4.1 Educational plans and statements

To ensure that an autistic child has appropriate support for their education, it is important that their needs are fully understood and documented at the outset. This may require, in England, an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP), in Scotland a Coordinated Support Plan (CSP), or in Wales or Northern Ireland a statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN). These are legal documents drawn up by the local authority to specify the additional support needs of the child, objectives for them to achieve and the help that they need in order to achieve those objectives. However, some parents report a considerable battle to obtain the relevant statement for their child. Moreover, as in Melanie’s case, they may find that additional funding allocated to the school for their own child’s support is absorbed into a pool of resources for the support of a number of children:

Another problem is that not all autistic children will receive a plan or statement, as their needs are not considered severe enough. In these cases, parents may find themselves trying to persuade the mainstream school that support is necessary:

*CAMHS stands for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. In the UK these are services within the National Health Service that assess and treat young people with emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties.