Lincolnshire County Council Idox’s EHC Hub gives full digitisation, collaboration and transparency

Facing Growing SEND Demand
Lincolnshire County Council has seen a significant increase in children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities in recent years. To improve support pathways and outcomes, the council, in partnership with the Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board and Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum, developed a strategy that included a digital transformation aim. The challenge was to make statutory processes for assessments, EHC plans and reviews quicker, easier and more transparent for professionals, parents and carers.

Digitising Collaboration Across SEND
In 2023, the council turned to Idox and its dedicated EHC Hub to launch a digital solution that would improve collaboration between stakeholders responsible for education, health and care needs assessments.

Rebecca Rawdon, Assistant Head of Service for SEND at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “The process of implementation at Lincolnshire County Council has been really positive. The Idox EHC Hub has really altered our daily operations. We are completely digitised, doing everything through the EHC Hub.”

Matthew Hallgarth, Assistant SEND Case Worker, added: “From day one, we’ve had fantastic buy-in and engagement from stakeholders really keen to use the system and they tell us how useful it is to them.”

SEND case workers, parents and carers, education settings, social workers, health care professionals and children and young people now engage with the system every day. The Hub has also supported the development of a quality assurance framework that allows clinicians to use an audit tool to measure performance against set criteria.

Transforming EHC Planning for Better Outcomes
The EHC Hub has changed the way Lincolnshire County Council works with EHC plans, making processes more efficient, transparent and collaborative. As Rebecca Rawdon explained: “It’s changed the way we work with EHC plans entirely, making it quicker, easier, and more transparent for everyone involved.”

Following implementation, the council has been able to develop a quality assurance framework, that means clinicians can use an audit tool to measure performance against set criteria. The audit tool is then collaboratively assessed two of three months after an ECH plan starts to identify any areas for training or ongoing development.

Deena Montgomery, CWDT Social Worker at LCC, said: “An example of how we found the new hub to be efficient is when it comes to reviews. We are able to provide opportunity for everybody to log-in and update information easily.”