“No policy is an island”: how the ICF international classification system may support local education planning in England

Background: A crucial issue in special educational needs and disability policy and provision is the documentation of children’s functioning, for which many countries have a statutory document. In England this is the education health and care plan. Recent research challenges the quality of these plans. Purpose: To provide evidence on the usefulness of the international classification of functioning, disability and health as a system with potential to support the development of higher quality plans in England. Methods: Twenty-five professionals participated in a one-day training session on the international classification of functioning disability and health, with a focus on designing higher quality SMART targets to be included in children’s plans. Results: Overall, participants regarded the system as useful. Comparison of targets written before and after the training show improvements in relevance, specificity and on the extent to which they were action-oriented and measurable. Conclusions: Results are discussed in light of international lessons learned around the potential of the international classification of functioning disability and health to support policy change. A “no policy is an island” approach is proposed, suggesting local policy-makers should open horizons beyond geographical boundaries in evidence-based decision-making for supporting children with disabilities.Implications for rehabilitation The ICF can be regarded as a useful framework for supporting professionals developing targets for children with Education Health and Care (EHC) plans in England. For developing SMART targets with the ICF, professionals can use the taxonomy to look for detailed aspects of functioning, relevant to a certain developmental stage. Using the ICF can support in making more measurable targets in EHC plans if the universal qualifier scale is applied when describing detailed aspects of functioning. Professionals trained on the ICF recognise its usefulness for writing EHC targets. More in-depth training is recommended for supporting the development of more holistic biopsychosocial EHC plans in England.