Local Authorities on involving families in the development of Education, Health and Care Plans

This thesis adopts a Foucauldian lens through which to examine how Local Authorities involve families in the development of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) to support children and young people who are considered to have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 Local Authority Senior SEND Managers using Maximum Variation Sampling to seek a rich data set. The interviews were analysed using Foucauldian Discourse Analysis informed by Campbell’s Studies in Ableism (2009; 2019; 2020; 2021) Foucauldian statements were established and discussed and these statements are grouped together to form three discursive formations; assessment, inequality, and possibilities for change. This thesis explores how families are positioned within the EHCP assessment process, how inequalities can shape a family’s encounter with the processes and how possibilities for change are understood. This research presents Senior Managers as simultaneously supporting the aims of personalisation and the enhanced role for families, implementing imperfect systems and critiquing the rationalities of ableism. The thesis contributes to theory by expanding Campbell’s Studies in Ableism (2009; 2019; 2020; 2021) to include a focus on the ways in which the rationalities of ableism are contested, and resisted by those who lead the implementation of SEND policy.