River’s EHCP

Big news in our house on Friday, River received his EHCP.

What is an EHCP?

An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is a legal document for children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). It pulls together input from psychologists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and sets out:

What the child finds difficult (in black and white, no soft edges).
What support they need (everything from visual timetables to 1:1 help).
What everyone is working towards (the outcomes).

For River, this document is long. Very long. Packed full of observations, assessments, targets, and recommendations.

Seeing it Written Down

None of it came as a shock. We live this every day. But there’s something about seeing it typed up in neat bullet points: all the things River can’t do, all the ways he’s “behind.” It lands differently on the page.

There are positives, thank goodness his happy, playful nature came through strongly but the reality is stark. The school system is not built for children like River. The sheer number of adaptations he’ll need just to sit alongside other children is huge. And technically, they’re not even his “peers” anymore; his cohort has already moved up a year.

Validation, Frustration… and Overwhelm

On the one hand, this EHCP is validation. It’s a whole panel of professionals saying, “Yes, you were right. River needs support.” That feels important, because so often I was dismissed as over-worried.

On the other hand, I can’t help but think: who is actually going to deliver all this? Yes, there’s funding attached but it won’t cover a full-time salary. And there are over 50 children in his Nursery. Just the printing and laminating alone could take weeks, never mind the reality of putting it all into daily practice.

And then there’s me. Every page I read seemed to add something to my own already never-ending list. Visual schedules, therapy exercises, small-step targets… It’s overwhelming. Because I know that, realistically, a lot of this will fall on me to implement at home. Another set of jobs layered onto the invisible load that’s already heavy enough.

As both a parent and a teacher, I see both sides. Parents are desperate for their child to succeed. Teachers are stretched beyond reason. The only way through this, for River at least, is partnership. We’ll share resources. We’ll work on small targets at home. We’ll aim for consistency rather than perfection.

The Target That Hit Hard

At the end of Early Years Foundation Stage, River’s target reads: “To complete an activity not of his choosing for 5 minutes.”

It’s… bleak. But it’s real. And actually, if he manages that, it will be a huge step for him. Progress looks different here and that’s something I’m still learning to hold onto.

The Funny Bits

There were some lighter moments too. I never really know what River gets up to at Nursery, so reading his observations gave me a window into his world:

“River ignored all my verbal questioning. He mainly wandered round the nursery looking for things to climb on. He went up to a table filled with puzzles, knocked the pieces onto the floor, smiled and walked away.”
“River finds it hard to stay sitting at snack time. He often wanders off, only to return and take food off other children’s plates.”
“River sometimes will join in a group activity but will sit on the teacher or the resources.”

I laughed. What else can you do? And I made a mental note: I’d better buy really good Christmas presents for all his Nursery teachers.