5 Questions with our EHCP Advisor – Sarah Warren

Ibby:
Had you used AI before joining Agilisys?
Sarah:
I had tried using Chat gpt in the past to build a fictional EHC Plan, but with zero success! I had little idea at the time that a general AI platform is limited in how much information it can upload and what kinds of output it can produce. Consequently, my attempt wasn’t successful in the least!

Ibby:
Can you describe the EHCP Plus tool you have helped to develop?
Sarah:
So EHCP Plus automates the creation of a draft EHC Plan by uploading all of the professional reports that have been gathered for a child with SEND and then summarising these (as a Caseworker would) into the structure of the specific EHC Plan format for each Local Authority. It maps each bit of information to the place in the EHCP as specified by the Local Authority in their configuration sessions. It personalises the information for each child, including child and parent/carer views, in exactly the same way a Caseworker would and provides accuracy and consistency too!

Ibby:
What’s my favourite part of the tool?
Sarah:
I think it would have to be the citations feature! Once you have the initial draft of the EHCP using the tool, there is a light edit required and the citations are key to the ease of this. Citations work by taking the user to the correct section of the report alongside the EHC Plan so that the Plan writer can see exactly where the information has come from and cross check that it’s all included correctly. This ensures the edit is fast and accurate!

Ibby:
What other tools are in the pipeline? Where is the future?
Sarah:
So we are currently rolling out our EHCP tool to a winter cohort of local authorities who are successfully using it either as part of a trial or as fully onboarded and satisfied customers. We then have another cohort which is building up to trial the tool in the spring/summer. In the development pipeline, we are working on an Annual Review tool and potentially also a shorter ‘summary tool’ which could have many different applications within a SEND Service. I am really excited about our upcoming products.

Ibby:
Are there any other upcoming initiatives?
Sarah:
Yes! We’re creating an outsourcing service with a team of very experienced EHC Plan Writers/Caseworkers to work on clearing backlogs within Local Authority SEND Departments. Local authorities will be able to use this service on an ad hoc basis as and when they need the extra help. The beauty of this service is that we will be able to clear backlogs very quickly, because of the time we have saved in creating draft plans – reducing the time this takes by up to 80%.