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For many Directors of Children’s Services and SEND leads, Education, Health, and Care Plans have increasingly become a time-intensive administrative minefield, many quality assurance processes are failing to detect where plans are falling short and improvements need to be made.
👉 Inconsistency of standards. Without a clear definition of “what good practice should look like.” Too often, EHCPs vary widely in clarity, specificity and actionable outcomes.
👉 Multi-agency input is essential but hard to benchmark due to fragmented contributors. Without clear oversight, it’s difficult for leaders to quickly see which professionals or teams need support or training.
👉 Reporting is time intensive as well as an inspection risk. Compiling evidence for performance meetings or Ofsted visits consumes days of staff time and still leaves gaps in the audit trail. This means that services can become exposed when EHCP quality is flagged as a systemic weakness.
Our EHCP QA module offers a pragmatic way to overcome these problems. By using a single, evidence-aligned QA platform, subjective judgment can be transformed into measurable standards and live benchmarking.
More than 50 local authorities have now invested in the module, including Southwark Council.
To help you understand how the module delivers exceptional support in practice, it’s important to understand the challenges that Southwark had before partnering with Invision360.
Like many SEND teams, Southwark Council faced the daily pressure of having to do more work with less time, budget and clarity. They are responsible for 3,640 active EHCPs, and the team constantly feel the strain of that responsibility.
Before using our module, Southwark had limited and subjective processes in place which allowed them to facilitate effective quality assurance of their EHCPs.
This was causing them problems because:
👉 They couldn’t benchmark any progress in EHCP quality. They knew they needed to improve, but they didn’t know how or where to start.
👉 Reporting capabilities were limited and time-intensive.
👉They had no way of scaling up the workload of auditing as and when volume demanded.
Combined with a period of team instability and lack of investment it was clear that this gap needed to be urgently addressed.
A change in leadership highlighted the need to implement a system quickly, which would prioritise quality assurance and identify areas for improvement.
In September 2024, a new role was created specifically for a SEND Audit and Learning Lead to embed quality assurance processes. This recruit became responsible for developing and coordinating all SEND QA activities, including collating findings, reporting on progress and monitoring learning and development outcomes.
This new appointment coincided with the integration of Invision360’s EHCP QA module, allowing Southwark to benefit from a monthly quality assurance cycle that provides real-time insights while benchmarking performance and progress. From the outset, there was a strong focus on engaging multi-agency participants in the audit team. Subsequently, they developed a Quality Assurance Framework that outlined additional QA processes, both in collaboration with Invision360 and independently, such as the quality assurance of advice.
The clear direction from the new leadership team was to create a structured approach which would allow them to audit EHCP quality. The complexity of multi-agency reporting meant that any specific module needed to have immediate benefits which had been verified and recommended by others, with evidence of impact.
Southwark chose to partner with Invision360 due to our collaborative approach. They trusted that we weren’t just going to provide access to a software solution and walk away. We were there to become a trusted partner and facilitate ways for them to become directly involved in the modules’ development.
From the very outset, it was clear that progress needed to be made as the initial audit showed the scale of the challenge.
A significant proportion of the EHCPs required development to support compliance. Insights from the module drilled down so that the new SEND Audit and Learning Lead could see precisely where those gaps in quality were emerging, this was beneficial because it allowed Southwark to see where the immediate priorities and quick wins were.
It also gave them a benchmark to measure their progress from.
Southwark now has an ongoing KPI target to ensure that 80% of EHCPs are graded Silver or above by January 2026, which they are on track to do.
Southwark has seen remarkable results since implementing the EHCP module.
Southwark’s improvement data over 10 auditing cycles shows they are on track with their KPIs
The Southwark SEND team have completed 10 auditing cycles over 12 months. They have seen continual improvements being made across the entire plan, which is now showing in their results.
Since the initial benchmarking audit, Southwark Council has recorded a 20% increase in plans graded as ‘Silver’ in quality.
The proportion of EHCPS graded as having “significant gaps” has reduced by 42% in one year.
Southwark has achieved this remarkable turnaround by collaborating more effectively with multi-agency auditors to moderate and identify key areas for development. The clear identification of quick wins meant that the SEND team knew where to prioritise immediate changes as well as longer-term improvement plans. Quick wins are such as standard compliance statements in plan templates and established a plan writers’ checklist of ‘Good’ criteria, which makes it easier to include the right information from the outset.
Longer term improvement plans include training and development programmes:
👉 SENCOs in relation to Annual Reviews
👉 CSC in relation to providing advice for EHCNA requests (introducing new process, quality and timeliness)
👉 Plan writers in relation to drafting plans
👉 SEND Team managers in relation to QA of draft plans
👉 All stakeholders in relation to SMART outcomes
There has been a 40% improvement in quality in the social care advice section (section D)
The initial baseline audit showed that social care advice was only being routinely included in EHCPs for children known to the service. The Designated Social Care Officer has now embedded advice requests into the CSC work system for all children or young people.
In cases where there were no additional needs, the use of standard compliance statements has been used to improve transparency. This means that reports are no longer downgraded due to a non-applicable section and clarifies that children’s social care services have been involved in the decision making. This hasn’t been an overnight change; it’s taken some time.
The team are now better placed to identify where improvements still need to be made. They also have documentable proof to show where improvements in quality have been made to celebrate and how that is aligning with better outcomes for children and young people.
Real-time reporting means that they are perfectly prepared at a moment's notice for any inspections or progress update requests from senior leadership teams. What initially felt like an impossible task has become a manageable and even motivating process.
Southwark Council are proud to have a clear process in place which allows them to showcase their progress.
If your team is facing similar challenges, why not explore how the EHCP module could support you? You don’t need to wait for the next inspection to highlight areas for improvement, you can see this in real time through the module.
Instead, you can start building immediate confidence in your team and work together to get better clarity on long term improvement plans.
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