a child is aged 13 years or older, we also require their agreement for us to be involved.
Who we are:
Edvocation Services is an Independent Special Educational Needs and Inclusion Consultancy:
- We are a specialist team who work in the field of early years to post 16 education across independent, mainstream, specialist and alternative education settings.
- We regularly undertake educational assessments, provide advice, support, and consultancy services, and run interventions and training sessions when we are requested to do so by schools, parents, and Local Authorities.
- Our team is made up of qualified Educational Practitioners and a Consultant who are experienced professionals, trained in special educational and additional learning needs, legal, and inclusion matters. We also have practitioners who are qualified in undertaking Diagnostic Assessments for Specific Learning Difficulties, such as Dyslexia.
- Our Director and Education Consultant is Dr Angela Willis. She is a Chartered Psychologist, qualified and experienced teacher, holds a Doctoral Degree in Education (Special Educational Needs, Disabilities and Inclusion), and whose research was also awarded the Vic Finklestein Award for Health and Social Care. Dr Angela Willis is also trained in the use of ADOS and ADIR assessments for Autism when working within a clinical team and holds an Assessment Practising Certificate for professional competence in the assessment of specific learning difficulties/dyslexia.
- All our educational practitioners have worked in schools, hold Qualified Teacher Status, Enhanced DBS, and take part in Child Safeguarding Training.
Why we have been asked to be involved:
A request for Edvocation Services involvement regarding your child due to inclusion or statutory assessment issues or processes, and/or concerns around educational needs and abilities and/or emotional, social behaviours. To be involved we require your informed consent. This means that you have sufficient information to be able to freely make a choice about our involvement, that you understand your role and that of the child, your right to withdraw from the process at any point, and that you have read and understood our privacy policy on how we use your information and that of the child.
How we work:
Edvocation Services take a holistic approach to understanding the learning experiences of each child. This allows their unique needs, preferences, and strengths to be explored. This is in particular regard to how they think, communicate and relate to others, build relationships, recognise and regulate their emotions, and interpret and respond to the environment around them.
The Children and Families Act (2014) [England]/ The Additional Learning Needs and Educational Tribunal Act (2018) [Wales] provide the legislative framework of our assessment, advice, support and consultancy services. We are also guided by further legislation, such as the Education Act (1996), and supporting documents, for example the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice (2015).
Fees for our services are charged to the person/organisation who has requested our involvement and commissioned our services by signing our Service Level Agreement.
Where a virtual assessment is needed to be undertaken, this is done so with the agreement of a key adult being present with the child/young person for the duration of the tasks required.
The purpose, processes and outcomes of our involvement and activities:
Edvocation Services provide assessments, advisory, support, and consultancy, and intervention services. Please read the information relevant to the service which has been requested. Assessment Services:
Our assessments are for educational purposes and are not diagnostic unless stipulate. In some instances assessments may provide indicators of symptoms associated with conditions which could warrant onward referral such as to neurodevelopmental clinical pathways in Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Typically our assessments include:
Purpose/s:
We have a range of assessment service options:
- To find out more about the child’s abilities and needs and the implication of these on their education and learning
- To review child’s current abilities and needs and the implication of these on their education and learning
- To provide advice, next-steps, and recommendation outcomes to develop learning opportunities, abilities, and skills which reflect the child’s unique profile.
Types of assessments we may use:
Our assessments explore the four broad areas of need identified in the Special Educational Needs & Disabilities [SEND] Code of Practice (2015)/ Additional Learning Needs [ALN] Code for Wales (2021). These areas are:
- Social, Emotional, and Mental Health [England]/ Behaviour, Emotional, and Social development [Wales]
- Communication and Interaction
Our assessments also take into account a range of factors that may be contributing to learning preferences, strengths, and challenges–such as cognitive, academic, attentional, interactional, and socio-emotional aspects.
To best understand the individual’s preferences, strengths, and challenges in learning, we may use:
- standardised assessments. These are tasks which are follow and scored in a consistent way. This means that we can compare individual scores with those of other children of a similar age.
- non-standardised assessments. These tasks allow us to gain information in a more flexible and personalised way as they do not require comparisons to be made. Examples include observations, game-like activities, conversations.
- psycho-educational assessments. These are comprehensive, individualised activities which include a variety of tasks and resources to evaluate different aspects of abilities and challenges. For example cognitive, academic, and social-emotional skills.
- screening assessments. These are initial evaluations which can give indications of the individual’s thinking, social-emotional, communication, and sensory differences.
- diagnostic assessments for Specific Learning Difficulties. These are more detailed assessments used to pinpoint specific areas of difficulty after a potential issue has been identified.
We adopt and apply the following definition of learning to the assessment information we gather across each area of need. Learning is:
‘The acquisition of novel information, behaviours, or abilities after practice, observation, or other experiences, as evidenced by change in behaviour, knowledge, or brain function. Learning involves consciously or non-consciously attending to relevant aspects of incoming information, mentally organizing the information into a coherent cognitive representation, and integrating it with relevant existing knowledge activated from long-term memory.’ [APA Dictionary of Psychology]
The information we gain from the assessments we use is important to what is understood about the child and how support to develop their abilities is planned and put in place.
Our Processes:
Actions:
- To gather information on the child’s strengths and challenges in learning which they may be facing from key adults. This includes information from referral forms, formal documents/reports, completion of questionnaires (these may be digital or paper-based) and parent/carer/practitioner conversation.
- To gather information on the child’s abilities and needs by undertaking appropriate activities and tasks to make an assessment of the child’s educational needs and abilities – for example working directly with the child on tasks on a one-to-one basis; working indirectly with the child, such as observing them in different activities and/or contexts.
Our Processes:
Assessment Activities:
- Associate Practitioners use a range of activities and tasks with the child to ascertain the nature and extent of their needs and abilities. These may include the use of psycho-educational, standardised and non-standardised assessment activities.
- Activities are determined by the assessment service that has been purchased. Activities are child-led and may last from 1-4 hours.
- Practitioner, Parent Advisors review the current situation, experiences, and concerns with key adults from documents provides, such as from parent/carer/practitioners, along with historical, familial, educational information. This includes offer of a virtual or telephone conversation.
- Practitioner, Parent Advisor time allocations are dependent on the assessment service that has been purchased. Additional time is charged on an advisory, support or consultancy basis as agreed between parties.
- The analysis of the information available to us over the assessment timeframe informs us of the nature and extent of educational needs and ability of the child. This provides the basis of the suggestions and strategies we make. These are not an exhaustive list but rather reflect the types and amounts of high-quality provision that are appropriately matched to the types and complexity of SEND that the child may be described as experiencing.
Outcomes:
A written document/s provided will be determined by the type of assessment which has been purchased and undertaken. The document/s will be provided to the person/organisation who made the referral for the assessment. It is advised that the document/s are shared and discussed by parent/carer/s and key adults in the education setting. Written document/s typically:
- Give specific information on the child’s needs and abilities
- Provide advice on activities and actions to help the child in school/educational setting
- May support application for higher needs funding from the Local Authority where recommended
- Offer evidence of the duty of ‘best endeavours’ and graduated response to support Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment Request to the Local Authority where relevant
- Guide signposting to Early Help/Local Offer services where relevant– such as community support groups, parent support.
- Support signposting to specialist services where appropriate – such as clinical referral routes
- Advisory, Support and Consultancy Services:
Edvocation Services offer different options to empower parent/carer/s and practitioners when facing inclusion and SEND/ALN issues in education. We do this through our advisory, support, and consultancy services:
Purpose:
Consultancy Service:
To case-manage SEND issues and processes Parents and Practitioners are experiencing. Examples include:
- Attendance at Independent Review Panels in cases of school exclusion
- Attendance meetings: Multi-agency /CAMHS/Social Care
- Correspondence and report reading (three to five documents)
- Preparation and submission of Education, Health and Care Plan Needs Assessment [EHCNA] to Local Authorities
- Applications to Local Authority for Higher Needs Funding
- Review of Local Authority decision not to assess or not to issue Education, Health and Care Plans
- Response to Local Authority unlawful decisions – for instance with regard to Children and Families Act, 2014 and/or Education Act,1996
- Review and Advice on compliance for EHC Plan Drafts and issued EHC Plan
- Preparation for mediation and appealing to SEND Tribunals
- Representation for: refusal to assess; refusal to issue; contents of EHC Plans; timeline compliance; judicial review; SEND tribunals
- Disability Living Allowance/Personal Independence Payment Applications
Our Processes: Case Management:
Typically:
- Psychologist Education Consultant Led – trained in SEND Law, ADOS and ADIR assessment use
- Allocation of SEND Law Trained and Inclusion Associate Practitioner
Our Processes: Way of Working:
This may be:
- Face to Face Appointments
- Written record, documents prepared, and responses sent on your behalf
Outcomes:
These are individual and dependent on the nature of the consultancy. For example an Education, Health and Needs Assessment Request is approved by the Local Education Authority; Parent/Carer and/or Practitioner have a clear understanding of legal processes and feel confident that their views are being accurately expressed.
Purpose:
Support Service:
To empower Parents and Practitioners to navigate SEND issues and processes. Examples include:
- Review of individual situation
- Correspondence and report reading (two documents)
- Collating Individual Pupil Passport (or similar)
- Drafting referrals to services – such as CAMHS; Early Help
- Drafting requests to educational, health and care services
- Drafting appeal applications to SEND Tribunal
- Attendance at meetings – for example annual reviews
- SENCo and training SENCo support
Our Processes:
Case Management:
- SEND Inclusion Associate Practitioner Led – trained in SEND Law with SENCo qualification and/or experience in leading Learning Support
Our Processes: Way of Working:
This may be:
- Face to Face Appointments
- Written record and document templates/drafts
Outcomes:
These are individual to the nature of support that has been requested. For instance, the parent/carer and/or practitioner feel confident to represent their views, challenge unlawful decisions, and question information about the child provided in reports and documents.
Purpose:
Advisory Service:
To enable Parents/Practitioners to make informed choices with regard to SEND issues and processes. Examples include:
- Individual guidance on most appropriate next steps and/or actions based on your situation and conversation regarding possible educational and/or clinical pathways
- Guidance on the Graduated Approach to SEND
- Advice on the Education, Health, and Care Needs Assessment Requests and processes
- Correspondence /report reading (one document)
- Guidance on SEND Tribunal procedure
- Advice on Annual Review process
- Advice and Information on mediation and appealing to the SEND Tribunal
Our Processes:
Case Management:
- Allocation of SEND and Inclusion Associate Practitioner
Our Processes:
Way of working:
This may be:
Outcomes:
These are subject to the nature of the advice being sought. Parent/carer and/or Practitioner have a clear understanding of the actions they can take to address their individual situation.
Intervention Services:
Purpose:
Our intervention services are bespoke and developed around the child. This might include what they feel about themselves, what they understand about how they think about the world and perceive themselves in their relationships, how they manage conflict and difficult emotions, as well as challenges they are experiencing where these are impacting on their daily activities. For example:
- emotional wellbeing and relationships
- mood and behavioural regulation and abilities to meet expectations of the context they are in
- curriculum learning, engagement, and progress
- social awareness, understandings, and responses
Our Processes:
Information requested:
Initial information about family, developmental, clinical, educational background and current concerns is requested through:
- Child/Young Person home information form completed by parent/carer
- Child/Young Person education information form completed by key adult/s in setting
Where a profiling assessment is requested, digital and/or paper based questionnaires may be required to be completed by the child and/or parent/carer and/or key adult in education setting.
Our Processes:
Weekly intervention:
Typically up to two scheduled blocks per academic year are advised. For some children follow-up sessions of 20 minutes may be recommended following the competition of a scheduled block. Scheduled blocks take place during term-time:
- Run as 6-8 weeks scheduled blocks of 40 – 60 minutes sessions.
- Range of activities undertaken face to face in educational setting
Our Processes:
Documents:
- Running Record of session activities and/or key themes which have emerged are provided within the cost of this service
Our Processes:
Additional Options:
Options which may be purchased as an add-on fee include:
- profiling assessment and written report to gain insight on areas to target intervention programme with outline of advice for school staff.
- written summary report of progress and advice on potential next steps following period of intervention.
- 30 mins virtual parent/professional meeting for verbal feedback and advice per 6-week block of intervention
Outcomes:
These are individual to the child or young person. Outcomes maybe reported by parent/carer and/or school staff, and/or child or young person and recorded as improvements based on initial concerns and/or from baseline assessment measures.
