Phase 6 Monitor and evaluate interventions: review and amend the plan
The EBSA support plan is put into action, continually monitored, and adjusted as needed with regular reviews, consistent communication, realistic goal setting, and ongoing collaboration among the child or young person, their family, and professionals. There will be an emphasis on consistency, resilience, person-centred planning, and the evolving nature of the plan to best support the child or young person's progress.
In this phase, the EBSA support plan is implemented and regular reviews take place. When implementing the EBSA support plan it is important to ensure all the agreed resources and support are in place at all times for the child or young person and that there continues to be good communication with the child or young person, family and any involved professionals. Remember to also give time for the strategies and approaches to work and achieve the outcomes agreed.
The EBSA support plan should be reviewed and updated regularly as part of the ongoing process of evaluating and refining the interventions. The evaluation will enable tracking to take place regarding the effectiveness of interventions over time, looking at what is working well and any necessary adjustments to the plan. The reviews should record the impact on the areas identified, as well as any changes in the 5 P's. Feedback from all involved will provide different perspectives on the interventions’ impact. It may be appropriate or necessary to revisit earlier phases to further develop the mapping or outline phases as situations develop and change. It is crucial to keep revisiting these as needed to ensure all the planning is focussed on the appropriate information.
It is also important to remember when reviewing the support plan:
- continued collaboration with the child or young person and their parent or carer and other professional’s involvement.
- all discussions and planning remain person centred so that the child or young person continues to consider this as ‘their’ plan.
- continue to be realistic and break down larger goals into small, achievable steps; high aspirations can be good, but an overly ambitious plan is likely to fail. Continue to aim and plan for a gradual and graded reintegration.
- ensure everyone remains clear on roles and responsibilities and continue to agree the actions and keep to them until the next review period.
- consistency is key; ensure all agreements are consistently followed until the next review and all parties (home, school and professionals) continue to work together with a consistent approach.
- remember, ‘bumps’ will occur and the need for ongoing commitment from all parties to find solutions when this happens.
- when things don’t go as planned, keep optimistic. If the child or young person doesn’t attend on a day as planned, start again the next day with the agreed plan.
- don’t be tempted to move the goalposts if the child or young person is doing better than expected. This can reduce trust. Wait until the agreed next review point to make any changes.
- ensure agreed expectations regarding frequency of contact and response times are kept to.
- continue to build on positive relationships the child or young person has with key adults and the sense of connection and ‘school belonging’.
- consider and build on the strategies and approaches that support the child or young person to achieve the agreed outcomes. Consider what has worked well and build on this. Also what has not worked, why and how this can be developed to be more successful; using the successes to widen the achievement of agreed outcomes.
- review the information and if anything has changed. Consider returning to use the tools from the ‘assess’ and ‘plan’ phases of the pathway to revisit the gathering of information where this is helpful to further inform the plan.
- keep all school staff (including supply staff) that the child or young person will come into contact with fully up to date with the plan as this develops and evolves.
- continue to ensure that education is provided, keeping to the agreement around work being sent home and marking of this.
- as the plan evolves, continue to consider if any wider professionals need to be involved and involve as needed. You may need to revisit earlier phases in the pathway with new involvements to ensure the current information remains relevant to planning.