Joint Assessment Meetings (JAMs)

Joint Assessment Meetings (JAMs) are a new method of providing advice for Education, Health and Care (EHC) Needs Assessments.

JAMs allow for a more efficient and inclusive advice process, involving parents and those who know the child well in creating a joint assessment document. This document advises on a child/young person's strengths and barriers to learning, appropriate outcomes and provision to meet their needs.

JAMs place a focus on devising these shared outcomes as a collective, with 95% of attendees agreeing/strongly agreeing that appropriate outcomes were identified for the Child/Young Person (CYP) following a recent feedback survey by the Sheffield Education Psychology Service (EPS).  

JAMs should be chaired by an Educational Psychologist (EP) and include input from parents/carers, as well as other SEND professionals. They shouldn’t require any pre- and/or post-meetings, allowing everyone to enter the room as equals, allowing for more open discussion.

An Assistant Educational Pyschologist (AEP) prepopulates the advice template, working to discover the child’s views prior to the meeting, records the meeting, and completes administration work following the meeting to finalise the advice document. 

This document is then sent to SENDSARS to make a decision about whether to issue an EHC Plan.   

• Increase in Education Health Care Needs Assessments (EHCNAs) in Sheffield 
• Decrease in administration time 
• One single advice document 
• Collaborative Process 
• Outcome focused