How to complete a One Page Profile

A One Page Profile is only as useful as the thinking that goes into it. This is a clear, simple guide for practitioners on completing one properly — and a starter guide we will revisit and add to over time. If you have found ways we could improve it, tell us.

Why this matters

Done well, a One Page Profile gives anyone meeting a child for the first time — a supply teacher, a new teaching assistant, a hospital appointment — a genuine, personal sense of who they are within about thirty seconds of reading it. Done as a box-ticking exercise, completed by one adult alone, it becomes just another form nobody really reads. The difference almost always comes down to how it is completed, not the template itself.

When to complete it

A One Page Profile works best started early — around the time a child joins a setting, or as soon as additional needs are identified — rather than waiting until a difficulty has already built up. It is meant to be a living document from day one, not something written once a plan is already well underway.

Who should be involved — co-production is essential, not optional

This is where a One Page Profile succeeds or fails. It should never be written by a practitioner alone, however well they know the child. Genuine co-production means:

• The family, who know the child’s history, home life, and what makes them who they are — information no setting can fully see on its own.
• The child themselves, wherever possible — even a very young or pre-verbal child can contribute through their behaviour, reactions, and the things they gravitate toward, observed and captured by the adults who know them best.
• Key practitioners, who see the child in a different context and often notice things families don’t, and vice versa.

Each voice fills a genuine gap the others can’t. A profile written by a practitioner alone tends to read like an assessment; family input alone can miss how a child manages in a group setting. Bringing both together — plus the child’s own voice, however it is expressed — is what makes the difference between a profile that is accurate and one that is just plausible-sounding. Build in a proper conversation with the family as part of completing this, not a form sent home to fill in unsupported.

Getting genuine answers, not generic ones

Some sections invite generic answers if you are not careful. A few prompts to get past that:

• “What People Like and Admire About Me” — ask family and practitioners separately what they would say, then compare. The overlaps are usually the most reliable; the differences are often worth including too.
• “What’s Important to Me” — think about what actually changes the child’s day for better or worse, not just general preferences. A favourite toy is nice to know; a specific transition routine that prevents distress is essential.
• “How Best to Support Me” — write this as instructions for a stranger, not reminders for people who already know the child.
• Additional Support and Reasonable Adjustments — separate the two. Additional support is extra provision (a teaching assistant, equipment, an external professional); reasonable adjustments are changes to how things are already done (seating, timetable, extra time). Both matter, and they are easy to conflate.

Where it should be stored

A One Page Profile only does its job if it is actually where people will see it — not filed away with paperwork that only gets opened during a formal review. Keep a copy:

• With the child’s key staff, somewhere genuinely quick to reach — not a locked office or filing cabinet.
• Shared with any adult new to working with the child, as part of their induction — not something they stumble across weeks in.
• With the family, so they always have the current version to hand too.

Displaying and storing it safely

A One Page Profile usually contains special category data under UK GDPR — needs, sensory information, and sometimes medical or allergy detail — so where it is visible matters as much as where it is stored. This is general guidance rather than formal legal advice; check your setting’s own data protection policy and Data Protection Officer for anything definitive.

• Staff-only areas are generally fine — a key worker’s file, a staff room, somewhere behind reception that only authorised adults can access.
• Showing it to a new teaching assistant or supply staff as part of induction is exactly what it is for — that is a legitimate need to know, not a disclosure risk.
• Avoid genuinely public display — a classroom wall, a corridor, or anywhere visible to other parents, visitors, or children is not appropriate, however well-intentioned, since it shares special category data with people who have no legitimate need to see it.
• Be transparent with families in advance about where and how the profile will be displayed, ideally agreed explicitly rather than assumed once it is handed over.
• Keep it to what is genuinely needed for day-to-day support — the “instructions for a stranger” framing used elsewhere in this guide naturally keeps the content proportionate.
• Store it securely when not in active use — not left out overnight, on an unattended desk, or visible through a window.

When it can be reviewed

A One Page Profile should be reviewed whenever something meaningful changes — a new setting, a new key person, a significant change at home — but it is also worth building in a regular check-in even when nothing obvious has shifted, since children change quickly at this age.

Reviewing it alongside the Individual Support Plan review works well for most children: the two documents naturally inform each other, and it means everyone already in the room for one conversation can update both at once, rather than scheduling separate reviews for overlapping information.

Key points at a glance

• Start the profile early — when a child joins, or as soon as needs are identified
• Never write it alone: family, child and key practitioners each fill a gap the others can’t
• Have a real conversation with the family rather than sending a form home
• Write “How Best to Support Me” as instructions for a stranger
• Keep additional support and reasonable adjustments separate — they are not the same thing
• Store it where staff will actually reach it, and share it at induction
• Don’t display it publicly — it holds special category data under UK GDPR
• Review it alongside the ISP review, and whenever something meaningful changes