Lorna’s story

Lorna is a single parent and the primary carer for seven children and young people. We received a referral from the Early Help worker for Lorna’s youngest child, Clark, whose school was applying for an EHC.

Once we had met Lorna for an initial meeting she asked for support with three of her other children, as they were struggling in school or college. Their needs varied from learning difficulties, social, emotional, mental health and communication needs.

One of Lorna’s other sons had been excluded from secondary school and there were concerns about his emotional well-being as he states that he is ‘not a nice person’ and was becoming more and more withdrawn.

Developing a communication plan

There was poor communication between Lorna, the schools and the Local Authority because Lorna struggled to make phone calls or express herself face to face.

Lorna was supported in asking for things in writing so that she could keep a record and form her replies point by point as she had many professionals working with her family and felt confused by what everyone’s role was in helping her children. So a professionals map was created for each of Lorna’s children so she could easily reference who was who.

Supporting Lorna with the EHC process

It was decided that it would be beneficial to meet everyone involved and gather more accurate information about where each child was in the EHC process. We ensured that Lorna had a clear action plan after the meeting, what she needed to do and what professionals were going to do, as she said she often came out of this meeting with a limited idea of what was said.

It was only through offering this comprehensive family support work that we were able to support Lorna to engage in the EHC plan (Education Health and Care Plan) process.