Assessment and planning with children and young people — Training Qualifications UK Ltd End-Point Assessment Childcare & Early Years Revision
This element focuses on collaborative, child-centred approaches to assessment and planning, ensuring that children and young people actively participate in
Topic Synopsis
This element focuses on collaborative, child-centred approaches to assessment and planning, ensuring that children and young people actively participate in decisions affecting their lives. It covers the cycle of assessment, planning, implementation, and review, always prioritising the child's voice, rights, and best interests to achieve positive outcomes in line with the Every Child Matters framework and the SEND Code of Practice. Practitioners learn to use person-centred tools and multi-agency working to create meaningful, flexible plans that adapt to the evolving needs of children and young people across a range of settings.
Key Concepts & Core Principles
- Child Development: Understanding the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development from birth to 19 years, including key theories from Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bowlby.
- Safeguarding and Child Protection: Recognising signs of abuse, following legal frameworks like the Children Act 2004, and implementing policies to keep children safe.
- Positive Behaviour Support: Using strategies to promote desirable behaviour, such as setting clear boundaries, modelling appropriate behaviour, and using restorative approaches.
- Partnership Working: Collaborating with parents, carers, and other professionals (e.g., health visitors, social workers) to ensure holistic support for children.
- Play and Learning: Designing age-appropriate activities that promote learning through play, in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework.
Exam Tips & Revision Strategies
- For portfolio evidence, include a reflective account that explicitly maps each stage of the cycle (assess, plan, implement, review) to a named child, highlighting your role in facilitating their participation.
- Use video recordings or professional discussion transcripts to capture moments where you use person-centred tools (e.g., MAPS, PATH, or one-page profiles) with a child; analyse how the tool empowered their voice.
- When writing about multi-agency working, name specific roles (e.g., SENCO, health visitor, social worker) and illustrate how information was shared lawfully, showing your understanding of data protection and consent.
- In written assignments, link your practice to key frameworks such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Working Together to Safeguard Children, and the SEND Code of Practice to demonstrate underpinning knowledge.
- Prepare for observation by agreeing with the child/young person and your assessor a session where you co-review a plan, enabling you to demonstrate inclusive review techniques and effective adaptation of goals.
Common Misconceptions & Mistakes to Avoid
- Failing to record the child's direct input, instead relying solely on adult observations or third-party reports, thus undermining the child-centred principle.
- Setting goals that are too broad, practitioner-led, or focused on compliance rather than what matters to the child, resulting in disengagement and lack of ownership.
- Overlooking the need to explain assessment and planning processes in an accessible way, leading to tokenistic involvement where the child does not truly understand the purpose or outcomes.
- Treating the plan as a static document, reviewing it infrequently or only at system prompts, which risks plans becoming outdated and irrelevant as circumstances change.
- Confusing consent and assent; assuming parental consent is sufficient without seeking the child's own agreement where they are competent to give it, breaching ethical and legal frameworks.
Examiner Marking Points
- Award credit for demonstrating genuine partnership with the child or young person, using age-appropriate communication methods and observation techniques to gather their views and wishes as central to the assessment.
- Award credit for evidence of how assessments and plans are tailored to the individual, reflecting their identity, strengths, and needs, and showing consideration of the child's developmental stage, culture, and family context.
- Award credit for collaboratively setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals that are clearly linked to desired positive outcomes, with the child or young person's agreement evident.
- Award credit for actively involving other professionals and family members appropriately, demonstrating a clear rationale for information sharing that respects confidentiality and consent.
- Award credit for providing tangible evidence of regular, structured plan reviews where the child or young person leads feedback, and adjustments are made transparently to ensure ongoing relevance and progress.